From Andong, it was only a short 50min bus ride to Yeongju, a neighbouring city. The first place we headed for in Yeongju was Buseoksa Temple, probably the most famous attraction in Yeongju.
The Buseoksa Temple was built during the Silla Dynasty about 1400 years ago. It has since undergone many renovations but still preserve the most important buildings in the area. You will need to do a short hike up the temple from the entrance, and climb 108 stairs up to the main building of the temple.
To the left side of the main building Muryangsujeon, made in the Goryeo Dynasty, you can find the wishing rock.
After climbing past all these stairs, you will reach the Anyang Pavilion and the Muryangsujeon will be the building right in front of it.
After spending about 3 hours around Buseoksa, we went to Seonbichon Village (a.k.a Scholars Village) where we are staying for the night at the hanok houses. This village has a lot of historical significance in Korean confucianism, where many scholars stayed and passed by before heading to Hanyang (old Seoul).
At the Seonbichon Village, you can sign up for a variety of experiences such as the injeolmi-making class, cultural historical site tour and traditional wedding ceremony.
Injeolmi is a Korean traditional snack made of glutinous rice cafe covered in peanut powder. We really had fun hammering the injeolmi, cause the harder you hit, the more delicious it is.
If you are staying at Seonbichon for the night, you can head over to the Seonbichon food alley for dinner. All 3 restaurants here serve Korean-style dishes. Definitely try the seafood pancake (해물전) here cause it’s so good. They also serve ginseng makgeolli (rice wine) but the ginseng taste is kinda strong so be warned.
Our hanok was pretty decent, fitting 4 people into one room. Since we had almost 30 people we occupied the entire left quarters (no. 20 on the map below), which was somewhat isolated from the other buildings so we could make a lot of noise at night lol. The toilet is shared but it wasn’t that cold so it was okay moving in and out of the rooms to the toilet. Might think twice in winter though.
The next morning we went for the traditional Korean wedding experience and it was soooo fun. So we basically sent 2 of our members to wed, and they dressed in traditional wedding costumes and headgears. The ahjussi who was hosting the ceremony was really funny, cause he went through all the rites and got our manager Hyunseok to translate, but our manager tried to repeat after him for the chants and the ahjussi was like ‘YOU DON’T HAVE TO REPEAT THAT’ lololololol. The last part of the ceremony the groom has to piggyback the bride and it was so chaotic!! We took lots of pictures as well and it was quite an unforgettable memory.
Transportation
Take a bus from Seoul Express Bus Terminal (Central City) or Dong Seoul Bus Terminal to Yeongju Bus Terminal.
From Yeongju Bus Terminal, take bus 27 which passes by Seonbichon Village (Sosuseowon stop) and terminates at Buseoksa Temple.
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