Mountain park · Daegu, North Gyeongsang
팔공산국립공원
Korea's newest national park, and the stone Buddha everyone climbs to.
Palgongsan was upgraded from a provincial park to a national one in 2023, making it the most recent addition to the list. It sits immediately north of Daegu.
Gatbawi, a seated stone Buddha carved in the 9th century wearing what looks like a flat stone hat, stands near the top of a long stairway and draws a steady stream of people coming to make a wish. Donghwasa temple, founded in 493, is on the southern side.
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.
Train
KTX to Dongdaegu, about 1h 50m, then bus 401 or the Palgongsan-bound express bus, roughly 40 minutes.
Bus
Express coach to Daegu, around 3h 30m.
Car
About three hours. There is a cable car on the southern side if you would rather not walk up.
Wild boar, roe deer and marten. The park's upgrade to national status in 2023 came partly on the strength of its biodiversity survey.
Mixed pine and oak with substantial old-growth around Donghwasa. Cherry along the ring road in April, and maple through the valleys in autumn.
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
Palgongsan is Korea's newest national park, designated in 2023, and the most heavily worshipped mountain in the country. Its ridge is strung with Silla-era temples, and near one end sits Gatbawi — a stone Buddha in a stone hat that hundreds of thousands of people climb to every year to ask for one thing.
Gatbawi — the Buddha in the stone hat
Gwanbong, Palgongsan
Photo by HwangHuang, CC BY-SA 4.0
Looking down from Gwanbong
Palgongsan
Photo by HwangHuang, CC BY-SA 4.0
The gate at Donghwasa
Palgongsan
Photo by HwangHuang, CC BY-SA 4.0
The cable car to Sinnimbong
Palgongsan
Photo by Choi2451, CC BY-SA 4.0
A small pagoda on the rocks
Palgongsan
Photo by HwangHuang, CC BY-SA 4.0
Gatbawi is said to grant one wish to anyone sincere enough to climb to it, and the wish most often asked for is a child's exam result. In the weeks before the November university entrance exam the stairs are packed day and night with parents, and the site runs around the clock. It is an extraordinary thing to witness — and an extremely bad time to go if you wanted quiet.
Walking it
Palgongsan spreads over a long east–west ridge north of Daegu. Most visits are to one of three places rather than to the mountain as a whole: Donghwasa, the cable car, or the stairs up to Gatbawi.
Short, steep, and unforgettable
Route: Gatbawi car park → the stairway → Gwanbong (850m)
Getting to the start: Daegu city bus 401 or the Palgong 1 bus to the Gatbawi entrance.
Somewhere around 1,400 stone steps straight up to the statue. It is a hard forty minutes and there is nowhere to hide from it, but there are rest platforms and you will be overtaken by people three times your age.
The temple at the foot
Route: Donghwasa car park → the temple complex → the giant stone Buddha
Getting to the start: Daegu city bus 팔공1 to Donghwasa.
Founded in the Silla period and one of the major temples of the region, with a thirty-metre stone Buddha added in the 1990s. Flat, easy, and it can be combined with the cable car in one morning.
The view without the climb
Route: Base station → Sinnimbong → the observation deck
Getting to the start: Beside the Donghwasa entrance.
Up to a ridge peak with the whole Daegu basin below. There are short walking paths at the top, and it is the easiest big view in the park.
The mountain proper
Route: Donghwasa → Dongbong → Birobong (1,193m) → the ridge west
Getting to the start: Start from Donghwasa.
The serious walk on Palgongsan, along the main ridge over the summit. Birobong itself carries broadcast masts, and the interest is the ridge either side of it rather than the top.
Given by walking time. All three main sites are reached by Daegu city bus.
Designated 2023
Palgongsan was a provincial park for decades and only became Korea's twenty-third national park in 2023, the most recent addition to the list. It covers 126 km² along a ridge running east to west above Daegu.
The name means ‘eight meritorious’, and is usually explained by a story from the founding of Goryeo: the general Sin Sung-gyeom died here in 927, having swapped clothes with his king so the king could escape an ambush. Eight commanders are said to have been killed in that battle.
The mountain's real subject is worship. Donghwasa dates to the Silla period, Pagyesa and Buinsa are on the same ridge, and hermitages are tucked all over the slopes. The focus of it all is Gatbawi, a seated stone Buddha carved in the ninth century on the summit of Gwanbong, wearing a flat slab of rock on its head that looks exactly like a traditional Korean <em>gat</em>.
The belief is that Gatbawi grants one wish to each sincere pilgrim. That draws enormous numbers, particularly from families with a child sitting the university entrance exam — which is why a 850m hill has fourteen hundred stone steps built up it and lights that stay on all night.
Seoraksan
Granite spires and the country's most famous autumn colour, near Sokcho.
Sobaeksan
Open grassy ridges at 1,400m, and royal azaleas at the end of May.
Songnisan
Beopjusa temple and its great bronze Buddha, under a rocky ridge.