The rise of affluent Chinese citizens and an infatuation with Korean pop culture, or "Hanliu," has spurred sharp growth in South Korea's medical tourism industry, mainly in the field of cosmetic surgery.
The Korea Health Industry Development says the number of medical tourists coming to South Korea ballooned last year to nearly 82,000, generating about 700 million U.S. dollars in revenue.
Park Won-jin, a plastic surgeon and director of the Wonjin Aesthetic Surgery Clinic in Seoul, sums up his experience of the boom.
"Recently, the number of patients has sharply increa
