🎧 Yul's Korea Audio Guide
Jeonju Hanok Village & Gyeonggijeon
Narrated in English with Korean phrases by YUL of KVIBE IDOLS.
🎵 Background music: Still in That Spring (그 봄에 머물러) — KVIBE IDOLS · Listen to the full song →
Full transcript
Annyeong, yeoreobun! It's Yul from KVIBE IDOLS. Today we're in Jeonju, walking through a village of more than eight hundred hanok, traditional Korean houses with curved tiled roofs. And this town was the hometown of a whole dynasty.
Why? Because the royal Yi family of the Joseon dynasty traced its roots to Jeonju. So in 1410, a shrine called Gyeonggijeon was built here to hold the portrait of King Taejo, Yi Seong-gye, the founder of Joseon. That portrait is now a National Treasure.
Now the plot twist. Jeonju also kept one of the royal archives for the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, the day-by-day record of the kings. When Japanese armies invaded in 1592, the copies in Seoul, Chungju and Seongju all burned. Only Jeonju's copy survived. How? Two local scholars, Ahn Ui and Son Hong-rok, carried the books up into the mountains of Naejangsan and took turns guarding them. Daebak!
Jeonju became a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy in 2012, and it's famous for Jeonju bibimbap: rice cooked in beef broth, topped with bean sprouts, vegetables and gochujang. Bibim means mixing, bap means rice. So mix it like you mean it!
Yul's tip! Rent a hanbok and walk the alleys early in the morning, before the crowds. Climb up to Omokdae for a view over the rooftops, and don't miss Jeondong Cathedral, finished in 1914, right at the edge of the village.
Next, we're heading into a forest that whispers when the wind blows. Kaja!
