Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Fortresses
수원시
Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon was built by King Jeongjo of Joseon between 1794 and 1796, and its walls still wrap around the old centre of the city for 5.74 km. Gates, watchtowers and artillery posts follow one another along the ramparts, so…
Historic sites & memorials
수원시
Suwon Hyanggyo is a Joseon-era Confucian school on the slopes of Paldalsan, just south of Hwaseong Fortress. King Jeongjo moved it to this site when he built his new fortress city, and its Daeseongjeon shrine hall to Confucius is the large…
Mountains & peaks
제주시
Suwolbong is a low volcanic cone, just 77 m high, on the coast at Gosan-ri at the far western tip of Jeju. The summit itself looks ordinary, but the sea cliffs below expose layers of volcanic ash laid down in an eruption about 18,000 years…
Fortresses
서울특별시
Sukjeongmun is the north gate of Hanyangdoseong, the wall that enclosed Hanyang, the Joseon capital. It is one of the four great gates together with the east, west and south gates, but it stands deep in the hills on the eastern ridge of Bu…
Fortresses
순천시
From the top of the wall you look down on hundreds of rounded thatched roofs huddled in a plain below the hills. Naganeupseong was the seat of Nagan County in the Joseon period, and it is one of very few places where the walls, the governm…
Theme parks
순천시
Step into an alley of slate-roofed shacks crowded along a hillside and you could be standing in a 1970s Seoul hillside slum. Suncheon Open Film Set (Suncheon Drama Set) recreates Korean streets and neighbourhoods of the 1960s to 1980s and…
Churches & monasteries
순천시
Walk up the stream through the woods and a semicircular stone bridge suddenly frames a pavilion like a picture in a window. Seonamsa in Suncheon is often remembered for that single view, but inside you will find wooden halls with faded pai…
Gardens & parks
순천시
Suncheon built a garden to protect its bay. Organisers said the main purpose of the expo was to preserve the mudflats and reed beds of Suncheon Bay. Suncheon Bay National Garden grew out of the site of the 2013 Suncheon Bay International G…
Nature
순천시
Tall reeds stretch endlessly over the mudflats where river meets sea, and a channel winds through them in a perfect S. Suncheon Bay Wetland Reserve is the showcase of Korea's southern coastal wetlands, where boardwalks take you right into…
Fortresses
순천시
About 10 km southeast of central Suncheon, on a low hill above Gwangyang Bay, stands a stone wall of an unfamiliar shape. This is a waeseong, a castle built by Japanese troops in 1597 during the second invasion of Korea, and the final act…
Fortresses
서울특별시
Sungnyemun was the main southern gate in the wall around Hanyang, the capital of Joseon, and is commonly called Namdaemun, "Great South Gate". Standing among the office towers between Seoul Station and City Hall, it shows how the old walle…
Mountains & peaks
부산
Seunghaksan (496 m), on the border of Saha-gu and Sasang-gu in Busan, is the mountain whose upper slopes turn silver with pampas-like silver grass every autumn. Below you spread the Nakdong River estuary, Eulsukdo Island and the sea off Da…
Mountains & peaks
대전광역시
Rising on the border between Daejeon's Dong-gu and Okcheon County, Sikjangsan is the mountain Daejeon residents head to for night views and sunrise. A paved road runs to the top, so you can drive up, and from the Sikjangnu pavilion at the…
Museums
경주시
In the Hadong craft village below Bulguksa in Gyeongju, this private museum is devoted to the history of Korean science. A cutaway model of the Seokguram grotto, a full-size replica of the Sangwonsa temple bell and a sectioned model of the…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
Sinsa-dong Garosu-gil is a two-lane street in Gangnam that runs from Dosan-daero near Sinsa Station to the junction in front of Hyundai High School. Its name simply means "tree-lined street": about 160 ginkgo trees stand along both sides,…
Coast & islands
신안군
Some 115 km southwest of Mokpo, Hongdo owes its name, Red Island, to the way its rocks glow at sunset. The whole island is a protected Natural Monument within Dadohaehaesang National Park, and a boat trip around its sheer cliffs and sculpt…
Coast & islands
완도군
Tucked against the east side of Wando's main island, Sinjido is linked by bridge, so you can drive straight in without a ferry. Its south coast is lined by Sinji Myeongsasimni, a 3.8 km sandy beach that was the first in Asia to earn the in…
Zoos
부산
Right beside the sand of Haeundae Beach, you head underground and walk through a tunnel where sharks and rays glide overhead. SEA LIFE Busan Aquarium opened in November 2001, and its 80 m underwater tunnel is described as the longest in Ko…
Zoos
서울특별시
Follow the underground passages from Samseong Station deep into COEX Mall and, in the middle of a shopping centre, you suddenly find yourself under the sea. SEA LIFE COEX Aquarium opened in 2000 and is Seoul's best-known city-centre aquari…
Churches & monasteries
아산시
Between Asan Bay and the Sapgyocheon stream, a red-brick Gothic church rises from a low hill in Gongse-ri, Inju-myeon. Consecrated in 1922, Gongseri Catholic Church was the first Western-style church built in the Chungcheong region, and it…
Old towns & squares
아산시
Thatched cottages and tiled mansions linked by stone-walled lanes climb the foot of Seolhwasan at Oeam, a Joseon-era aristocratic village that is still lived in. Since the village took shape around 500 years ago it has been home to the Yea…
Historic sites & memorials
아산시
This shrine honours Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the naval commander who led Joseon's fleet during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s. The grounds in Asan were also his home in his younger years, so alongside the hall that holds his portrait you c…
Mountains & peaks
서울특별시
Achasan is a low granite mountain on the border between Gwangjin District in Seoul and the city of Guri. Its height is given as anywhere from 285 to 296 m depending on the source, but from the ridge you look out over the Han River and the…
Gardens & parks
가평군
On the slopes of Chungnyeongsan in Gapyeong, The Garden of Morning Calm takes its name from an old epithet for Korea, "the land of the morning calm". Professor Han Sang-kyung of Sahmyook University's horticulture department designed it him…