South Korea

South Korea: Mount Seorak and Andong

The country's most spectacular granite massif, then a Confucian village preserved for six hundred years

South Korea

South Korea: Mount Seorak and Andong

A journey between two traditional sides of South Korea, far from Seoul and Gyeongju: Seoraksan National Park, a granite massif of jagged peaks and Buddhist temples clinging to the rock, considered the country's most spectacular, then Andong, a Confucian city whose Hahoe village, UNESCO-listed, has preserved traditional thatched- and tile-roofed house architecture for six hundred years.

When

April to May | Oct to Nov

Price

From 2 500€ excl. flights

(based on 2 people sharing)

How long

6 nights

Ideal length

Mount Seorak and its Temples

Days 1-2

The first chapter unfolds at Seoraksan National Park, an east-coast granite massif considered South Korea's most spectacular, whose jagged peaks are adorned each autumn with blazing colours that draw hikers from across the country. Sinheungsa Temple, founded in the 7th century and home to one of the country's largest bronze Buddhas, serves as the starting point for several trails leading to granite summits polished by erosion.

Day 1

Sinheungsa Temple and the cable car

A visit to Sinheungsa Temple and its great bronze Buddha, then a cable car ascent to a rocky outcrop offering a panoramic view over the peaks of Mount Seorak.

Day 2

A hike to Ulsanbawi

A hike to the rocky summit of Ulsanbawi, a granite formation with six distinct peaks, reached by a metal staircase set into the cliffside.

1 / 3

Andong and Hahoe Village

Days 1-2

The road to Andong, considered the heart of Korean Confucianism owing to the exceptional concentration of academies and scholarly clans that settled there from the 15th century onward. Hahoe Village, nestled in a bend of the Nakdong River and UNESCO-listed, retains traditional architecture of thatched- or tile-roofed houses arranged according to a Confucian social hierarchy still legible in the village layout.

Day 1

Hahoe Village and its ancestral houses

A visit to Hahoe Village, discovering the ancestral houses of the Ryu clans, and attendance at a performance of the traditional Hahoe mask dance, a centuries-old folk art on the intangible heritage list.

Day 2

The Confucian academies of Dosan

A visit to Dosan Seowon Confucian Academy, founded in the 16th century by one of Korea's greatest philosophers, in a wooded riverside setting conducive to meditation.