VII. Jeolla-do
Geography of Korea: VII. Jeolla-do > 1. Jeollabuk-do
1. Jeollabuk-do
The name “Jeolla” was coined in the early fifteenth century as a combination of the names of what were then the largest cities of the region, Jeonju (in today’s Jeollabuk-do province), and Naju (in today’s Jeollanam-do province) (phonetically, in Korean the combination of the “jeon” and “na” produces “jeolla”). Traditionally, the region of Jeolla-do is also referred to as Honam, meaning literally “south of the lake.” Though the body of water this “lake” (ho) refers to in this case is debated, it is widely held to denote Byeokgolje in Gimje. Still others posit that such geographical terms as Honam (Hunan in Chinese) are borrowed from China and do not refer to any specific landmark or geographical feature.
As of 2013, the population of the Jeolla-do (meaning Jeollanam-do and Jeollabuk-do provinces) was 3.78 million, the third most populace region ater Gyeonggi-do (12.23 million) and Gyeongsang-do (6.03 million). The Jeolla-do region’s total land area is 20,370 sq. km., the largest region after Gyeongsang-do. With a small population relative to its land mass, the population density here averages 185.6 persons/sq. km., the lowest after Gangwon-do. With a population of 1.47 million, Gwangju is the largest city in the Honam region, and the country’s fifth largest city after Seoul, Busan, Incheon, and Daegu. Gwangju became a city in 1949, a jikhalsi (municipality directly subordinate to the national government) in 1986, and most recently, a metropolitan city in 1995.
The Jeolla-do region is called Korea’s grain basket. It contains 31.2 percent of the country’s paddy fields and 23.4 percent of its dry fields, and has higher ratio of cultivated land than any other region, while it only has about 17.9 percent of the country’s forested land. Though the extend of both wet and dry fields is great in Jeollanam-do than Jeollabuk-do province, in terms of the percentage of land area given over paddy fields, Jeollabuk-do has a higher percentage (19.1%) than Jeollanam-do (17.9%). More so than Jeollabuk-do, Jeollanam-do is a key area for grain and rice production and the nation’s grain basket.
