Hong Kong is known to be packed with apartments. However, Hong Kong is just a city. Considering the size of the country, Korea is perhaps the only one country that is covered with sprawling apartment complexes throughout the country, whether it is in a metropolitan or a rural area.  It is due to high volume of population in the limited of land as well as preference of living style. Within limited space, people wanted to live in a warm cosy home without taking care of the place much. In Korea, houses traditionally used to be a common type of place to live. However, as Korea became more industrialised, the Koreans found more opportunity to get a job in the bigger city, and they prefer urban life style than agricultural life, which lead to the cities becoming concentrated. Even in the rural area, there are less people living than usual, they also enjoy living in apartments due to the convenience of home care and high security.

Given the fact that the Koreans cannot stand falling behind others, living in apartments means that everyone has the same size, design and layout shared by their neighbours. If anything is different, it immediately catches the eyes of neighbours. For example, rumours of someone having a new television would fly all over the apartment complex. Fierce competition would ensue. When there was something new, it would become extremely popular within the apartment complex, as everyone would know what their neighbours have and aim to have it too. For example, refrigerators made for Kimchi were introduced 90s and within only a few years, they became in great demand for people everywhere. The Koreans have taken their ‘equal profit sharing’ mentality to a whole new level.

Monday 8 September 2014 is Chuseok, which is also called Hangawi (한가위). The meaning of Hangawi is a combination of “Han” which means big and “Gawi” which is the idea of August or Autumn. As one of the biggest public holidays in Korea, Chuseok normally lasts for 3 days. Fortunately, this year the holiday starts from Monday and Koreans are excited to have a long, 5 days holiday including the weekend. During the holiday, Koreans who live in large cities typically come back to their family original hometown to meet other members of the family. They spend a quality time together and play traditional games while sharing food and drinks. People also perform ancestral worship rituals to thank to their ancestors for the abundant harvest called “Charye”. It is the ancestral memorial rite where people prepare food and greet their ancestors in order to return their favours and honour them. These memorial rites have been practiced for thousands of years across Korea since Koreans believe that people only die physically but their sprits live on forever. On Chuseok Day, the typical Korean family starts the morning with “Charye”, followed by a big breakfast with the whole family. Afterwards, the family visits their ancestor’s graves to greet and clear any weed around the area. Recent years have seen the emergence of a new trend where growing numbers of families decide to travel both in Korea and overseas. Although this could be seen as a break with tradition, it is widely regarded as a special moment of the year when families get to take some time out and have an opportunity to spend some time together, united as a family: this is what “Chuseok” is all about.