Jeju Island

On November 11, 2011, the New7Wonders announced Jeju Island, which is located in South Korea, as one of the new 7 wonders of nature. The results were based on votes between July 2009 and November 11th, 2011 via text messaging, phone calls, and an online voting system.

Although the results are only provisional based on the first count of votes, the chances of the results changing are highly unlikely. However, they will still carefully tally the votes, and the official winners will be announced in 2012.

The beautiful scenery of Jeju Island

This win for Jeju Island came after a long period of promotion. Former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan was named the island's ambassador to the New7Wonders campaign. He effectively did this by specifically encouraging Chinese, Japanese and other Asian citizens to vote for Jeju Island as a new world wonder. During his promotion, Chung announced that Jeju Island becoming one of the New 7 wonders of Nature would have many benefits. Not only would tourism increase, but the win would bring "eternal pride and glory" to Korea. He also highlighted the island's environmental resources in his letter addressed to the public, "We must let the world know of Jeju's beauty." He listed how Jeju Island achieved the triple crowns of UNESCO in the nature and science field: the designation of the Biosphere Reserve in 2002, inscription to the World Natural Heritage sites in 2007, and the designation as a World Geopark in 2010.

The New7wonders also announced the other new wonders of nature in non-rank order: the Amazon of Brazil, Vietnam’s Halong Bay, Argentina’s Iguazu Falls, Korea’s Jeju Island, Indonesia’s Komodo Park, The Philippines’ Puerto Princesa Underground River, and South Africa’s Table Mountain.

Personally, I was really excited to hear that Jeju Island became New 7 Wonders of Nature. I have always wanted to go there, and I am planning on visiting the island this summer. Therefore, the fact it is one of the New 7 Wonders makes me even more eager to go there.

Here is a clip that displays Jeju Island's beautiful nature and gives additional information about the island: