Wonju: A Suspension Bridge Over a Gorge, a Tadao Ando Museum, and Mountain Food

Wonju is the largest city in Gangwon Province and the first real stop on the KTX line east from Seoul — about an hour, which makes it one of the most underrated day trips in the country. It sits where the plains end and the Taebaek mountains begin, and both of its headline attractions make use of that.

What to see

• Sogeumsan Grand Valley. A suspension footbridge 200 meters long and 100 meters above a gorge, with a second, longer "Ulleong Bridge" beyond it, a cliff-edge walkway, and a zip line. It is genuinely vertiginous and genuinely spectacular, and it turned a quiet mountain into one of Gangwon's busiest sites almost overnight.
• Museum SAN. A Tadao Ando building on a ridge outside the city — a sequence of concrete and stone volumes set among water gardens and a stone field, holding a paper museum, a James Turrell installation, and a meditation hall. It is one of the best pieces of architecture in Korea and worth the trip on its own.
• Guryongsa Temple and Chiaksan National Park. A serious mountain park on the city's eastern edge, with a temple in a valley of old pines.
• Wonju Hanji Theme Park. Wonju is a traditional centre of hanji, Korean mulberry paper, and the museum lets you make a sheet yourself.

What to eat

Wonju eats like inland Gangwon: buckwheat, potato, freshwater fish, and beef.

• Chueotang. Loach soup — freshwater fish simmered and ground into a thick, peppery broth with vegetables. It's a Wonju staple and the specialists here are long-established.
• Makguksu and kalguksu. Cold buckwheat noodles and hot hand-cut wheat noodles, the two poles of Gangwon noodle eating.
• Hanwoo and charcoal grill. Gangwon beef, cooked plainly over charcoal.
• Hoe with chojang. Raw fish served with a sweet-sour red sauce rather than soy — the inland Korean way, and the chojang-jip restaurants that specialize in it are a regional format you won't find in Seoul.
• Makgeolli and local brewing. Wonju has a small but serious craft rice-wine scene, including a brewery you can visit and drink at.
• Bunsik. Old snack shops in the downtown market area, several of them local institutions.

How to plan the day

Museum SAN in the morning, when the light is on the water gardens and the crowds are thin; lunch in the city; Sogeumsan in the afternoon. The two are about 40 minutes apart, so a taxi between them is the practical option unless you're driving.

Practical tips

• Getting there: KTX to Manjong Station (about an hour from Cheongnyangni), then a bus or taxi. Wonju Station on the older line is closer to the downtown market.
• Sogeumsan requires a timed ticket on busy days and involves a long staircase before the bridge.
• Museum SAN closes Mondays and the Turrell and meditation-hall programs are separately ticketed and time-slotted.
• Chiaksan is steep. It has a reputation among Korean hikers for being harder than its height suggests.
• Wonju is cold. Inland Gangwon runs several degrees below Seoul in winter.

Each restaurant below has a video on its EatHub page, which is the fastest way to see what a chojang-jip actually serves before you sit down in one.