Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
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…
Museums
대정읍
The Chocolate Museum in Illgwa-ri, Daejeong-eup, in south-western Jeju, is a private museum devoted to how cacao becomes chocolate and to chocolate cultures around the world. Its walls of songi, Jeju's red volcanic scoria, make it look lik…
Coast & islands
통영시
Linked to Hansando by a red bridge, Chubongdo is a small island of about 3.8 km² off Tongyeong. Looking at its quiet fishing villages and pebble beach, it is hard to imagine, but during the Korean War roughly 10,000 communist prisoners of…
Museums
과천시
The Chusa Museum, run by the city of Gwacheon, brings together the life, scholarship and art of Chusa Kim Jeong-hui (1786–1856), the late-Joseon scholar and calligrapher. It opened on 3 June 2013 right next to Gwaji Chodang, the cottage wh…
Coast & islands
동해시
At the end of Chuam Beach in Donghae, a pillar of rock rises straight out of the sea. Chuam Candlestick Rock earns its name when the rising sun sits on its tip like a candle flame. It appears in the opening shot of the national anthem broa…
Mountains & peaks
담양군
Rising over Damyangho Lake north of Damyang, Chuwolsan is only a little over 700 m high, but its sheer rock walls and dense pine forest make it feel far wilder than its height suggests. People come for Boriam, a small hermitage perched on…
Mountains & peaks
남양주시
Rising on the border of Sudong-myeon in Namyangju and Gapyeong County, Chungnyeongsan (879 m) has a story in its very name. Legend says that Yi Seong-gye, the future founder of the Joseon dynasty, came hunting here at the end of the Goryeo…
Viewpoints
춘천시
This cable car runs 3.61 km from Samcheon-dong in Chuncheon across Uiamho Lake to the ridge of Samaksan Mountain. It is the longest cable car in Korea: after a long crossing over the water it climbs onto the rocky mountain, so you see lake…
Churches & monasteries
춘천시
This grey stone church sits on the Yaksa-ri hill in central Chuncheon. Begun in 1949, damaged in the Korean War and finished in 1956, it is a fine example of 1950s stone church building and is a Registered National Heritage. Behind it lies…
Museums
춘천시
The Chuncheon Makguksu Museum is dedicated to makguksu, the cold buckwheat noodles that are Chuncheon's signature dish. On the ground floor you learn about buckwheat and the history of the noodles; upstairs you knead your own dough, press…
Historic sites & memorials
충주시
In Goedong-ri, Eomjeong-myeon, north of Chungju, a small stone monument ringed by a stone balustrade crowns a round, pine-covered hill. This is the Placenta Chamber of King Gyeongjong of Joseon. Gyeongjong was the son of King Sukjong and R…
Historic sites & memorials
충주시
South of Suanbo in Chungju, in a basin below Haneuljae, the old pass between North Chungcheong and North Gyeongsang, lies the Mireukdaewon temple site. A stone Buddha about 10.6 m tall stands inside a grotto built from huge stone blocks, a…
Historic sites & memorials
충주시
On the western edge of Chungju, where the Namhangang River meets the Dalcheon stream, a low pine-covered hill ends in cliffs above the water. It was named Tangeumdae, "the terrace where the zither was played", because Ureuk, the great musi…
Historic sites & memorials
충주시
In the middle of a lawn, on a mound raised on purpose, stands a seven-storey stone pagoda. The Seven-story Stone Pagoda in Tappyeong-ri is the largest and tallest surviving pagoda from the Unified Silla period. Because it stands roughly at…
Caves
충주시
In the hills north of Chungju Lake, Chungju Hwalok Cave lets you walk into the galleries of a talc mine that was worked for almost a century. White dolomite walls with folds and faults, giant winding engines and an underground lake with bo…
Museums
충주시
In Jungangtap-myeon, Chungju, the Exhibition Hall of Chungju Goguryeo Monument shelters the only Goguryeo stele in South Korea, the Chungju Goguryeo Stele, a National Treasure. It is a single block of stone just over 2 m tall, yet it is di…
Museums
충주시
On a hillside in Dongnyang-myeon, close to Chungjuho Lake, the Chungju Ecology Experience Museum is a nature centre designed to let children learn by looking, listening and touching. It opened in 2009, and its indoor exhibition halls, smal…
Lakes
충주시
Chungju Lake is a vast reservoir created in 1985 when the Chungju Dam blocked the Namhangang River. It winds between the mountains from Chungju through Jecheon almost as far as Dodamsambong in Danyang, covering about 67.5 km² and holding a…
Museums
광명시
When King Injo heard that his elderly chief minister was living in a thatched house with a leaking roof, he had a new one built for him in 1630 and named it Gwangamdang (觀感堂), "the hall for seeing and being moved". The minister was Ori Yi…
Mountains & peaks
원주시
A monk once saved a pheasant from a snake. That night the snake came for the monk and promised to spare him only if a bell rang on the mountain before dawn. The bell rang three times, and when the monk went to the temple he found the pheas…
Other
대구
East of Daegu Station, along the banks of the Sincheon stream, a produce market, a flower market, streets of furniture and kitchenware and a toy alley all run into one another. Locals simply call the whole cluster of nine markets Chilseong…
Gardens & parks
서귀포시
Camellia Hill in Andeok-myeon, Seogwipo, is an arboretum built around a single plant over nearly 30 years. About 172,000 m² of land hold 6,000 camellia trees of some 500 varieties from 80 countries. Because the varieties flower at differen…
Coast & islands
여수시
At the eastern tip of Dolsando Island in Yeosu, at the edge of a seaside wood in Pyeongsa-ri, stands a small white lighthouse. Its name, Keunggeut, means "the far end", and that is exactly where it is. With no car park and hardly any signs…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Tapgol Park, laid out in 1897, was Seoul's first modern public park, and it is where the Declaration of Independence was read on 1 March 1919, launching the March First Movement against Japanese rule. It is a small park in the middle of Jo…