Discover verified old towns & squares — descriptions, map and practical info.
Old towns & squares
부산
Gamcheon Culture Village is a hillside neighbourhood in Saha District, Busan, whose houses climb the slopes of Cheonmasan in terraces like a staircase. Pastel houses, maze-like alleys and murals and art pieces at every turn have made it on…
Old towns & squares
경주시
Between Wolseong and the Namcheon stream in Gyeongju lies a village of low tiled-roof houses. Gyochon grew up around the site of Silla's national academy, later the local Confucian school, and its name simply means "the village with the hy…
Old towns & squares
경주시
Yangdong Folk Village sits on the slopes of Seolchangsan in Gangdong-myeon, about 20 km north-east of central Gyeongju. Two clans, the Gyeongju Son and the Yeogang (Yeoju) Yi, have lived side by side here for nearly 600 years, cooperating…
Old towns & squares
경주시
Behind a wall you can see the grassy mounds of Silla royal tombs, and along the street in front of them runs a line of cafés, bakeries and photo studios under hanok tile roofs. Hwangnidan-gil follows Poseok-ro through Hwangnam-dong in Gyeo…
Old towns & squares
광주
Walk into the lanes of Wolgok-dong in Gwangju's Gwangsan district and Cyrillic signs hang right next to Korean ones. Koryoin Village is a community of Koryo-saram, descendants of ethnic Koreans who lived across the former Soviet Union, and…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
Gwanghwamun Square stretches south along Sejong-daero from Gwanghwamun, the main gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace, and is Seoul's best-known public square. It occupies the site of Yukjo-geori, the "Street of Six Ministries" lined with governme…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
A few steps from Chungmuro Station the office blocks give way to tiled roofs and earthen walls. Namsangol Hanok Village, on the northern slope of Namsan, is a group of five Joseon-era hanok, traditional Korean houses, moved here and restor…
Old towns & squares
남해군
White walls and orange roofs cluster on a hillside above the sea in Namhae. At first glance Namhae German Village looks like a European-themed resort, but it was built by Korean miners and nurses who went to work in West Germany in the 196…
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…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
Buam-dong is a neighbourhood of Jongno-gu tucked into the valley between Inwangsan and Bugaksan. Being so close to the former presidential compound, it spent decades under military and green-belt restrictions, so there are almost no tall b…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
Bukchon Hanok Village is a neighbourhood of traditional houses on the hill between Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung palaces and Jongmyo Shrine in Jongno District, Seoul. Tiled roofs step up the slopes of Gahoe-dong, Samcheong-dong, Wonseo-d…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
Seochon is an old Seoul neighbourhood between the western wall of Gyeongbokgung Palace and Inwangsan Mountain. Its name means "west village", and behind the palace wall you will find hanok alleys, a small market and houses where painters a…
Old towns & squares
속초시
There is no ferryman on board: passengers hook iron bars onto a steel cable and pull. About five minutes and some 50 m of water later, you step off in Abai Village. This corner of Cheongho-dong in Sokcho was built on a sandbar by refugees…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
Sinsa-dong Garosu-gil is a two-lane street in Gangnam that runs from Dosan-daero near Sinsa Station to the junction in front of Hyundai High School. Its name simply means "tree-lined street": about 160 ginkgo trees stand along both sides,…
Old towns & squares
아산시
Thatched cottages and tiled mansions linked by stone-walled lanes climb the foot of Seolhwasan at Oeam, a Joseon-era aristocratic village that is still lived in. Since the village took shape around 500 years ago it has been home to the Yea…
Old towns & squares
안동시
Hahoe Folk Village is a traditional clan village in Andong, wrapped in an S-shaped bend of the Nakdong River – the name itself means "river turning back". The Pungsan Ryu clan has lived here for almost 600 years, tiled-roof mansions stand…
Old towns & squares
광주
On Yangnimsan hill, across the Gwangjucheon stream, red-brick Western houses stand side by side with tiled hanok. When American Southern Presbyterian missionaries settled here in 1904, Yangnim-dong became known as "the Western village" and…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
East of Daehangno, on the slope just below Naksan Park, Ihwa Mural Village is a tangle of stairways and alleys that became Seoul's best-known mural village after a public art project in 2006 painted its walls and steps. Many works have sin…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
Just north of Jongno 3-ga Station, a patch of low tiled roofs is squeezed between office towers. Ikseon-dong is one of the oldest clusters of hanok in Seoul, and its alleys, often barely wide enough for two people, are now lined with cafés…
Old towns & squares
서울특별시
Brushes and hanji paper, old ceramics and quiet tea houses all share one street. Insa-dong has been at the heart of Seoul since the Joseon dynasty, and today its main street and side alleys are lined with craft shops, galleries and tea roo…
Old towns & squares
인천광역시
Incheon Chinatown grew up after the port of Incheon opened in 1883 and a Qing Chinese concession was set up the following year, making it the oldest ethnic Chinese neighbourhood in Korea. It is known as the place where jajangmyeon, the bla…
Old towns & squares
전주시
More than 700 tile-roofed houses are packed together in the middle of a modern city. Jeonju Hanok Village is the largest cluster of traditional houses still standing in a Korean city centre, and as you wander its lanes you pass the portrai…
Old towns & squares
서귀포시
Black basalt walls wind along the lanes, low thatched roofs crouch behind them, and in the middle of the village stands a zelkova with a trunk five metres round. Seongeup was the seat of Jeongui-hyeon, one of the three districts into which…
Old towns & squares
통영시
Behind Jungang Market, Tongyeong's best-known fish market, small houses cling to the hillside: this is Dongpirang. It was nearly lost to redevelopment, but murals painted on its walls drew visitors, public opinion swung behind saving it, a…