A growing number of Chinese are traveling to South Korea for so-called medical
tours, to benefit from South Korea's more developed health care system, a report
showed Monday.
The report from the South Korean embassy in Beijing
said 1,073 medical treatment visas were issued to Chinese nationals in 2011, up
386 percent from only 220 in the previous year.
The number represented
0.01 percent of the total number of visas for South Korea issued in China last
year, which stood at 1.07 million.
The embassy officials attributed
the increase to South Korea's high quality medical services, especially in the
field of cosmetic surgery.
As the popularity of South Korean pop
culture swells in China, more Chinese youth are opting to have procedures done
by Korean plastic surgeons.
The total number of South Korean visas
issued in China surpassed the 1 million mark for the first time last year, the
embassy added.
The consulate general in Shenyang issued the most
visas, with a total of 268,000, followed by the consulate general in Shanghai
with 241,000 and the embassy in Beijing with 229,000.
Last year, the
number of the Chinese visitors to South Korea reached 2.05 million, up 23.6
percent on-year.
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