96 attractions in Gangwon Province, including Jeongdongjin Time Museum, Jiktang Falls and Korean Workers' Party Headquarters, Cheorwon.
Museums
강릉시
In Hourglass Park on the beach at Jeongdongjin, Gangneung, a black steam locomotive stands at the head of a row of brightly painted carriages. The Jeongdongjin Time Museum has filled this train with a single theme, time: carriage by carria…
Waterfalls
철원군
It is barely 3 m high, yet more than 80 m wide. Jiktang Falls cuts straight across the Hantangang River in Cheorwon, and instead of impressing with height, the whole width of the river drops in a single line. The falls were carved out of a…
Historic sites & memorials
철원군
On a low rise at the edge of the Cheorwon plain stands a three-storey concrete shell with every window blown out. The Korean Workers' Party Headquarters was built by the North Korean ruling party after liberation, and when the Korean War f…
Churches & monasteries
철원군
Not far from the Demilitarized Zone, in the town of Dongsong in Cheorwon, a small temple shelters an iron Buddha that has sat here for more than a thousand years. Dopiansa's Iron Seated Vairocana Buddha carries an inscription on its back d…
Churches & monasteries
춘천시
On the slopes of Obongsan north of Soyang Lake in Chuncheon, Cheongpyeongsa is known as "the temple on an island" because the classic way to reach it is by boat from the Soyang Dam landing. First built in 973, it still has the Goryeo Seonw…
Coast & islands
동해시
At the end of Chuam Beach in Donghae, a pillar of rock rises straight out of the sea. Chuam Candlestick Rock earns its name when the rising sun sits on its tip like a candle flame. It appears in the opening shot of the national anthem broa…
Viewpoints
춘천시
This cable car runs 3.61 km from Samcheon-dong in Chuncheon across Uiamho Lake to the ridge of Samaksan Mountain. It is the longest cable car in Korea: after a long crossing over the water it climbs onto the rocky mountain, so you see lake…
Churches & monasteries
춘천시
This grey stone church sits on the Yaksa-ri hill in central Chuncheon. Begun in 1949, damaged in the Korean War and finished in 1956, it is a fine example of 1950s stone church building and is a Registered National Heritage. Behind it lies…
Museums
춘천시
The Chuncheon Makguksu Museum is dedicated to makguksu, the cold buckwheat noodles that are Chuncheon's signature dish. On the ground floor you learn about buckwheat and the history of the noodles; upstairs you knead your own dough, press…
Mountains & peaks
원주시
A monk once saved a pheasant from a snake. That night the snake came for the monk and promised to spare him only if a bell rang on the mountain before dawn. The bell rang three times, and when the monk went to the temple he found the pheas…
Nature
태백시
Hwangji Pond is a spring in a small park right in the centre of Taebaek, between shops and roads. The water rising here is the starting point of the Nakdong River, which crosses the southeast of the country to reach the sea past Eulsukdo i…
Mountains & peaks
태백시
Rising on the border of Taebaek in Gangwon and Bonghwa in North Gyeongsang, Taebaeksan has long been called the sacred mountain of the Korean people. At 1,567 m it is not especially high, but its summit area still holds Cheonjedan, a stone…
Museums
태백시
At the Danggol entrance to Taebaeksan National Park stands a museum devoted to every side of Korea's coal industry. The Taebaek Coal Museum opened in 1997 in the mining town of Taebaek, and its eight galleries and outdoor yard cover everyt…
Caves
평창군
Baengnyongdonggul Cave is a limestone cave opening onto a cliff at the foot of Baegunsan, right above the Donggang River in Mitan-myeon, Pyeongchang. Unlike show caves with lighting and staircases, this is an exploration cave: you put on a…
Churches & monasteries
평창군
Far up the Odaesan valley, among fir and oak forest, stands Sangwonsa. Most of its buildings are recent reconstructions, but the temple keeps Korea's oldest bell and a statue of a boy deity linked to a legend about King Sejo. It is also th…
Churches & monasteries
평창군
Past the first gate, straight fir trees rise on both sides of the path as if to close off the sky. Woljeongsa on Odaesan is often remembered first for this forest walk. Beyond the trees, a Goryeo-era octagonal nine-storey pagoda stands in…
Nature
평창군
On the summit of Cheongoksan in Mitan-myeon, Pyeongchang, at 1,256 m above sea level, a broad plateau the size of six football pitches opens up. Around 20 huge wind turbines turn along the ridge, white Shasta daisies cover the slopes in ea…
Historic sites & memorials
화천군
The Peace Dam stands 125 m tall on the upper Bukhan River in Hwacheon, not far from the inter-Korean border. As a flood-control dam it normally holds almost no water, so a huge concrete wall blocks an all but empty valley – a striking sigh…
Churches & monasteries
홍천군
At the foot of Gongjaksan in Hongcheon, where a valley of broad rock slabs and clear pools begins, stands Sutasa. It is one of the oldest temples in the inland western part of Gangwon, with a late Joseon main hall, clay statues of the Four…
Historic sites & memorials
홍천군
Set on a hill in Huimang-ri, in the middle of Hongcheon town, Hongcheon Hyanggyo is a school that moved three times and was once burned in war. Past the two-storey Seokhwaru gate tower at the entrance, the lecture hall and the terraced shr…
Caves
정선군
Hwaamdonggul in Hwaam-myeon, Jeongseon, links an old gold-mine tunnel and a natural limestone cave on a single walking route. In 1934, miners digging a gold tunnel broke into a huge limestone cavern; today you walk through galleries that r…
Coast & islands
고성군
Hwajinpo Beach sits on the northern coast of Goseong in Gangwon, on the strip of sand between the open sea and Hwajinpo, the largest lagoon on Korea's east coast. Behind its 1.7 km of white sand lie pine woods and the lake, and on the hill…
Historic sites & memorials
횡성군
On the eastern side of Chiaksan, a small painted shrine stands on a cliff above the bend of the Gangnimcheon stream. Taejongdae in Hoengseong is where King Taejong (Yi Bang-won), the third ruler of Joseon, is said to have waited in vain fo…
Churches & monasteries
횡성군
In a valley in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province, a red-brick bell tower rises from a low hill. Pungsuwon Catholic Church began as a village of believers hiding from persecution, and the church itself was designed by a Korean priest and built b…