East coast · Yangyang, Gangwon
낙산해수욕장
Four kilometres of sand with a pine forest behind and a clifftop temple above.
Naksan runs for about four kilometres, backed by pine woods that keep it feeling less built-up than the beaches further south.
Naksansa, founded in 671, stands on the headland at the northern end, with a tall white statue of Gwanseeum-bosal looking out to sea and a pavilion built on the rocks below it.
What else is here
Naksan is a good wide beach with an unusually good temple on the headland at its northern end — one of the most important Buddhist sites in Korea, and one of the very few built to look at the sea.
Founded 671
Established by the monk Uisang in 671 after a vision of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. It sits on the cliff above the beach, and it is one of only a handful of Korean temples oriented towards the water rather than into a mountain.
Getting there: A 20-minute walk north along the beach, then up.
Sixteen metres of granite
A white stone Avalokiteshvara standing on the headland, finished in 1977, looking out to sea. It survived the 2005 forest fire that destroyed much of the temple below it.
The hermitage over the water
A tiny hall built out on the rocks below the temple, with a small opening in the floor through which you can see the sea moving underneath. Easy to miss and the best thing here.
Early May to the end of August
Naksan has a beach campsite in the pines behind the sand, open across a longer season than the swimming — usually from early May to the end of August. Pitches are a mix of car spaces and tent decks, with showers and a cooking area.
Korea's surf coast
Yangyang has become the centre of Korean surfing, and Jukdo beach a few kilometres south is where most of the schools and board hire are. Naksan itself is calmer and better for swimming.
2005
In April 2005 a forest fire driven by the spring winds came over the ridge and burned through Naksansa. Most of the wooden buildings went, including the bell pavilion and a bronze bell cast in 1469, which melted. The headland was left black.
The temple was rebuilt over the following four years, largely to the old plans, and the pine woods have grown back enough that you have to know to look for the fire. The rebuilt bell hangs where the old one did. Korean visitors come partly for this — it is a place that is understood to have been lost and recovered.
The beach below is ordinary in the best sense: wide, clean, gently shelving, and quieter than Gyeongpo an hour south. Swimming is usually permitted from the first week of July to around 20 August, and the water is off-limits after 6pm even in season.
Gyeongpo Beach
Gangneung's big, easy beach — white sand, a lake behind it and a KTX from Seoul.
Hajodae Beach
Turquoise water, very few people, and Korea's surf scene a few minutes up the road.
Jeongdongjin Beach
The railway station sits on the sand — and people ride the night train out for the sunrise.