Chungbuk
Chungcheong
Steve46814 · CC BY-SA 3.0
The only landlocked province, trading coastline for limestone peaks, clear rivers and national-treasure temples.
North Chungcheong is Korea's only inland province, and that shapes everything: rivers and lakes instead of fishing ports, limestone karst instead of beaches. Danyang has three rock stacks mid-river, caves full of formations and a skywalk on a cliff. Songnisan holds the only five-storey wooden pagoda left in the country. Cheongju, the provincial capital, is where the world's oldest book printed with movable metal type was made, nearly eighty years before Gutenberg.
Best time to visit: May–June and October–November
Local specialties
- Danyang garlic dishes
- Songnisan mushroom rice
- Chungbuk rice wine
Places (10)
Dodamsambong Peaks, Danyang
Three limestone stacks standing mid-river, painted and repainted for six centuries.
Sobaeksan National Park
A ridge covered in royal azalea in June, and an observatory on a summit because the sky here is the country's clearest.
Cheongnamdae Presidential Villa
A presidential retreat kept secret for twenty years, opened to the public in 2003.
Guinsa Temple
A temple complex stacked in storeys up a narrow ravine — nothing like Korea's older monasteries.
Cheongju Early Printing Museum
Where the world's oldest book printed with movable metal type was made — 78 years before Gutenberg.
Gosu Cave, Danyang
A tight limestone cave of crawling and climbing, with formations named for a Buddha's hand and a lion.
Chungju Lake & Sightseeing Ferry
Korea's largest inland reservoir, with a two-hour boat running between sheer limestone walls.
Songnisan & Beopjusa Temple
Korea's only surviving five-storey wooden pagoda, beside a 33-metre gilded bronze Buddha.
Mancheonha Skywalk, Danyang
A glass deck out over a cliff eighty metres up, looking straight down at the Namhan river bend.
Jungangtap Pagoda, Chungju
Korea's tallest stone pagoda, raised at what Silla reckoned to be the centre of its territory.