Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
파주시
On the edge of Tongil Dongsan in Paju, painters, architects, writers and musicians bought land and built their own homes and studios: this is Heyri Art Valley. With around 380 member artists it is Korea's largest artists' village, its muse…
Coast & islands
제주시
Hyeopjae Beach sits at Hyeopjae-ri in Hallim on Jeju's west coast, where white sand, shallow clear water and the small island of Biyangdo just offshore all fit into one view. The water is shallow and the seabed slopes gently, which makes i…
Other
군위군
At the edge of the fields, beneath a low hill, stands an old tile-roofed house ringed by a stone wall. This is the home of Hyewon (Kim Tae-ri) in the film Little Forest (2018), where she spends four seasons after leaving city life behind.…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
At the northern end of Daehangno, beside the road that climbs from Hyehwa-dong towards Seongbuk-dong, a small city gate stands on a rise. This is Hyehwamun, one of the four minor gates of the Seoul City Wall, long known simply as Dongsomun…
Mountains & peaks
인천광역시
Half an hour or so by car from Incheon International Airport, Horyonggoksan rises at the southern end of Muuido Island to about 244 m (some sources say 247 m). Low as it is, it is the island's highest peak, so the summit is surrounded by s…
Coast & islands
포항시
If you picture the Korean Peninsula as a tiger, this is the tip of its tail: Homigot, at the end of the Janggi Peninsula near Pohang. It is counted among the first places on the mainland to see the sunrise, so crowds gather here every 1 Ja…
Towns & cities
서울특별시
Hongdae is the lively district that spreads around Hongik University in Seoul's Mapo District, between Hongik University, Sangsu and Hapjeong stations. The name is simply a short form of the university's name rather than an official place…
Historic sites & memorials
홍성군
This shrine holds the portrait and spirit tablet of Im Deuk-ui (1558–1612), the Joseon general who helped crush the Yi Mong-hak Rebellion in the middle of the Imjin War. Together with his tomb and memorial stele on Cheongnyongsan in Seobu-…
Fortresses
서울특별시
On the road to Segeomjeong, a five-arched water gate and a gate with a wooden tower stand side by side over the Hongjecheon stream. Hongjimun and its wall, Tangchundaeseong, were built in the late Joseon period to close the gap between the…
Churches & monasteries
홍천군
At the foot of Gongjaksan in Hongcheon, where a valley of broad rock slabs and clear pools begins, stands Sutasa. It is one of the oldest temples in the inland western part of Gangwon, with a late Joseon main hall, clay statues of the Four…
Historic sites & memorials
홍천군
Set on a hill in Huimang-ri, in the middle of Hongcheon town, Hongcheon Hyanggyo is a school that moved three times and was once burned in war. Past the two-storey Seokhwaru gate tower at the entrance, the lecture hall and the terraced shr…
Churches & monasteries
서울특별시
Hwagyesa is a Jogye Order temple on the south-eastern slopes of Bukhansan, just above the houses of Suyu-dong in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul. You can walk there from a metro station, yet the temple is wrapped in forest and a mountain stream. In 1933…
Gardens & parks
광주시
Hidden in a valley behind Konjiam Resort in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, the arboretum Hwadamsup is so popular in autumn that tickets for the foliage season sell out fast. The original terrain and woodland on the slopes of Nogobong were kep…
Mountains & peaks
경주시
Far west of central Gyeongju, in Sannae-myeon, a wide meadow spreads across the southern slopes of Dansoksan (827.2 m). Lawns dotted with old pines, a mountain reservoir and the clifftop Meditation Rock make up Hwarang Hill. It shows a com…
Historic sites & memorials
파주시
Hwaseokjeong is a Joseon-era pavilion on a cliff above the Imjin River at Yulgok-ri, Paju. It belonged to the family of Yi I (pen name Yulgok), one of Korea's great Confucian scholars, and a poem he is said to have written here at the age…
Nature
화성시
South of Sihwa Lake, red rock islets rise out of an endless reed bed. These rocks yielded dinosaur egg fossils in large numbers, and today a wooden boardwalk lets you walk out and look at real fossil eggs. Until the Sihwa seawall was built…
Churches & monasteries
화성시
Yongjusa is the temple King Jeongjo of Joseon rebuilt to console the spirit of his father, Crown Prince Sado, who died a cruel death. Because it served as the guardian temple of Sado's royal tomb, it is a mountain temple with traces of pal…
Historic sites & memorials
화성시
Yunggeolleung is the joint name for two Joseon royal tombs where the tragic Crown Prince Sado and his son, King Jeongjo, lie side by side. A son who lost his father as a child became king, moved his father's grave to an auspicious site, an…
Nature
화순군
Around Gaecheonsa, a small temple in Chunyang-myeon, Hwasun, an evergreen forest of Japanese torreya (bija, sometimes called nutmeg yew) covers the hillsides. Torreya grows only a little each year, yet here it has spread across the slopes…
Historic sites & memorials
화순군
On both sides of Bogeomjae, the pass between Hyosan-ri (Dogok-myeon) and Daesin-ri (Chunyang-myeon) in Hwasun, 596 dolmens lie scattered over about 5 km of valley. What sets Hwasun apart is that the quarries where the capstones were split…
Churches & monasteries
화순군
In a quiet valley in Iyang-myeon, Hwasun, this thousand-year-old temple is known for an unusual main hall shaped like a three-storey wooden pagoda and for the stupa of Master Cheolgam, a National Treasure. The stupa, one of the finest of t…
Churches & monasteries
화순군
Unjusa lies in a valley on the west side of Cheontaesan in Hwasun. You do not come here for a grand main hall; you come to walk the valley floor and the ridges on either side, seeking out the stone Buddhas and stone pagodas scattered among…
Caves
정선군
Hwaamdonggul in Hwaam-myeon, Jeongseon, links an old gold-mine tunnel and a natural limestone cave on a single walking route. In 1934, miners digging a gold tunnel broke into a huge limestone cavern; today you walk through galleries that r…
Mountains & peaks
창녕군
Hwawangsan rises to 756 m east of Changnyeong town, and its broad summit plateau turns silver with pampas grass in autumn and pink with azaleas in spring. A stone wall about 2.6 km around, Hwawangsanseong Fortress, encloses that plateau, s…