Had a pretty unusual first weekend on the west coast of Korea at the Boryeong Mud Festival! Think I'll let the pictures (at the bottom) speak for themselves...
It was a great end to an eventful first week in Seoul, where I arrived on Sunday after a few days working in our Hong Kong office, the FT's Asian hub. Hong Kong was as fast-paced and buzzing as I'd expected - the sheer mass of skyscrapers can make it feel like walking through a futuristic movie. I wasn't prepared for quite how high the buildings are there - our office is on the 59th floor and my ears popped every time I used the lift.
In any case it was an interesting few days, and I squeezed in a decent number of meetings with Korea-focused economists and others with interesting views on the country. That was the conclusion of weeks of cramming my head with information on Korea - not to mention my tentative first steps in learning the language. But there's only so much one can learn about a place without setting foot there and I arrived last Sunday chomping at the bit to see the place where I'll be for the next few years.
On first impressions I think I should have a great time here. Seoul's one of the world's biggest cities with about ten million people and a correspondingly huge range of things to get up to. Asia veterans tend to view Korea as a louder, brasher counterpart to Japan - and while there's a complicated etiquette system to get to grips with, the Koreans I've met so far seem refreshingly short on ceremony.
One thing I'm mildly apprehensive about is the drinking culture! English people sometimes claim to be the world's hardest drinkers, but anyone who says that has obviously never been to Russia, and I think it's probably safe to add Korea to that list.
I'm told that people applying for jobs at major corporations here sometimes put "a strong liver" in the skills section of their CV - Korean office relations tend to be very proper, so the only chance to really bond with colleagues (and with your boss) is through a heavy drinking session that leaves all parties struggling to walk. The next day at work no-one will mention the events of the night before, however outrageous. Advocates of women's rights say that these typically men-only booze-ups are part of the tough glass ceiling in Korea, which remains a relatively male-dominated country where only 54% of working-age women are employed.
That's not to say the women here don't drink - someone told me the other day about a conversation with a girl who said she prefers the local spirit soju to beer because the latter "takes too long". In a bar the other night I saw a girl fall asleep with her face resting in her hand - from where it slowly slipped and slammed into the table. But they're quieter about it than the men, who do toasts every few minutes that generally have them shouting literally at the tops of their voices.
It's all good fun though and the food here is fantastic. Kimchi (spiced cabbage) comes with everything and I'm already getting slightly sick of it to be honest. But there's a huge amount of different stuff to try - the best so far being the barbecue restaurants where you cook your own food on a hotplate in the middle of the table. And there's a plethora of street stalls selling delicious kebabs - often side by side with fortune tellers in little tents, who tell people's futures with a sort of tarot cards, and seem to be doing a roaring trade.
Anyway, I had a really busy first week in the office. On Tuesday Park Geun-hye officially launched a campaign for the presidency ahead of December's election, in which she's set to be the clear favourite.
She's the daughter of Park Chung-hee, an army general who came to power in a coup in 1961 and ran the country until he was shot over dinner by his own spy chief in 1979. His legacy is both a pro and a con for his daughter: he set Korea, a poor agrarian country, on the road to prosperity by driving its entry to the ship- and car-building industries. But he trampled on civil liberties, and Park Geun-hye effectively served as her father's first lady for five years after her mother was murdered - a turn-off for young voters who want a clean break with a political establishment that many view as unproductive and corrupt.
That impression will have been reaffirmed this week by the arrest of Lee Sang-deuk, the president's brother, on bribery charges. He allegedly received about half a million dollars from corrupt bank executives keen to secure political influence - and prosecutors told us that they are now investigating whether any of the money was used to fund Lee Myung-bak's 2007 presidential campaign. All very unpleasant for the president, whose popularity continues to plumb new depths. Looks like I've arrived at an interesting time...
It was a great end to an eventful first week in Seoul, where I arrived on Sunday after a few days working in our Hong Kong office, the FT's Asian hub. Hong Kong was as fast-paced and buzzing as I'd expected - the sheer mass of skyscrapers can make it feel like walking through a futuristic movie. I wasn't prepared for quite how high the buildings are there - our office is on the 59th floor and my ears popped every time I used the lift.
In any case it was an interesting few days, and I squeezed in a decent number of meetings with Korea-focused economists and others with interesting views on the country. That was the conclusion of weeks of cramming my head with information on Korea - not to mention my tentative first steps in learning the language. But there's only so much one can learn about a place without setting foot there and I arrived last Sunday chomping at the bit to see the place where I'll be for the next few years.
On first impressions I think I should have a great time here. Seoul's one of the world's biggest cities with about ten million people and a correspondingly huge range of things to get up to. Asia veterans tend to view Korea as a louder, brasher counterpart to Japan - and while there's a complicated etiquette system to get to grips with, the Koreans I've met so far seem refreshingly short on ceremony.
One thing I'm mildly apprehensive about is the drinking culture! English people sometimes claim to be the world's hardest drinkers, but anyone who says that has obviously never been to Russia, and I think it's probably safe to add Korea to that list.
I'm told that people applying for jobs at major corporations here sometimes put "a strong liver" in the skills section of their CV - Korean office relations tend to be very proper, so the only chance to really bond with colleagues (and with your boss) is through a heavy drinking session that leaves all parties struggling to walk. The next day at work no-one will mention the events of the night before, however outrageous. Advocates of women's rights say that these typically men-only booze-ups are part of the tough glass ceiling in Korea, which remains a relatively male-dominated country where only 54% of working-age women are employed.
That's not to say the women here don't drink - someone told me the other day about a conversation with a girl who said she prefers the local spirit soju to beer because the latter "takes too long". In a bar the other night I saw a girl fall asleep with her face resting in her hand - from where it slowly slipped and slammed into the table. But they're quieter about it than the men, who do toasts every few minutes that generally have them shouting literally at the tops of their voices.
It's all good fun though and the food here is fantastic. Kimchi (spiced cabbage) comes with everything and I'm already getting slightly sick of it to be honest. But there's a huge amount of different stuff to try - the best so far being the barbecue restaurants where you cook your own food on a hotplate in the middle of the table. And there's a plethora of street stalls selling delicious kebabs - often side by side with fortune tellers in little tents, who tell people's futures with a sort of tarot cards, and seem to be doing a roaring trade.
Anyway, I had a really busy first week in the office. On Tuesday Park Geun-hye officially launched a campaign for the presidency ahead of December's election, in which she's set to be the clear favourite.
She's the daughter of Park Chung-hee, an army general who came to power in a coup in 1961 and ran the country until he was shot over dinner by his own spy chief in 1979. His legacy is both a pro and a con for his daughter: he set Korea, a poor agrarian country, on the road to prosperity by driving its entry to the ship- and car-building industries. But he trampled on civil liberties, and Park Geun-hye effectively served as her father's first lady for five years after her mother was murdered - a turn-off for young voters who want a clean break with a political establishment that many view as unproductive and corrupt.
That impression will have been reaffirmed this week by the arrest of Lee Sang-deuk, the president's brother, on bribery charges. He allegedly received about half a million dollars from corrupt bank executives keen to secure political influence - and prosecutors told us that they are now investigating whether any of the money was used to fund Lee Myung-bak's 2007 presidential campaign. All very unpleasant for the president, whose popularity continues to plumb new depths. Looks like I've arrived at an interesting time...
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