Jeonju

Jeonju (전주) is a small city in the mid-western part of South Korea. It was the capital during the Hubaekje kingdom and was considered the spiritual capital during the Joseon dynasty. Jeonju is most famous for its delicious food.

While it is a small town, Jeonju offers many things to do. The most famous of these is eating. Jeonju is famous for bibimbab (비빔밥) and soybean sprout soup (콩나물국밥, ‘kongnamool gukbap’). Jeonju is so famous for its food that people from all over Korean come just to eat Jeonju delicacies.

Jeonju is home to a famous Hanok village, the Jeonju Hanok Village (전주한옥마을). The Hanok village is home to traditional constructed houses with many shops selling traditional goods and foods. Sprawling over a distance of about 1 ½ square miles and about 800 traditional houses, the Hanok village is absolutely huge.

The village is home to many local artists who own a shop or booth along the street. It is also home to many mom and pop restaurants, traditional Korean hotels, and museums. The most popular things to eat in the Hanok village are soybean sprout soup, patbingsu (팟빙수), which is a delicious red bean ice cream dessert, and  Igang wine, Jeonju’s traditional makkeolli.

Pictured is Soybean Sprout Soup and Jeonju Makkeolli

My recommendation is to walk around the village until you get hot, then go to "Grandmother's Best" (외할머니 솜씨) for some of the best patbingsu you'll ever have. Grandmother's Best is quite popular, and the line is often times quite long, so it's best to just take the patbingsu to-go. If you take your patbingsu to-go, go eat it at Jeonju Hyanggyo (전주향교), Jeonju's Confucian school. The school is a couple hundred years old and is a beautiful campus to walk around. The school is open to the public to walk around during the day. Just be remember to respectful and quite when you're at the school because class is in session during open walking hours. 

After eating your patbingsu, go back to the village, and walk around some more. Visit the Jeongdong Cathedral (전동성당), one of Korea’s oldest Catholic churches and famous for its classic Spanish architecture. Then browse the outdoor booths looking at the local artists’ work. Once you work up an appetite, go sit down for lunch/dinner and eat some soybean sprout soup with some traditional Jeonju makkeolli.

Jeonju, outside of the Hanok village, is a great city. The downtown area has a great shopping area with many cute and fashionable clothes that would please any fashionista/cheapskate. It’s also home to a lotus pond and water fountain that turns into a movie screen at night.

Playing Roy Kim's "봄봄봄" ('Bom Bom Bom', 'Sping Spring Spring')

Jeonju is an absolutely beautiful city home to some of the nicest people I have met during my time in Korea. If you are a foodie or just love to travel, make sure to stop by Jeonju. Just a word of warning, not many Jeonju residents speak English or speak English well, so if you don’t speak Korean, make sure to bring a dictionary!

Seokguram

Seokguram  (석구람) is a mountain side grotto that contains a 1,000+ year old Buddha statue. The Buddha, carved into the granite mountain side, is considered to be one of the greatest examples of Silla dynasty Buddhist art. Seokguram is considered to be a part of the Bulguksa temple complex, but it is theorized that historically that the Seokguram grotto was used primarily by Silla royalty.

Driving up to Seokguram is one of the most beautiful drives I’ve seen in Korea. As you wind around the mountain, you are greeted with long fields of green and mountains dotting the horizon. If you suffer from car sickness, be prepared; the road up to the grotto is long and twisty.

Once you have arrived, there are several viewpoints to see some of the stunning scenery. Make sure to bring your camera!

 At the entrance, there is a large bell which can be rung for good luck. To ring the bell, they ask for a 1,000 won donation to the temple. Even if you don’t want to donate or ring the bell, the view from the bell house is quite amazing, so donate the 1,000 won and check it out.

 The log is heavier than it looks!

To get to the grotto, you must first take a 15-20 minute hike. Don’t worry though, like everything before, the view is to die for. Once you reach the grotto site, the area is filled with hundreds of colorful lanterns. During Buddha’s birthday, there are even more lanterns near the grotto.

Unfortunately, due to issues with preservation, the grotto itself is not often open to the public. There are a few days a year where you can actually go inside the grotto (one of which is Buddha’s birthday). If you can enter the grotto, you first you must take off your shoes. Once inside, there are mats where you can pray to Buddha if you so choose. However, cameras are not allowed due to the fragile nature of the grotto. If you visit on a day in which the grotto is not open, you can still see it from the outside.

Once you leave the grotto, you can continue on to see the small Seokguram temple. While modest, any fan of Asian architecture will be happy to see the classically designed wooden buildings. As we visited on Buddha’s birthday, the temple was giving out free bibimbap (비빔밥) (actually, most Buddhist temples do this on Buddha’s birthday).

Since we visited on Buddha’s birthday, entry to the grotto was free, but on regular days, the temple costs 4,000 to enter. To get to Seokguram, you can take a car, taxi, or bus (Bus 12 from Bulguksa Temple). The ride up to the grotto takes roughly 30 minutes depending on the traffic. You also have the option of hiking from Bulguksa Temple to the grotto. The hike is about 4 kilometers and takes roughly 2 hours to complete.