Buyeo: The Baekje Capital

Getting to the start

Intercity bus from Seoul (Nambu Terminal or Central City) to Buyeo. The town is small — the fortress entrance is a little over a kilometre from the terminal, about fifteen minutes on foot. Being able to walk the whole town is what makes this course work.

The route

1. 1

   Busosanseong Fortress

   Buyeo · 1h 40m

   The fortress that guarded Sabi, Baekje's last capital, and part of the UNESCO-listed Baekje Historic Areas. It reads more as forest path than rampart; a full circuit takes a little over an hour. Nakhwaam cliff and Goransa temple, both above the Baengma River, are inside it. A pleasure boat leaves from the riverbank.

   Official site →
2. Walk30m

   A little over 2km south from the fortress gate, straight through the town centre — about thirty minutes on foot. It is flat, and a taxi covers it in five if you would rather not walk. The lotuses flower from mid-July into early August.

   2

   Gungnamji Pond

   Buyeo · 1h

   The oldest man-made pond recorded in Korea, named in the twelfth-century Samguk Sagi. Lotus beds now fill the ground around it, so mid-July to early August — when they flower — is overwhelming, and the rest of the year it is a quiet walk. It is lit at night.

   

Map

• Busosanseong Fortress →
• Gungnamji Pond →

Good to do next

• Gongju: The Royal Tomb & Its MuseumGongju · Half day

  A Baekje royal tomb found unlooted, and the museum holding what came out of it. The empty chamber you see at one gets filled in at the other.

• Gongju: Gongsanseong FortressGongju · Half day

  The royal fortress from Baekje's Ungjin capital period. The 2.6km wall above the Geum River takes a little over an hour to walk round.

• Magoksa Temple, GongjuGongju · Half day

  One of the seven mountain monasteries inscribed by UNESCO. A stream loops around the compound, and you cross a bridge to reach the main courtyard.