53 attractions in South Jeolla, including Songgwangsa Temple, Naganeupseong Walled Town and Suncheon Open Film Set.
Churches & monasteries
순천시
Songgwangsa stands on the slopes of Jogyesan in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, and is the head temple of the 21st district of the Jogye Order. Together with Tongdosa (the Buddha) and Haeinsa (the Dharma) it is one of Korea's Three Jewel…
Fortresses
순천시
From the top of the wall you look down on hundreds of rounded thatched roofs huddled in a plain below the hills. Naganeupseong was the seat of Nagan County in the Joseon period, and it is one of very few places where the walls, the governm…
Theme parks
순천시
Step into an alley of slate-roofed shacks crowded along a hillside and you could be standing in a 1970s Seoul hillside slum. Suncheon Open Film Set (Suncheon Drama Set) recreates Korean streets and neighbourhoods of the 1960s to 1980s and…
Churches & monasteries
순천시
Walk up the stream through the woods and a semicircular stone bridge suddenly frames a pavilion like a picture in a window. Seonamsa in Suncheon is often remembered for that single view, but inside you will find wooden halls with faded pai…
Gardens & parks
순천시
Suncheon built a garden to protect its bay. Organisers said the main purpose of the expo was to preserve the mudflats and reed beds of Suncheon Bay. Suncheon Bay National Garden grew out of the site of the 2013 Suncheon Bay International G…
Nature
순천시
Tall reeds stretch endlessly over the mudflats where river meets sea, and a channel winds through them in a perfect S. Suncheon Bay Wetland Reserve is the showcase of Korea's southern coastal wetlands, where boardwalks take you right into…
Fortresses
순천시
About 10 km southeast of central Suncheon, on a low hill above Gwangyang Bay, stands a stone wall of an unfamiliar shape. This is a waeseong, a castle built by Japanese troops in 1597 during the second invasion of Korea, and the final act…
Coast & islands
신안군
Some 115 km southwest of Mokpo, Hongdo owes its name, Red Island, to the way its rocks glow at sunset. The whole island is a protected Natural Monument within Dadohaehaesang National Park, and a boat trip around its sheer cliffs and sculpt…
Coast & islands
여수시
Three small islands stand around a stretch of sea like a folding screen. The water inside is deep and calm enough for large ships, and that natural harbour drew the attention of the great powers in the 19th century. The Royal Navy called i…
Historic sites & memorials
여수시
In Sijeon-dong, Yeosu, between apartment blocks, a stone-walled basin still fills with seawater. This was a shipyard from the Goryeo period onwards and is known as the place where Admiral Yi Sun-sin and General Na Dae-yong built turtle shi…
Historic sites & memorials
여수시
On a hill in Yeosu's old town, Jinnamgwan is Korea's largest single-storey wooden government building, a hall held up by a forest of pillars. It stands on the site of the Jeolla Left Naval Command, Admiral Yi Sun-sin's headquarters during…
Viewpoints
여수시
This cable car swings across Yeosu's harbour, linking the mainland with Dolsando island. The Yeosu Maritime Cable Car connects Jasan Park, by the entrance to Odongdo, with Dolsan Park, and it was the first cable car in Korea to cross the s…
Churches & monasteries
여수시
Heungguksa sits in a wooded valley halfway up Yeongchwisan in Yeosu. Its name expresses the idea that "when the nation prospers the temple prospers, and when the temple prospers so does the nation", and during the Imjin War it housed and t…
Churches & monasteries
영암군
Dogapsa, on the south-western slopes of Wolchulsan in Yeongam, is said to have been founded by Doseon, Korea's great master of geomancy. Its entrance gate, Haetalmun, was built in 1473 and is a National Treasure, the oldest building in the…
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…
Mountains & peaks
영암군
A rock mountain bursts out of the surrounding farmland, its peaks as sharp as flames. Wolchulsan, straddling Yeongam and Gangjin counties, means "the mountain where the moon rises". Its highest peak, Cheonhwangbong (809 m or 810.7 m, depen…
Churches & monasteries
장성군
At the end of a forest path a wide pond appears, and in it a two-storey pavilion and the white rock peak behind it are reflected upside down. Baegyangsa in Jangseong draws photographers every autumn for that one view. The temple and Baekha…
Historic sites & memorials
장성군
Piramseowon is a Confucian academy founded to honour the scholarship and virtue of Kim In-hu (1510–1560), a Neo-Confucian scholar of the mid-Joseon period. Kim was the only scholar from the Honam region ever enshrined in the National Confu…
Gardens & parks
담양군
Right next to the centre of Damyang, a whole hillside is covered in bamboo. Juknokwon is a bamboo garden that Damyang County planted across Seonginsan and opened in May 2003, with walking paths winding between stems so tall and straight th…
Coast & islands
진도군
A few times a year, at low tide, the sea parts and a 2.8 km path appears between two islands. Jindo, Korea's third-largest island, is known for this "Miracle Sea Road", for Admiral Yi Sun-sin's Battle of Myeongnyang and for the Jindo dog.…
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…
Churches & monasteries
해남군
Down in Haenam, at the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, a long forest path follows a valley of Duryunsan to a spacious temple ringed by peaks. Daeheungsa is where the robe and bowl of Seosan Daesa, the monk who led warrior monks in th…