Jeju Island, Natural Wonder of the World

On November 11, a Swiss organization called "New7Wonders" announced the results of a competition it had orchestrated, the purpose of which was to identify a new list of 7 natural wonders of the world.

This contest was conducted in two stages.  During the first stage, people from all over the world were invited to nominate natural sites or entities that they deemed worthy of the title "wonder of nature".  In total, 28 nominations were retained for the second stage of the contest, including Canada's Bay of Fundy.  Also nominated was Korea's Jeju island (제주도).

The Bay of Fundy is located on Canada's Atlantic coast, between the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  It is the site of the world's highest tides, averaging a separation of 14.5 meters between the low-tide and the high-tide water levels.  It is apparently very beautiful, but I have yet to visit this part of my country.

Korea's 제주도 is an island located in the Pacific Ocean, near the south-western tip of the Korean peninsula.  It is a volcanic island, and the highest mountain in all the Korean territories, Halla mountain (한라산), is located there.  It is also apparently very beautiful.  I have yet to visit, but many Koreans have recommended that I make the trip down there.

After the nomination stage, the voting stage of the "New7Wonders" contest began.  On November 11, it was announced that 제주도 had been selected (elected?) as one of the world's seven new natural wonders, but not the Bay of Fundy.

Those who campaigned in support of the Bay of Fundy in Canada expressed their disappointment at the results announced on September 11.  Yet they recognized that the contest in itself brought much publicity to the Bay of Fundy region, and they felt that this may translate to more tourism dollars for the region in the immediate future.

In Korea, the election of 제주도 was celebrated, yet one editorial criticized the "New7Wonders" competition, arguing that Korea may have had an advantage in the competition over other nations given its relatively large and dense population, and that "government employees in Jeju were assigned 500 calls a day per person to vote for Jeju night and day".

A subway advert in Busan urging people to vote for 제주도 in the 7 wonders contest.

 

How political this contest appears to have been!  Still, it was an interesting way of sharing information about the world's most beautiful natural places.