A Chinese food store in a street near a university in Seoul's Imun-dong, where one can find many Chinese students

According to "The Chousun Ilbo", there is a Chinese restaurant named Youcheng Chinese People's Home only about 100 meters away from the front entrance of Korea University, Seoul. This restaurant was opened in December of last year. As a Chinese restaurant, it does not serve jajangmyeon, and most foods on its menu are homemade Chinese dishes. South Korean people seldom go to the restaurant, and the majority of the customers are Chinese students. On weekends, when student canteens in the dormitories are closed, the restaurant's telephone for accepting orders never stops ringing.

The owner of the restaurant, surnamed Wang, is a Chinese student who went to South Korea in 2007 and now studies at Konkuk University. He says, "It may be very difficult to find a job in South Korea after graduation, so I decided to run a restaurant. Quite a few Chinese students held the same opinion as me, and they run a bar or a restaurant."

As the number of Chinese students is increasing sharply, tremendous changes have taken place in and out of South Korean universities. In the past, many Chinese students had part-time jobs to earn part of their living expenses, but now many students run small business themselves.

The number of Chinese students in South Korea exceeded 50,000 for the first time in 2009, and it increased to 57,783 in 2010 and 59,317 in 2011. At present, Chinese students in South Korea account for 66% of all foreign students in South Korea. The majority of Chinese students used to be at universities of business administration or science and technology, but now they have begun to move into the Korean language departments. Taking Konkuk University as an example, among the 282 Korean language majors enrolled last year, 84 are Chinese students. A few years ago, Chinese students outnumbered South Korean students and a local university noted that the number of foreign students on postgraduate programs should not be more than 10%.

For shops near universities, Chinese students have become customers that should not be neglected. Chinese student make up 20% of customers in the area near Seoul's Kyung Hee University, which is representative of areas with a large population of Chinese students. Some shops employ Chinese students to serve Chinese customers in Mandarin. Agencies for opening cell phone service for Chinese students and Chinese food shops have also appeared. The cumin-flavored mutton of "Qili Restaurant", an authentic Chinese restaurant that opened 4 years ago, is very popular. "My customers are mainly Chinese students, but the number of South Korean students is increasing, probably because of curiosity," says Mr. Zhao, owner of the restaurant from Harbin.

With the number of Chinese students in South Korea increasing, South Korea universities have come to place more importance on Chinese students. All universities in Seoul have "People's Daily Overseas Edition" in both Korean and Chinese. Chongju University and other universities with a large population of Chinese students have launched Chinese versions of their university websites. A university information net run by South Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology also began to provide Chinese language service last month. In addition, recruitment fairs targeted at Chinese students are held. Konkuk University carried out vocational training and organized visits to South Korean enterprises that have set up operations in China for its Chinese students last year. Soonchunhyang University also held vocational lectures for its Chinese students in October last year. Chinese students at Chongju University even can use the Chinese credit card UnionPay to pay their tuition fees.

But cultural conflicts still exist. In dormitories or apartments, some people complain that "Chinese students are noisy", and due to cultural differences, there are conflicts between some South Korean landlords and Chinese students sometimes. "Many Chinese students are unwilling to interact with South Korean people, for the reasons of language and cultural barriers. We should find ways to enable Chinese students to better adapt to living in South Korean," says Shin Jongho, a researcher at Gyeonggi Research Institute.