Cheongju: The World's Oldest Printed Book, a Mountain Fortress, and a Samgyeopsal Street

Cheongju is the capital of North Chungcheong province, in the middle of the country, about ninety minutes from Seoul. It is the kind of city foreign visitors never plan around — which is a shame, because it holds a genuine world first.

The oldest printed book in the world

In 1377, at Heungdeoksa temple in what is now Cheongju, monks printed the Jikji using movable metal type — 78 years before Gutenberg's Bible. UNESCO lists it in the Memory of the World register, and it is the oldest surviving book printed with metal type anywhere.

The original is in Paris, taken to France in the nineteenth century, which remains a live diplomatic sore point. Cheongju built the Early Printing Museum on the temple site to tell the story, and it does so well.

What else to see

• Sangdangsanseong Fortress. A stone mountain fortress on a ridge above the city, with about 4km of walkable wall, three gates, and a reservoir village inside. The circuit takes two hours and the view over the Cheongju plain is excellent. Free.
• Cheongnamdae. The former presidential summer retreat on Daecheong Lake, closed to the public until 2003 and now a park of gardens and lakeside paths. It's about 40 minutes out of town and needs half a day.
• Cheongju Art Complex. A former tobacco factory converted into a large contemporary art space, which hosts the Cheongju Craft Biennale.
• Suam Valley and Sangdang's old town, for the walk between the two.

What to eat

Cheongju's food is Chungcheong cooking: less spicy than Jeolla or Gyeongsang, quieter, built on soybean paste and grilled meat.

• Samgyeopsal. Cheongju has a dedicated samgyeopsal street beside Seomun Market — a whole row of restaurants grilling pork belly, most of them decades old. This is the city's defining meal and it is very good and very cheap.
• Bulgogi, Cheongju style. Marinated beef cooked with broth in a shallow pan so it finishes somewhere between a grill and a stew, usually with glass noodles. The old specialists near the downtown market are the ones to find.
• Butcher-shop beef. Saeng-gogi restaurants where you buy at the counter and grill at the table — Chungbuk raises good cattle and prices it accordingly.
• Cheongju sundae and gukbap from the market stalls.
• Chungcheong baekban. A set meal that leans on vegetables, tofu and doenjang rather than chili.

Practical tips

• Getting there: KTX to Osong Station (about 50 minutes from Seoul), then 20 minutes by bus or taxi into Cheongju. Express buses run directly from Seoul in about 100 minutes.
• Cheongju International Airport has domestic flights to Jeju and some regional international routes, which makes the city a useful hub.
• Sangdangsanseong has restaurants inside the walls doing mountain-vegetable set meals and baeksuk.
• Cheongnamdae limits vehicles — most visitors take the shuttle bus from the car park.
• The samgyeopsal street fills from 6pm. Go early or wait.

Each restaurant below has a video on its EatHub page, which matters on a street where twenty restaurants grill the same cut of pork.