And it seems to be the Chinese who are helping explode it. As incomes increase in China more and more young people are opting to go under the knife.

One Korean surgeon, Sung Min-yun told reporters: “As incomes rise in China, people are more focused on beauty, and more and more of them are coming to Korea. In 2010, he adds, the number of Chinese clients leapt nearly fivefold from the year before.”

South Korea is no stranger to an influx of women looking for cosmetic surgery; thousands of Asian women flock to the country every year. But with so many upwardly mobile Chinese people nowadays, the latter are helping to build on the growth of an already booming industry in Korea.

Another Korean surgeon, Park Sanghoon who has himself seen a rapid increase in his own clientele said: “It’s survival surgery. Life competition is so stiff in Korea and China people who want to survive that competition come here.”

Her added: “They have their own very concrete purposes for surgery. It’s the means to a particular goal.

“Asian people share the same cosmetic goals so it is easy for us to communicate.”

Other clinicians are seeing similar massive jumps in their cosmetic tourism business.