Yeosu
Port City On The South Coast; Host Of Expo 2012 · Yeosu, South Jeolla
A port city on a ragged peninsula of South Jeolla's south coast, looking out over a sea scattered with more than 300 islands. Yeosu is where Admiral Yi Sun-sin kept his left naval headquarters and where turtle ships were built before the Japanese invasions of the 1590s, and Jinnamgwan, the vast wooden hall raised on that site in 1599, is a National Treasure. The city hosted Expo 2012, and the same year the band Busker Busker's song Yeosu Night Sea made its harbour lights famous across Korea; the evening view of the lit Dolsan bridge, the waterfront tent bars of the Romantic Pocha and the glass-floored cabins of the maritime cable car are now the city's signature. By day, Odongdo island, reached by a long causeway, is covered in camellias that bloom red from winter into early spring, and Hyangiram hermitage clings to the cliffs of Dolsan above the sea for sunrise. Yeosu is also one of Korea's great seafood towns, known for soy-marinated crab and Dolsan's peppery gat kimchi, and a gateway by ferry to Geomundo and the southern islands.
Odongdo, Sujeong-dong, Yeosu, South Jeolla, 59735, South Korea
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the maritime cable car runs from about 9 am to 9 or 10 pm, later on summer weekends, with last boarding about 30 minutes before closing, and stops in strong winds. Odongdo is open daily, with the road train running from morning to early evening. Hyangiram opens before dawn for sunrise and closes in the evening. The Romantic Pocha tents open in the late afternoon and trade until late. Jinnamgwan's opening depends on restoration. Traps: the cable car stopped by wind; hour-long weekend queues at sunset; the Big-O show not running; ferries cancelled by weather; missing the last KTX to Seoul.