101 attractions in North Gyeongsang, including Yeongildae Beach, Rock-carved Buddhas of Gaheung-dong, Yeongju and Buseoksa Temple.
Coast & islands
포항시
Yeongildae Beach is a city beach on the north side of Pohang, stretching 1,750 m along Yeongil Bay. Two sights make it different from other east-coast beaches: Yeongildae, a pavilion standing in the sea about 100 m offshore, and the steelw…
Historic sites & memorials
영주시
On a riverside cliff west of central Yeongju, where the Seocheon stream bends, four Silla-era Buddhas are carved into the rock: a Buddha triad, with a large central Buddha flanked by two bodhisattvas, and a seated Buddha that only came to…
Churches & monasteries
영주시
Buseoksa was founded on the slopes of Bonghwangsan in 676 by the Silla monk Uisang, and it is home to Muryangsujeon, the best-known example of Goryeo-era wooden architecture in Korea. Instead of levelling the hillside, the builders raised…
Historic sites & memorials
영주시
At the foot of Sobaeksan, the clear Jukgyecheon stream runs through a grove of tall pines, and beside it stands a cluster of low tiled buildings. Sosu Seowon in Yeongju was the first seowon, or private Confucian academy, in Korea, and the…
Churches & monasteries
영천시
On the eastern slopes of Palgongsan, in a quiet valley in Yeongcheon's Cheongtong-myeon, stands a timber building from the Goryeo dynasty. Yeongsanjeon, a National Treasure, was built in 1375, and inside it 526 stone arhats, each with a di…
Churches & monasteries
영천시
East of Palgongsan, a wooded road in Cheongtong-myeon, Yeongcheon, leads past the sound of a clear stream to a large temple. Eunhaesa is, together with Donghwasa, the best-known temple on Palgongsan, and as the head temple of the 10th dist…
Churches & monasteries
예천군
In Yongmun-myeon, Yecheon County, on the southern slopes of Sobaeksan, Yongmunsa is known for its yunjangdae, revolving wooden sutra cases that you turn by hand. Two of them stand side by side inside the Daejangjeon hall, and no other surv…
Churches & monasteries
포항시
On the eastern slopes of Unjesan in Pohang, Oeosa sits right at the water's edge of a mountain reservoir. Tradition dates its founding to the reign of King Jinpyeong of Silla, and its name, meaning "my fish temple", comes from a story in t…
Coast & islands
울릉군
Just off Seommok on the north-east tip of Ulleungdo, Gwaneumdo is an uninhabited islet that was once joined to the main island until the sea wore away the link. Since 2012 a 140 m footbridge has let you walk across, and a loop around the c…
Coast & islands
울릉군
Ulleungdo is a volcanic island in the East Sea, about 120 km east of the Korean mainland. It is the top of a large volcano rising from the seabed, so most of its coast is sheer cliff, and the highest point, Seonginbong, reaches 984 metres.…
Historic sites & memorials
울진군
In 1988, while soil was being dug out of a rice paddy in Bongpyeong-ri, Jukbyeon-myeon, Uljin, a long stone covered with characters came to light. A local villager recognised it and reported it: this is the Uljin Bongpyeong-ri Silla Stele,…
Nature
울진군
Inland from Uljin, Buryeonggyegok Valley winds for about 15 km, with pale rock cliffs rising on both sides of clear water. The rock here is gneiss formed some 2 billion years ago, among the oldest on the Korean Peninsula. The valley was de…
Churches & monasteries
울진군
Deep in a valley of Cheonchuksan in Uljin, at the end of a path through Korean red pines, lies a temple built around a pond. On the ridge west of the temple is a rock shaped like a seated Buddha, and its shadow is said to fall on the pond…
Caves
울진군
Reached at the foot of a cliff beside the Wangpicheon River in Uljin, Seongnyugul is a limestone cave packed with stalactites, stalagmites and columns. Inside are nine large chambers and pools 4-5 m deep, and in 2019 inscriptions about 1,5…
Nature
의성군
On the western edge of Sachon village in Jeomgok-myeon, Uiseong, a long belt of centuries-old zelkovas and hackberries lines the fields. It was planted at the end of the Goryeo period as a windbreak by a scholar who settled here, and villa…
Mountains & peaks
청송군
Stand in the courtyard of Daejeonsa Temple and you see a cluster of rock towers rising behind its roofs like fingers pointing at the sky. Juwangsan is only 720.6 m high, but cliffs, gorges and waterfalls carved out of hardened volcanic ash…
Historic sites & memorials
청도군
Directly opposite Cheongdo Eupseong walled town stands a Joseon-era icehouse, the oldest surviving stone ice store in South Korea. Its roof has collapsed, leaving only four stone arches, so unlike other icehouses you can look straight down…
Churches & monasteries
청도군
In the hills east of Cheongdo, a path through pine woods ends at a temple with a wide courtyard. In the middle stands a great pine whose branches droop to the ground like an umbrella, and nuns in grey robes pass to and fro beneath it. Unmu…
Churches & monasteries
청송군
Daejeonsa sits at the very start of the trails into Juwangsan National Park. From its courtyard you see the huge rock pinnacles of Giam rising behind the temple roofs, one of the most familiar views of Juwangsan. It is easy to treat it as…
Nature
청송군
In Cheongsong, North Gyeongsang, a small reservoir lies hidden in a valley inside Juwangsan National Park. Ancient royal willows grow with their roots under the water at Jusanji, and when dawn mist rises the trees seem to float on the surf…
Other
포항시
Cheongha Market is a country five-day market in the township of Cheongha-myeon, Buk-gu, Pohang. In 2021 the tvN drama Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha turned it into the market of the fictional seaside village of Gongjin, and a "Gongjin Market" sign w…
Mountains & peaks
경주시
Tohamsan (745 m) is the mountain that holds Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram Grotto. The Silla kingdom revered it as Dongak, the "Eastern Peak" among five sacred mountains that guarded the realm. From the summit you look west over the Gyeongj…
Historic sites & memorials
포항시
In the yard of the Singwang-myeon community centre in Pohang, a small pavilion shelters a squat, block-shaped stone, shorter than a person. This is the Pohang Naengsu-ri Silla Stele, found by a local farmer while ploughing his field in 198…
Nature
포항시
In Buksong-ri, Heunghae-eup, on the northern edge of Pohang, a pine forest runs for almost 2.5 km along the embankment of the Gokgangcheon stream, known in the past as the Bukcheon. Bukcheonsu was planted on a flood dyke in the late Joseon…