Why Gyeongju, and a plan in six parts

This reading is a Korean-history field report: two nights and three days in Gyeongju, chosen, the writer says, because it is close to the large city of Busan, and because it keeps a long past — a Silla capital that lasted a thousand years, and a place they also call one of the world’s ten historic heritages, as the writer puts that claim. The aim was to see the old culture of the country at first hand.

Dates and lodging were fixed first: two nights at a Hanwha condo in Gyeongju. After a prior survey, the sites were divided into six districts. The city centre — Daereungwon, Cheomseongdae, Gyerim, Banwolseong, Gyeongju Hyanggyo, Anapji, the museum, Bunhwangsa, and a nearby school they name — could be walked. Namsan, they write, has been shown on the television programme 1 Night 2 Days; one can see Poseokjeong and Samneung, then walk the mountain among Buddhas and pagodas. The Bomun complex is more resort than ruin: hotels, pensions, a teddy-bear museum, Gyeongju World, Silla Millennium Park, and the Expo grounds. Fourth come Bulguksa and Seokguram, so well known, they say, that group tours are common. Fifth is Gampo, with King Munmu’s rock and the Gameunsa site, and a sunrise many visitors come for. Sixth is Yangdong Village, Joseon hanok well preserved, listed as World Heritage together with Hahoe, as written in this reading.

A timeline of the city, and days on the ground

Gyeongju, they write, was Saroguk of Jinhan in the Samhan period; in 57 BCE Park Hyeokgeose founded Seorabeol, and it continued as the Silla royal capital. It began to be called Gyeongju in the time of King Taejo of Goryeo; it was raised to Gyeongju-si in 1955, and in 1995 the city and the county were merged into a unified Gyeongju-si — years kept as set out in this reading down.

The party arrived about nine in the morning, and saw Cheonmachong, Cheomseongdae, and Anapji by night. On the second day they watched sunrise at King Munmu’s rock, about forty minutes from the lodging, and at Seokguram, about twenty minutes away. On the third they hiked from Namsan Samneung to Yongjanggye for some four hours. Gyeongju Expo Park, they write, has been open year-round from 1 April 2012, from 09:00 to 18:00, with an adult ticket at ₩7,000 as then recorded — a price and opening date left in that window, not as a later official total. Inside are a Silla culture hall, a sculpture park, a world fossil museum, and a 3-D gallery. Gyeongju Tower, 82 metres, takes its motif from Hwangnyongsa’s nine-storey wooden pagoda, with a lookout reached by a transparent lift, and a light show in the evening.

Bulguksa, Seokguram, Cheomseongdae, and a tomb on Songhwasan

Bulguksa, this reading writes, was begun by Kim Daeseong in 751 and finished in 774. Most of it burned in the Imjin War, and was later restored after excavations in 1969–1973. Its Dabotap and Seokgatap, and the bridges Cheongungyo, Baegungyo, Yeonhwagyo, and Chilbogyo, are named as national treasures; in December 1995 it was listed as UNESCO World Heritage together with Seokguram. Seokguram is National Treasure No. 24: a principal Buddha at the centre, forty figures carved, thirty-eight still remaining, and a circular main-hall ceiling built of some 360 stones.

Cheomseongdae is National Treasure No. 31, 9.17 metres high, its cylinder stacked in twenty-seven fan-shaped courses, thought to have been built in Queen Seondeok’s time, and called the oldest observatory in the East as put in this reading. The tomb of Kim Yu-sin, on a hill east of Songhwasan, is some thirty metres across, with the twelve zodiac animals carved on the surrounding stones, in the style of Unified Silla. In the closing, the writer says a visit to these sites is a way to learn the wisdom of earlier generations, and to find a little ease in a busy life. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. This reading, a student field report of two nights in Gyeongju, with years and a ticket price left in the window of the visit.

Last updated: 15 November 2026