Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Zoos
여수시
Hanwha Aqua Planet Yeosu opened alongside Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea. It is the second-largest aquarium in Korea and the first to be built entirely above ground. Walking past tanks home to about 55,000 animals of some 300 species, you look into…
Nature
부산
Ahopsan Forest in Cheorma-myeon, Gijang-gun, Busan, is a private forest that one family has refused to sell for nine generations. Towering moso bamboo and Geumgang pines several centuries old cover 520,000 m² of hillside. It is known as a…
Mountains & peaks
충주시
Several ridges slide down into Chungjuho Lake side by side, looking for all the world like a group of crocodiles slipping into the water. Ageobong Peak ("crocodile peak") in Woraksan National Park owes its fame to this one view. For years…
Nature
안동시
On a hillside in Daegok-ri, Imdong-myeon, east of Andong, an Oriental cork oak estimated at around 500 years old spreads its branches in every direction. At 22.5 m tall and 5.4 m round at chest height, it is considered the sturdiest and be…
Historic sites & memorials
안동시
Dosan Seowon brings together the small school where Toegye Yi Hwang, Joseon's most celebrated Confucian scholar, taught his students and the academy his followers built after his death. It sits on a hillside above the Nakdonggang River in…
Nature
안동시
In Imha-myeon, Andong, where the Banbyeoncheon stream bends, three elements come together in one view: Naeap Village, home to the Uiseong Kim clan; Gaeho, a pine grove standing in the water; and Baegunjeong, a pavilion on the hill across t…
Churches & monasteries
안동시
Where the Nakdong River makes a wide bend beneath the sheer cliffs of Byeongsan, Byeongsan Seowon is often called the masterpiece of Joseon-era academy architecture. Step through the gate and climb into Mandaeru, a seven-bay pavilion, and…
Historic sites & memorials
안동시
Imcheonggak is the head house of the Goseong Yi clan, set on the slope of Yeongnamsan on the eastern edge of Andong and looking out over the Nakdong River. A family home from the middle of the Joseon period surviving to this day would be r…
Old towns & squares
안동시
Hahoe Folk Village is a traditional clan village in Andong, wrapped in an S-shaped bend of the Nakdong River – the name itself means "river turning back". The Pungsan Ryu clan has lived here for almost 600 years, tiled-roof mansions stand…
Other
안동시
Andong Gu Market sits in the middle of Andong's old town, a five-minute walk from Taesamyo Shrine and Ungbu Park, and it is the oldest market in the city. Andong jjimdak – chicken braised in a soy-based sauce with vegetables and glass nood…
Old towns & squares
안동시
When Andong Dam was built, houses, a government guesthouse and an ice store that would have disappeared under the reservoir were moved to a hillside above the Nakdong River and rebuilt. That hillside is Andong Folk Village. From thatched f…
Museums
태안군
Anmyondo Jurassic Museum is a natural history museum in Nam-myeon, Taean, on the road into Anmyeondo island, and it is often cited for having Korea's largest collection of genuine dinosaur fossils. Since opening on 5 July 2011 it has drawn…
Mountains & peaks
서울특별시
Ansan is a modest hill about 296 m high in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. A Joseon-era beacon tower has been restored on the summit, and the Ansan Jarak-gil, a loop of about 7 km around the hillside, is famous as a step-free forest trail. You can wa…
Nature
안산시
Ansan Reed Wetland Park is Korea's first large constructed wetland, built so that reed beds could filter dirty water from the streams flowing into Sihwa Lake. Construction began in 1997 and finished in 2005, and today wooden boardwalks lea…
Gardens & parks
안산시
This is a city-run botanical garden where you can walk beneath palm trees even in midwinter. Ansan Botanical Garden, inside Seongho Park in Sangnok-gu, opened in 2001, and its three pyramid-shaped glasshouses are divided between tropical p…
Historic sites & memorials
안성시
On a slope at the entrance to Deokbong-ri, a village in Yangseong-myeon, Anseong, stands Deokbong Seowon, a Confucian academy dedicated to Oh Du-in (1624–1689), an official who lost his life for speaking out under King Sukjong. It is small…
Other
안성시
More than 2,000 earthenware crocks lined up against a backdrop of pine trees: even in photos, the sight makes you stop. Seoil Farm in Iljuk-myeon, Anseong, is a traditional jang farm where Korean soybeans are turned into meju and then into…
Churches & monasteries
안성시
On the north-eastern slopes of Seounsan, the highest mountain around Anseong, a long flight of stone steps climbs through the woods to a temple whose main hall looks down from the top terrace. Seoknamsa has only a handful of buildings, but…
Historic sites & memorials
안성시
On a lawn next to the Anseong sports complex stands a tiled building that looks like any other traditional hanok. In fact it is the *oldest surviving gaeksa, or official guesthouse, in Korea. Built before 1363, in the reign of the Goryeo k…
Museums
안양시
The city of Anyang is named after a temple. Anyang Museum stands on the site of Anyangsa, a Goryeo-era monastery, inside a former pharmaceutical factory designed in 1959 by the architect Kim Chung-up. By the entrance stand two stone pillar…
Gardens & parks
이천시
In the middle of Icheon, between apartment blocks, lies a square pond called Anheungji, and on its bank stands Aeryeonjeong, a pavilion with finely painted eaves. Joseon kings stopped here to rest on their way back from King Sejong's tomb,…
Other
횡성군
Anheung-myeon in Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province, is a township known across Korea for one thing: steamed buns. Shops selling Anheung jjinppang, buns leavened with makgeolli rice wine, filled with homemade red bean paste and shaped by…
Historic sites & memorials
서귀포시
Between fields of potatoes and garlic stands a row of low, grass-covered humps. Get closer and you see open concrete mouths: hangars built to hide Japanese fighter planes. Alddreu means "the lower plain" in the Jeju dialect, and on this pl…
Coast & islands
신안군
Amtaedo, in the sea west of Mokpo, is the island where tenant farmers took on their landlord a century ago and won. Today a bridge links it to the mainland, and at the crossroads near the bridge an elderly couple painted on a wall greets v…