Plastic Surgery: Gangnam-gu Is Where It’s At

As the Korean Wave aka Hallyu popularity grows in Asia, the number of foreigners visiting South Korea to seek plastic surgery and other aesthetic treatments are increasing rapidly.

More than 80,000 short- or long-term visitors received medical treatment last year in Korea, largely driven by the nation‘s skillful doctors and relatively low costs.

Gangnam-gu, southern part of Seoul is where majority of plastic surgery and skincare clinics are located; 430 clinics within Gangnam district.

Gangnam-gu is known for a high- class wealthy district with many fashion attractions and “posh” places.

One of the beauty clinics in Gangnam, Arumdaun Nara Beauty Clinic’s chairman Lee Sang-jun said, “Around 200 foreign patients visit the clinic in a month. Affected by the Korean Wave in Asia, most of them are Japanese and Chinese people. There are a growing number of visitors from Central Asia and Eastern Europe as well,“ then he noted there has been a 20 percent increase of foreign patients every year.

Due to a rapid increase of foreign patients, major clinics have plastic surgery coordinators fluent in foreign languages.

Lee’s clinic, Arumdaun Nara Beauty Clinic runs its multiple-language website, offers interpretation services in six languages, including Chinese, Japanese, English, French, Spanish and Russian.

Gangnam district office even created a list of quality clinics on its multi-language official district website.

For more information on the list of plastic surgery and beauty clinics and sightseeing tours in Gangnam district, go to http://global.gangnam.go.kr

(아주경제 이수지 기자)

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com