Jangsaengpo Whale Museum

Jangsaengpo, once Ulsan's busiest whaling port, is home to Jangsaengpo Whale Museum, the only whale museum in Korea. Huge whale skeletons, whaling gear and models of the old whaling village tell the long story of whales and people here. The surrounding area is a dedicated whale culture zone, so the museum combines easily with a dolphinarium, a recreated whaling village and a monorail for a full day out.

From whaling port to whale museum

Jangsaengpo was the centre of Korean whaling, where whales caught off Ulsan were landed and cut up. When commercial whaling was banned in Korea in 1986, ships and tools lost their purpose; they were gathered here and a museum was built on the site of the old whaling base. It opened on 31 May 2005 and reopened in January 2018 after a complete renovation.

The museum has about 6,946 m² of floor space on three levels and a collection of more than 1,800 items. It covers whale biology as well as whaling history, with marine ecology material on protecting whale habitats.

What to see

• Whale skeletons: skeletons of several species, including a Bryde's whale and an orca, hang from the ceiling and make the animals' size startlingly real.
• Whaling history: whaling gear and models recreating old Jangsaengpo, where whales were butchered on the shore.
• The "ghost whale": an exhibition on the grey whale, known in Korean as the ghost whale, whose migration route once passed the coast off Ulsan.
• Whaling ship: a real whaling boat is on display outside the museum.

Around the whale culture zone

The museum is the centrepiece of the Jangsaengpo Whale Culture Special Zone. The Whale Ecology Experience Hall, Korea's first dolphinarium (opened 2009), has a tunnel beneath the pool for watching dolphins from below. There is also a whale culture village recreating the old whaling settlement, the retired warship Ulsan, and the Jangsaengpo monorail looping around the zone. Whale-watching cruises out into the sea off Ulsan also leave from here.

Good to know

• When it reopened in 2018, the new special exhibition hall opened with a show on the whales depicted in the Bangudae Petroglyphs.
• The zone is busy: in 2017 it drew about 960,000 visitors, around 210,000 of them to the whale museum.
• Other facilities keep different hours: Jangsaengpo Welli Kids Land and the monorail open 10:00–18:00, and the Jangsaengpo Culture Warehouse 10:00–21:00.

Tripto tips

• Hours: 09:00–18:00 (ticket sales end 17:30), closed Mondays and on Seollal and Chuseok days. When Monday is a public holiday, check the closure calendar.
• Admission: adults KRW 2,000, teenagers and soldiers KRW 1,500, children KRW 1,000. Other attractions in the zone charge separately.
• Guided tours: Korean-language tours for individual visitors on weekday afternoons at 14:30 and 15:30; morning tours are for groups only.
• Time needed: an hour for the museum, half a day with the dolphinarium and whale village.