Marine park · South Jeolla, South Gyeongsang
한려해상국립공원
Korea's first marine park, along the south coast from Tongyeong to Yeosu.
Designated in 1968, this was the first marine national park in the country. It runs along the southern coast and takes in Tongyeong, Geoje, Namhae and the waters between them.
The cable car above Tongyeong and the boat out to Oedo are the easy introductions; the coastline itself is the reason to stay longer.
Park photograph by Steve46814, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Shown on the National parks index; resized.
Door-to-door estimates for a normal day; they stretch on a holiday weekend. Check the timetable before you rely on a last bus back.
Bus
Express coach from Seoul Nambu to Tongyeong, about 4h, which is the usual base. Coaches also run to Geoje and Namhae.
Train
KTX to Jinju (about 3h 30m), then a bus on to Tongyeong in around 40 minutes.
Car
Roughly four and a half hours. Useful here, because the park is strung along a coastline and the good bits are far apart.
Otters along the sheltered inlets, and seabirds throughout. The warm current brings subtropical fish into these waters, which is why the diving around Hongdo and Yeonhwado is the best on the south coast.
Camellia forest on the islands, flowering from late winter — Oedo and Jangsado are both effectively gardens built on it. Coastal pine on the exposed headlands.
Korea’s wildlife is shy and mostly nocturnal — you’re far more likely to see tracks than animals. Wild boar are the one to know about: keep your distance, don’t run, and never get between a sow and her young.
What grows and lives here
Hallyeohaesang protects the Hallyeosudo — the sheltered waterway running between the mainland and a crowd of islands along Korea's southern coast. It was the country's first marine national park, and the water is calm, warm and green in a way nowhere else in Korea is.
Pines, rock and very blue water
Hallyeohaesang
Photo by SEUNGMIN WOO, CC BY-SA 3.0
Islands off Tongyeong
Tongyeong
Photo by Junho Jung, CC BY-SA 3.0
Flat calm in the waterway
Tongyeong
Photo by Junho Jung, CC BY-SA 3.0
From the Namhae side
Namhae
Photo by Pranay chakraborty 2004, CC BY 4.0
The scattered islands
Hallyeohaesang
Photo by Olga Lipunova, CC BY-SA 4.0
These are not neutral waters. The Hallyeosudo is where Admiral Yi Sun-sin fought the naval campaign that broke the Japanese invasion of the 1590s — Hansando in 1592, and finally Noryang in 1598, where he was killed. Hansando island, Tongyeong and Namhae are full of sites tied to it, and for Korean visitors that history is a large part of why they come.
Getting around it
The park spreads over six separate districts between Yeosu and Geoje, so nobody does all of it. Pick a base — Tongyeong is the usual answer — and work outwards by boat.
The overview, in ten minutes
Route: Base station → Mireuksan ridge → the observation decks
Getting to the start: In Tongyeong itself; city bus or taxi from the ferry terminal.
Up Mireuksan for the classic view down the waterway with the islands stacked into the haze. On a clear day you can see as far as Jirisan. Go early — queues build by mid-morning.
The battle, and a quiet island
Route: Tongyeong ferry terminal → Hansando → Jeseungdang shrine
Getting to the start: Frequent ferries from Tongyeong.
The island where Yi Sun-sin's fleet was based and where the 1592 battle was fought. The Jeseungdang shrine complex sits above the anchorage. Short crossing, easy walking, and far fewer people than Tongyeong.
A garden on an island
Route: Geoje or Tongyeong → Oedo → the terraced gardens
Getting to the start: Tour boats from several harbours; landing is timed and ticketed.
A privately created subtropical garden covering a small island, reached only by boat and visited on a fixed schedule — you get a set time ashore. Unusual, heavily manicured, and extremely popular.
A mountain in a marine park
Route: Boriam car park → Geumsan (681m) → Boriam hermitage
Getting to the start: By road on Namhae island.
The one real climb in the park. Boriam, a hermitage perched on the cliff below the summit, looks straight out over the whole waterway and is one of the most-visited prayer sites in the country.
Crossing and ride times are typical scheduled durations.
Korea's first marine park
Hallyeohaesang was designated in 1968 — the same year as Gyeongju and Gyeryongsan, and the first marine national park in the country. It covers 545 km² in six separate districts: Geoje, Tongyeong, Sacheon, Hadong, Namhae and Odongdo at Yeosu.
The name comes from the Hallyeosudo, the waterway between the mainland and the islands. Because the islands break the swell, the water inside is unusually calm, and that geography made it the natural base for Korea's navy in the sixteenth century — and makes it, now, the part of the Korean coast that most rewards travelling by boat.
Admiral Yi Sun-sin's campaign against the Japanese invasion fleets was fought through these channels. He based his fleet at Hansando, won the decisive engagement there in 1592, and died at Noryang in 1598 in the last battle of the war. Shrines, museums and battle sites are spread across the park.
Tongyeong is the obvious base — a working fishing port with a cable car, ferries in several directions and very good seafood. From there almost everything else in the park is a day trip.
Jirisan
Korea's first national park, and the highest ground on the mainland.
Juwangsan
Rock gorges, waterfalls and the reflecting pond at Jusanji.
Mudeungsan
Gwangju's mountain, with columns of volcanic rock along the ridge.