Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
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…
Coast & islands
옹진군
Yeongheungdo belongs to Ongjin County in Incheon, yet you do not need a ferry. From Oido in Siheung you cross the Sihwa seawall, pass Daebudo and Seonjaedo, and finally reach the island over the Yeongheung Bridge. Wind-bent hornbeam groves…
Historic sites & memorials
예산군
On 29 April 1932, in Hongkou Park in Shanghai, the independence activist Yun Bong-gil (1908–1932), known by his pen name Maeheon, threw a bomb that killed or wounded senior Japanese military and civil leaders. He was born and raised in the…
Fortresses
예산군
Imjonseong, ringing the summit of Bongsusan in Daeheung-myeon, Yesan, became the last stronghold of the Baekje restoration movement after the kingdom fell. With a circumference of about 2.45 km it is counted as the largest of all Baekje mo…
Coast & islands
여수시
From the Ungcheon waterfront in Yeosu you can see a small, wooded island lying low and long in the bay. Jangdo, also called Jinseom ("long island") for its shape, can only be reached on foot across Jinseom Bridge, a 335-metre walkway that…
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…
Historic sites & memorials
군산시
On the road in front of Gunsan's inner harbour stands a red-brick building crowned with three pointed towers. This is the former main building of the Gunsan Customs, opened in 1908: a modern government office built by the Korean Empire bef…
Mountains & peaks
평창군
Straddling Pyeongchang, Gangneung and Hongcheon in Gangwon Province, Odaesan is remembered for soft ridges and deep forest rather than jagged rock. From the summit of Birobong five peaks stand around you like a folding screen, and in the v…
Mountains & peaks
춘천시
Rising north of Soyang Lake, Obongsan (779 m) is a granite mountain whose five peaks stand in a row, just as its name ("five-peak mountain") says. Start from the Baehuryeong pass and a short climb brings you onto a rocky ridge; you cross t…
Historic sites & memorials
오산시
Dolmen Park in Geumam-dong, Osan, has nine Bronze Age dolmens scattered across its lawns. It is an urban park among apartment blocks, yet the huge granite capstones set Bronze Age graves right beside the modern city. Peonies and roses in s…
Fortresses
오산시
A ring of walls encircles the top of Doksan, a low hill in Jigot-dong, Osan. This is Doksanseong, the fortress General Gwon Yul held with 20,000 troops during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s. Its great weakness was a lack of water, and…
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
시흥시
The name ends in "-do", the Korean word for island, but Oido has not been an island for a long time. Salt pans laid out on its mudflats under Japanese colonial rule, followed by later land reclamation, joined it to the mainland, and today…
Mountains & peaks
제천시
Oksunbong takes its name, "jade bamboo shoot", from the way its white and blue-grey rock pinnacles seem to sprout like bamboo shoots after rain. Its cliffs rise straight out of Chungju Lake (called Cheongpung Lake on the Jecheon side), it…
Historic sites & memorials
과천시
On his journeys south to visit the tomb of his father, Crown Prince Sado, King Jeongjo rested at this old government guesthouse in Gwacheon and found it so pleasant that he gave it a name of its own. The building, sitting at the foot of Gw…
Churches & monasteries
용인시
On the slopes of Yeonhwasan in Haegok-dong, Yongin, Waujeongsa greets you with a golden Buddha head 8 m tall at its entrance. More than 3,000 Buddha statues brought from India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and other countries are scattered…
Coast & islands
완도군
Cross two bridges from the Haenam Peninsula at the southwestern tip of the Korean mainland and you arrive on Wando, the main island of Wando County. At 90.1 km² it is the eighth-largest island in South Korea, and in the Silla period it was…
Coast & islands
완도군
Fifty minutes by boat from Wando harbour, Cheongsando, the island that stays green all year, was named Asia's first Slow City. Stone-walled lanes, terraced gudeuljang rice paddies and hillsides covered in yellow rapeseed flowers in spring…
Historic sites & memorials
완도군
The small island of Jangdo, just off Wando, was the base of Cheonghaejin, the maritime garrison founded by Jang Bogo, who dominated East Asian waters in the 9th century. A wooden bridge from Jangjwa-ri village takes you straight onto the i…
Fortresses
완주군
In Soyang-myeon, Wanju, just north of Jeonju, Wibongsanseong is a mountain fortress built to protect the symbols of the Joseon dynasty in wartime. It was meant as a refuge for the portrait of King Taejo and the spirit tablets of his ancest…
Churches & monasteries
완주군
Deep in a valley of Bulmyeongsan Mountain in Wanju, a small temple sits on a rocky ledge above a waterfall, almost tucked out of sight. Hwaamsa is modest in size, yet it holds the only building in Korea that still uses the ha-ang bracket s…
Historic sites & memorials
영암군
According to Japan's oldest chronicles, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, the Baekje scholar Wangin (known in Japan as Wani) brought ten volumes of the Analects of Confucius and the Thousand Character Classic to Japan and became tutor to the…