More Chinese head to S. Korea for medical treatment

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.