Exploring South Korea by Map Trivia Quiz

Answer: Seoul

Nearly a quarter of the population of the country of South Korea, formally known as the Republic of Korea, lives in the city of Seoul, which is the nation's capital. The city has had a number of different names since it was founded in 18 BCE, including Wiryeseong, Hanju, Namgyeong, Hanseong, and Hanyang. During the Japanese colonial period, it was referred to as Keijo or Gyeonseong.

The modern name, in use since the 19th century, is possibly derived from a Korean word meaning 'capital city', and possibly from a word meaning 'new walls' - Seoul was a walled fortress city from the early fifteenth century until the 1950s, when the walls were mostly destroyed during the Korean War.

Answer: Democratic People's Republic of North Korea

The Republic of South Korea has a land border only with North Korea (which in turn borders both China and Russia). The armistice agreement at the end of the Korean War established the two separate countries, with a demilitarized zone approximately four km wide, running diagonally across the peninsula near the 38th parallel.

At the start of the 21st century, this border was one of the most heavily armed borders in the world.

Answer: Yellow Sea

The Yellow Sea lies to the west of the Korean peninsula, separating it from mainland China. The Sea of Japan is to the east of the Korean peninsula, while the Korea Strait and the East China Sea are on the southern end of the peninsula.

Answer: Japan

Tsushima Island is about halfway between the Japanese city of Nagasaki and the Korean city of Busan. Artificial canals have divided the island up into two smaller islands, but they are still considered a single entity.

Historically, Japan and Korea have been involved in a great deal of cultural sharing via trade and immigration. However, the Japanese invasions of Korea at the end of the 16th century left a residual strain on the relationship, which was exacerbated by the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 through World War II.

Answer: Iwo Jima

The Liancourt Rocks (given their English name from a French whaling ship that was nearly wrecked there in 1849) are the subject of a territorial dispute between South Korea (which calls the islands Dokdo) and Japan (which calls them Takeshima). There are two large islands and between 30 and 40 smaller ones.

Their location in excellent fishing grounds, and the suspected valuable gas deposits nearby, is probably enough explanation for the running territorial dispute. In the early years of the 21st century, they were administered by the Koreans, who built a lighthouse, a helicopter pad, police barracks, and two desalination plants, amongst other capital projects on these barely-inhabited islands.

In 2010 there were two permanent residents (fishers), and a small number of Coast Guard and naval personnel posted there for short periods of time.

Answer: Baengnyeongdo

The Korean word for island is 'do', and that is the ending used on the names of all of its approximately 3,000 islands. The name Baengnyeongdo means 'white wing island', descriptive of the island's shape, which is said (with quite a bit of imagination) to suggest a flying ibis.

The blue line on the map is the maritime boundary mandated by the United Nations in 1956, while the red one shows the boundary acknowledged by North Korea.

Yeonpyeongdo (shown in the map as #1) and Daecheongdo (shown as #3) are also located right on the boundary between the two countries. All of these islands are the target for people wishing to escape from North Korea by boat, and have also been involved in numerous naval skirmishes over the years.

The three incorrect islands are islands of Japan, not Korea.

Answer: Hallasan

Hallasan, whose height is 1950 m (6400 ft), is only one of the volcanic features of Jeju. There are nearly 400 satellite volcanoes, and an extensive system of lava tubes, caves formed as magma flowed underground. The Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes is a World Heritage Site. Jeju is also home to a wide range of plant species (nearly half of all species found in South Korea can be found there), and archaeological evidence in the Pillemot Cave that the island has been occupied since Paleolithic times.

Answer: Taebaek Mountains

Most of South Korea's agriculture occurs in the southeastern region of the Nakdong River basin, and in the western coastal plains; both of these regions appear in green on the topographical map. The Taebaek Mountains run from Hwanngnyong Mountain in North Korea along the eastern edge of the peninsula, terminating near the southern city of Busan. The range is over 500 km (300 miles) in length, and has a number of peaks well over 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in height. On the map, areas of white indicate elevations over 1250 m - as you can see, there are quite a few! The Taebaek Mountains are an important source of iron, coal and limestone (and there you have a steel industry in the making), and the gentler western slopes are an excellent source of timber.

The Atlas mountains are found in northern Africa, the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the Urals in Russia, where they are generally considered to define the boundary between Europe and Asia.

Answer: 2-7 are metropolitan cities, 8-15 are provinces

South Korea has nine provinces (one Autonomous) and seven metropolitan cities (two of which are designated as Special). Each of these administrative regions is further subdivided for the purposes of local government into si (cities), gun (counties), gu (districts), eup (towns), myeon (townships), dong (neighbourhoods) and ri (villages).

The smaller divisions do not have exact equivalents in English, but the terms in brackets give an idea of what kind of entity they roughly refer to.

Answer: Migratory birds

Cheonsuman Bay is the world's largest sanctuary for migratory birds, and nearly half a million specimens of over 300 different species can be found there year-round. These include the Baikal teal (whose dancing ritual is one of the tour highlights during the festival), Eurasian spoonbill, and of course white storks, as well as some more familiar ducks and gulls.

The Seosan Cheonsuman International Bird-Watcher's Fair, held in late November and early December, features plenty of bird-watching opportunities, as well as temple visits, the chance to engage in sweet-potato digging (why?), classes in traditional ceramics, and lots of food!