Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
울산
In Oegosan Onggi Village, in Onyang-eup on the southern edge of Ulsan, glossy brown jars stand in rows of dozens and hundreds along the lanes and in every workshop yard. Built by potters who gathered here from all over Korea after the Kore…
Gardens & parks
거제시
Oedo Botania is a marine botanical garden covering the whole of Oedo, a small island off the southeast coast of Geojedo. A couple spent more than 30 years shaping this remote island, which once had no electricity, into what you see today.…
Mountains & peaks
구좌읍
In Jongdal-ri, Gujwa-eup, on the east side of Jeju, rises a small volcano of soft, rounded curves. It is 247.8 m above sea level but only 88 m above the surrounding land, yet from the top you see three linked craters and a view that reache…
Coast & islands
제주시
Just a few minutes' drive from Jeju Airport, a dragon seems to rear its head out of the sea. Yongduam Rock, on the shore of Yongdam-dong in Jeju City, is a rock about 10 m high whose shape, carved by waves and wind over countless years, re…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
On the slopes of Yongmasan in Seoul's Jungnang-gu, this park turned the cliff of a former aggregate quarry into a backdrop for a 51.4 m artificial waterfall. Yongma Falls drops in two tiers, flanked by Cheongnyong Falls and Baengma Falls,…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Right next to the National Museum of Korea, Yongsan Family Park is a spread of wide lawns and ponds set among gentle slopes. The land was part of the Yongsan military base, used by the Japanese army in the colonial period and by US forces…
Churches & monasteries
서울특별시
On a hill above Wonhyo-ro in Yongsan, Seoul, stand Korea's first purpose-built seminary (1892) and its chapel (1902). Both were designed and supervised by the French missionary Father Eugène Coste, and their red brick and pointed-arch wind…
Churches & monasteries
대구
Tucked into a deep valley on the northern slopes of Biseulsan, Yongyeonsa is one of the Korean temples with a Jeongmyeol Bogung, a hall dedicated to relics of the historical Buddha. The stone platform that holds the relics, the Geumgang Gy…
Historic sites & memorials
용인시
Between the high-rise apartment blocks near Sanghyeon Station on the Sinbundang Line stands a Confucian academy founded in 1605. Simgokseowon honours Jo Gwang-jo (1482–1519), the reform-minded scholar who led a drive to remake government u…
Coast & islands
제주시
Udo ("Cow Island") lies off Seongsan at the eastern tip of Jeju. Seen from the side it is said to look like a cow lying down, hence the name. The island is only about 3.8 km long with a coastline of around 17 km, yet it packs in white beac…
Viewpoints
부산
Uam-dong Urban Forest is a small wooded park on a hillside in Nam-gu, Busan. From here Busan Harbour, the Busan Harbor Bridge, Yeongdo Island and Bongnaesan all fit into one frame, and after sunset the bridge lights and the lamps of the hi…
Historic sites & memorials
대전광역시
This park in Gayang-dong, Daejeon, occupies the valley where the late Joseon scholar Uam Song Si-yeol (1607–1689) taught his students in his final years. Its heart is Namganjeongsa, a study built so that a stream runs beneath its wooden fl…
Museums
청주시
On a wooded slope in Naesu-eup, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju, Unbo's House is the home where the painter Unbo Kim Ki-chang (1913–2001) lived and worked for more than twenty years and where he died. A neat hanok, a pond, a pavilion and carefully…
Palaces
서울특별시
Unhyeongung is the house where Gojong, the 26th king of Joseon, was born and lived until he took the throne at the age of 12, and where his father, the regent Heungseon Daewongun, ran the country for almost a decade. It is much smaller tha…
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.…
Old towns & squares
울산
In the 1970s and 80s, when Ulsan was known as Korea's industrial capital, the Seongnam-dong area of Jung-gu was the busy heart of the city. After commerce moved to newer districts, galleries, small theatres and workshops moved into its str…
Coast & islands
울산
At the far end of Ulsan's Dong-gu district, past the long line of shipyard cranes, there is still a working fishing harbour where boats land their catch at the auction hall. Even the name smells of the sea: Bangeojin is said to come from t…
Other
울산
In the heart of Ulsan's old town, in Seongnam-dong and Okgyo-dong, Jung-gu, Ulsan Jungang Traditional Market opened in 1922 as Okgyo Market. It has stayed on the same site for more than a century, supplying local families with everything t…
Gardens & parks
울산
Stretching along the Taehwa River through the heart of Ulsan, Taehwagang National Garden became Korea's second national garden in 2019, after Suncheon Bay. Its emblem is Simni Bamboo Forest, a long belt of bamboo along the river, and after…
Viewpoints
울산
On the summit of Hwajeongsan (203 m) in Dong-gu, Ulsan, stands a 63 m observation tower. From the top you look straight at the Ulsandaegyo Bridge, a 1,800 m suspension bridge, as well as Ulsan Port, the city's petrochemical, car and shipbu…
Historic sites & memorials
울산
The Bangudae Petroglyphs are prehistoric carvings of whales, hunters and animals on a cliff above the Daegokcheon stream near Ulsan. Some whales are rendered so precisely that you can tell the species apart, which is extremely rare in rock…
Fortresses
울산
Eonyangeupseong is a rare example in Korea of a walled town built as a neat square on flat ground rather than on a hillside. It protected the old county of Eonyang, a crossroads on the routes linking Gyeongju, Ulsan, Miryang and Yangsan, a…
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,…