Gangneung
East Coast City; Co Host Of The 2018 Winter Olympics Ice Events; The Gangneung Danoje Festival Is UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage · Gangneung, Gangwon
The largest city on Korea's east coast in Gangwon, set between the Taebaek mountains and the open East Sea, about two hours from Seoul by KTX. Gangneung is a beach city with deep roots: its long sandy shore runs from Gyeongpo Beach and its lagoon lake past the cafes of Anmok to the fishing port and breakwater of Jumunjin, where drama fans pose on the pier from the series Goblin. Inland, Ojukheon is the birthplace of the Joseon scholar Yulgok Yi I and his mother, the painter Sin Saimdang, the faces on the 5,000 and 50,000 won notes, and Seongyojang is one of the grandest surviving aristocratic houses in Korea. The city hosted the ice events of the 2018 Winter Olympics, and its Danoje festival, held around the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, is on UNESCO's list of intangible heritage. Gangneung is also Korea's coffee capital, with roasteries along the sea, and food lovers come for sundubu tofu made with seawater in Chodang village and fried chicken from Jungang Market. Jeongdongjin, just south, is famous for sunrise.
Gyeongpo Beach, Gangmun-dong, Gangneung, Gangwon, 25467, South Korea
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the beaches and lake path are open at all hours, with swimming only in the official season, roughly July to August, in the daytime. Ojukheon and Seongyojang open about 9 am to 6 pm, earlier closing in winter, with last entry about an hour before; Ojukheon may close on some holidays. Jungang Market runs from morning to early evening. Cafes on the coffee street open late into the evening. Traps: sold-out KTX trains on summer weekends; swimming banned outside the season; sunrise hidden by sea cloud; Chodang restaurants closed in the evening; Danoje missed by a week because the lunar date moved.