Seoul is the vibrant capital of South Korea, one of the world’s fastest growing economies over the past two decades.
The city’s 11 million inhabitants work hard and relax hard. They have made their city one of the top tourist attractions in the Far East. Busy and industrious by day, Seoul after office hours is a relaxing and welcoming urban playground, with something to appeal to sightseers and travellers of all tastes.
Places to stay: Gangnam district (which gave birth to Psy's top-viewed music video Gangnam Style) is the part of the city where business mixes easily with leisure and the pricey hotels.
Imagine a kind of oriental Manhattan. It is also convenient for most business trips in the city, whether out to the HQ of Samsung Engineering (20 minutes by car) or the central business and financial district at Yeoui (10 minutes).
Gangnam also hosts Seoul’s exhibition and conference area, Coex. The InterContinental hotel is bang in the middle of all this, and offers five-star standards at top-end prices (around Dh1,500 per night). An early reservation is recommended if your visit coincides with one of the many international conferences Seoul hosts each year.
Places to eat: Forget all those stereotyped preconceptions about Korean cuisine. It is delicious, nutritious and often freshly prepared at your table in "Korean barbecue" style — a sunken frying/grilling facility in the middle of the table where talented chefs will skilfully prepare dishes.
Meat is spiced and beautifully presented, and of course, there is the ubiquitous kimchi — Korean pickled cabbage — that is served unrequested with everything, even just a drink. Koreans are great fans of garlic, slightly stronger here than its European equivalent.
Off hours: If you've had enough of Gangnam frivolity, hire a tour (brochures in all hotel lobbies) and take the one-hour drive to the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the border and 1953 armistice line with North Korea.
The Koreans call it “peace tourism” and it is certainly a lucrative business, with hundreds of coaches making the journey every day. If possible, take the underground trip along the clandestine tunnels the North dug in preparation for an invasion of the South in the 1970s.
Tourism apart, the DMZ is a moving and continuing reminder of the tragedy of war. Especially heartbreaking are the parties of young schoolchildren standing on an observatory platform shouting “hello friends” while waving northwards across barbed wire and minefields.
Getting there: Both Emirates Airline and Etihad make the eight-hour journey from the UAE to Incheon Airport, roughly an hour away by taxi from downtown Seoul, though rush-hour traffic can add 30 minutes to this.
fkane@thenational.ae
Results:
Men’s wheelchair 200m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 27.14; 2. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 27.81; 3. Rheed McCracken (AUS) 27.81.
Company Profile
Founders: Tamara Hachem and Yazid Erman
Based: Dubai
Launched: September 2019
Sector: health technology
Stage: seed
Investors: Oman Technology Fund, angel investor and grants from Sharjah's Sheraa and Ma'an Abu Dhabi
EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
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Match info
Uefa Nations League Group B:
England v Spain, Saturday, 11.45pm (UAE)
Have you been targeted?
Tuan Phan of SimplyFI.org lists five signs you have been mis-sold to:
1. Your pension fund has been placed inside an offshore insurance wrapper with a hefty upfront commission.
2. The money has been transferred into a structured note. These products have high upfront, recurring commission and should never be in a pension account.
3. You have also been sold investment funds with an upfront initial charge of around 5 per cent. ETFs, for example, have no upfront charges.
4. The adviser charges a 1 per cent charge for managing your assets. They are being paid for doing nothing. They have already claimed massive amounts in hidden upfront commission.
5. Total annual management cost for your pension account is 2 per cent or more, including platform, underlying fund and advice charges.
The Case For Trump
By Victor Davis Hanson
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Jawan
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Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press