Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Gardens & parks
완도군
On Bogildo, an island in the sea south of Wando, survives the garden that the Joseon poet Yun Seondo (pen name Gosan) shaped with his own hands over more than a decade. He dammed a stream to make ponds and set pavilions on the natural rock…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Boramae Park covers about 41 hectares across Dongjak-gu and Gwanak-gu in southwest Seoul, on the former site of the Korea Air Force Academy. Between the wide lawns, ponds and musical fountain stands the "Air Park", a group of retired milit…
Coast & islands
보령시
About two and a half hours from Seoul by train, halfway down the west coast, a beach so long you can barely see its end stretches along the shore. Daecheon Beach is the largest beach on Korea's west coast, about 3.5 km long and 100 m wide.…
Churches & monasteries
보령시
Head east from central Boryeong into the valleys of Seongjusan and you reach a wide lawn ringed by mountains, with four stone pagodas standing in a row. This is the site of Seongjusa, once one of the great Zen monasteries of Silla. Its hal…
Fortresses
보령시
On a hill behind Ocheon Harbour in Boryeong stand the stone walls of what was once the naval headquarters of Joseon's Chungcheong Province. The fortress looks out over the mouth of Cheonsu Bay, so from the walls you take in the sea, the is…
Mountains & peaks
대전광역시
Rising along the southern edge of downtown Daejeon, Bomunsan is a 457.6 m city mountain and one of the Eight Views of Daejeon. Climb to the old Baekje fortress near the top and the whole city spreads out below you. Its biggest advantage is…
Gardens & parks
보성군
Rows of tea bushes climb the hillsides of Bongsan-ri in Boseong at Daehan Dawon, the largest tea plantation in Boseong and its best-known tourist estate. Past an avenue of towering cedars, whole slopes open up like green staircases, and fr…
Historic sites & memorials
서울특별시
Every year at midnight on 31 December, the bell pavilion that appears on Korean television screens is Bosingak. This two-storey pavilion stands at the main crossroads of Jongno in central Seoul, and during the Joseon dynasty its bell signa…
Churches & monasteries
보은군
Beopjusa, founded in 553 at the foot of Songnisan, is the head temple of the 5th district of the Jogye Order and home to Palsangjeon, the only wooden pagoda in Korea to survive in its historic form. With three National Treasures and more t…
Fortresses
보은군
On the slopes of Ojeongsan above the town of Boeun, Samnyeonsanseong still raises Silla stone walls that are more than 1,500 years old. Standing below them, you look up at ramparts 13 to 20 metres high and get a real sense of what a Three…
Nature
보은군
In the middle of the road to Beopjusa Temple on Songnisan, a great pine leans its branches on iron props. Jeongipumsong is famous for a legend that a Joseon king gave it the second senior rank, the grade of a government minister. Estimated…
Churches & monasteries
서울특별시
A short climb from the Sinchon university district towards Ansan brings you to Bongwonsa, a temple with more than a thousand years of history. It is the head temple of the Taego Order of Korean Buddhism and the guardian of Yeongsanjae, a r…
Churches & monasteries
서울특별시
Bongeunsa stands on the slopes of Sudosan in Samseong-dong, Gangnam, directly across the road from COEX. Tiled roofs and pine trees in the middle of a forest of glass towers make a striking contrast. Together with nearby Seonjeongneung, it…
Churches & monasteries
안동시
Bongjeongsa sits on the slopes of Cheondeungsan in Andong, North Gyeongsang, and is home to Geungnakjeon, regarded as the oldest wooden building in Korea. Both Geungnakjeon and the main hall, Daeungjeon, are National Treasures, and in 2018…
Historic sites & memorials
김해시
Bongha Village in Jinyeong-eup, Gimhae, is where Roh Moo-hyun, Korea's 16th president, was born, where he returned to live after leaving office, and where he died on 23 May 2009. It is an ordinary farming village known for sweet persimmons…
Mountains & peaks
봉화군
Twelve rock peaks rise like a folding screen above the upper Nakdonggang River at Cheongnyangsan, long nicknamed "the little Diamond Mountains". At 870 m it is not high, but every peak is ringed with cliffs, so the scenery changes constant…
Historic sites & memorials
부산
At first glance the 40-Step Stairway in Jungang-dong, Jung-gu, is just a flight of stone steps between buildings, but for people in Busan it is a symbol of the Korean War years. During the war, refugees built shacks around here and toiled…
Other
부산
Narrow lanes hung with clothes and bags branch off endlessly under the awnings, and at every corner a food stall has set out low stools. Gukje Market kept Busan's people fed and clothed through liberation and the Korean War, and today it i…
Coast & islands
부산
Spread across the very end of the Nakdong River estuary, Dadaepo Beach is Busan's classic place to watch the sun set over the sea. Fine sand carried down by the river forms a beach 900 m long and 100 m wide, and the water is so shallow tha…
Historic sites & memorials
부산
On a grassy rise by the sea on the east side of Yeongdo Island, layer upon layer of shells discarded by Neolithic people over thousands of years lie under the turf. It looks like an ordinary lawn, yet this is one of the oldest and largest…
Coast & islands
부산
At the southernmost tip of the Nakdong River estuary, where it meets the open sea, a small pine-covered peninsula forms Morundae. It was an island until the 16th century, when sand carried down by the river linked it to Dadaepo. The name m…
Churches & monasteries
부산
Beomeosa sits on the eastern slopes of Geumjeongsan in Cheongnyong-dong, Geumjeong-gu, Busan. It is the head temple of the 14th District of the Jogye Order and, with Haeinsa in Hapcheon and Tongdosa in Yangsan, is counted among the three g…
Old towns & squares
부산
Narrow lanes wind between faded stacks of books piled to the ceiling at Bosu-dong Book Street, the oldest second-hand book alley in Korea. It began as a street stall where a refugee couple sold used books laid out on cardboard boxes during…
Coast & islands
부산
About 3 km west of Jagalchi Market, a sandy beach curves around a bay lined with hotels and apartment towers. Songdo Beach opened in 1913 as Korea's first beach resort and celebrated its centenary in 2013. These days more people come for t…