The word 'Chinatown' conjures up images of early immigrants eking out an existence amid crowded streets buzzing with stalls and steaming noodle stands. However, the Chinatown envisioned by Professor Philip Yang of Konkook University in Seoul, South Korea, is somewhat different.
'It will be a modern and clean city - a city for the millennium,' explains Professor Yang, who is co-chairman of the Seoul Chinatown development Committee. Professor Yang - in Hong Kong on an information and fund-raising tour - believes South Korea is probably the only country in the world with no Chinatown. This is surprising given the two countries' proximity and centuries of Chinese influence on Korean culture.
There used to be a sizeable Chinese community in Korea - 150,000 at one time - but this has dwindled to only 22,000. Although the Chinese have long enjoyed business success across Asia, years of discrimination in South Korea have rendered them a struggling minority.
Many are still regarded as foreigners, even after living there for generations, and need to renew their visas every five years. Chinese make up 97 per cent of the countries' legitimate long-term foreign residents, according to figures from the Korean Justice Ministry.
This, along with a variety of legal restrictions, has created barriers to business for Chinese people in South Korea. But the 1997 Asian economic crisis left the Government scrambling to attract foreign capital.
A Korean Chinatown would seem to be the perfect vehicle for attracting tourist dollars. It is estimated that half a million mainland Chinese visited South Korea last year and a million are expected this year.