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
공주시
In Sangsin-ri, Banpo-myeon, on the northern slopes of Gyeryongsan in Gongju, Gyeryongsan Ceramics Village is a small community of working potters. It was founded in 1993 when 18 young ceramicists moved in together, and its members have sin…
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
포항시
In the lanes behind Guryongpo Port in Pohang, two-storey wooden houses built by Japanese fishing settlers in the 1920s and 1930s still stand in a row. With their lattice windows, white plaster walls and tiled roofs, they are a lived-in rec…
Old towns & squares
군산시
Along Haemang-ro beside Gunsan's inner harbour, bank and customs buildings from a century ago stand side by side. Opened as a treaty port in 1899, Gunsan became the harbour through which rice from the Honam plain was shipped to Japan, and…
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
At the southern tip of Namhae Island, where Seolheulsan and Eungbongsan drop straight into the sea, more than 100 tiers of rice paddies climb the slope like a giant staircase. These terraced fields, carved out of the hillside to win every…
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
대전광역시
South of Jungang-ro, the straight avenue that runs from Daejeon Station to the former South Chungcheong Provincial Office, Daeheung-dong was the heart of Daejeon for nearly 80 years. After the 1980s, when business moved to the new Dunsan d…
Old towns & squares
목포시
On the slopes of Yudalsan above Mokpo Port, the hill of Seosan-dong is laced with lanes and staircases too narrow for a car. Poems by residents and local poets hang on the walls, which is why it is called Sihwa ("poem and picture") Village…
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
부산
Cross the square in front of Busan Station to the far side of the main road and you step into lanes hung with red lanterns and Chinese signboards. This is Busan Chinatown, also called Shanghai Street, where Chinese residents began to settl…
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
안동시
When Andong Dam was built, houses, a government guesthouse and an ice store that would have disappeared under the reservoir were moved to a hillside above the Nakdong River and rebuilt. That hillside is Andong Folk Village. From thatched f…