South Korea was so different!
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In fact I was unable to find dog meat on menus. It is served only in special restaurants, I was told, and nowadays very little Koreans still eat it.
Public busses are fast and comfortable. Once I was sitting on the left side, and on the right side was a girl of about 20, alone. She ate some kind of junk food until the bag was empty, crumpled the bag, and put it in the net pocket in front of her. Then she meticulously wiped each finger on the velvet covered seat. When we were about to get off, I spoke to her in Chinese. Surprised, she asked me how I knew she was Chinese. I turned my wide open eyes on the greasy bag. She blushed. I suggested, with a smile: "Don't let people think Chinese are uncivilized, would you?"
I spent half of my time in the southeast – Busan, Gyeongku – the ancient capital of Shilla Dynasty, the sea, the countryside. I noticed that, just like in Canada, to be a farmer is not belonging to a social class but doing "that" work instead of another. Farmers have the same houses, same cars, same facilities and same education as urban citizens.
I also realized that adobe houses, with dirt floor, no running water inside and no toilets, houses that in China are still inhabited mostly in the south and by ethnic minorities, belong to the past in South Korea and are visited as history museum.
Development started under the dictatorial rule of President Park Chung-hee at about the same time the Reform and Opening policy started in China, but the results seemed to me – in what I could see – far well-distributed, probably due to the smaller territory and population of the country.
Finally, I think that South Koreans know how to preserve their culture: language, cuisine, household architecture, social customs, and even in clothing I could find an ethnic style and choice of colors. Even Buddhist nuns and monks wear obviously Korean style attire. Generally speaking, South Korea is far less globalized, or Americanized, than China.
The author is a freelance writer in Beijing.
