Three Places to Visit in Andong: Hahoe Village, Buyongdae and Byeongsan Seowon
Three places in Andong compared on what you see, how you get there and how long each takes. Buyongdae is 448 metres from Hahoe Village in a straight line and Byeongsan Seowon 3.1 km, but the first has no river crossing and the second has three buses a day out of it, so the journeys shape the day.
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All three fit inside three kilometres in a straight line. Measured from our own coordinates, Hahoe Village to Buyongdae is 448 m, and to Byeongsan Seowon 3,098 m.
And yet each is awkward to reach from the others. The nearer one is the more awkward.
Covering 448 metres means crossing a bridge
Buyongdae is the cliff on the far side of the river from Hahoe Village. The view of the village that every guidebook prints was taken from up there.
From the village you can see it plainly across the water. There is no way over the water. Getting there means leaving the village and crossing Gwangdeok Bridge — which is why Buyongdae cannot simply be slotted into a visit to the village.
Buyongdae publishes neither opening times nor an admission price. That means they are not written down, not that there are none.
The 3 km to Byeongsan Seowon is a timetable problem
Hahoe Village and Byeongsan Seowon are both UNESCO World Heritage sites, 3.1 km apart. Counting the columns of the city bus 210 timetable the preservation society publishes gives this.
| direction | departures per day |
|---|---|
| Andong → Hahoe | 13 |
| Hahoe → Andong | 13 |
| Byeongsan → Hahoe → Andong | 3 — 09:30, 12:25, 15:30 |
One route, and only the services that call at Byeongsan run three times a day. The cash fare is 1,500 won, and Andong to Hahoe takes about 50 minutes.
Note also what that column is: services out of Byeongsan. Departures into Byeongsan from Hahoe are not listed separately in this table — so what the table supports is not "three a day each way" but "three a day coming back". If the plan is an afternoon at Byeongsan Seowon, the number to work out is the return, not the outbound.
Cost: 5,000 won, free, and not published
| adult | note | |
|---|---|---|
| Andong Hahoe Village | KRW 5,000 | youth and uniformed personnel 2,500, children 1,500 |
| Byeongsan Seowon | free | parking free too |
| Buyongdae | — | not published |
Hahoe's admission table has one more row, set by where you live. Residents of Andong and Yecheon pay 1,000 won as an adult — a fifth of 5,000 — with 500 for youth and 400 for children. Groups of 30 or more pay 4,000 / 2,000 / 1,200, and resident groups go down to 900 / 400 / 300.
There is no parking charge at Hahoe. The village is open every day of the year and opens at 09:00. Only the last admission moves with the season — 17:30 from April to September, 16:30 from October to March.
Byeongsan Seowon is 09:00–18:00 in summer and 09:00–17:00 in winter, but the seowon's own page never says which months those two are. Hahoe attaches April–September and October–March to the same distinction, so the two places use the same word and only one of them defines it. Take Hahoe's months as the guide, but check ahead if you are going at the turn of a season.
Most of Hahoe's rules exist because people live there
Hahoe is the one of the three that is a village people live in. What the preservation society posts under its visitor information is not a timetable but a request: that visitors understand residents cannot freely remodel so much as a kitchen in their own house.
These follow from it.
- Cars cannot enter. A barrier went up on 17 August 2021, and electric buggies were barred with it.
- There are no restaurants inside the village. You cannot get a meal inside it.
- Camping, sleeping in vehicles and cooking are all prohibited — under the River Act, not under a tourism rule.
The Hahoe Byeolsingut mask-dance performance is free, from 2 to 3 in the afternoon: Saturdays and Sundays in January and February, Tuesday through Sunday from March to December, dark on Mondays.
But the society's notice for it is headed "2025 permanent performance schedule". It is not a table updated for 2026, so anyone travelling for the performance should confirm separately that the days still hold this year.
A short straight line does not mean close
The 448 m and 3,098 m are straight-line distances calculated from the three sets of coordinates. They are neither walking nor driving distances.
That distinction matters here because neither number describes the journey. There is a river inside the 448 m, and inside the 3,098 m there is a direction served three times a day. The nearer of the two is the more awkward, which is the defining fact about these three.
So what a plan has to measure is not distance but the bridge and the bus. Fix the detour over Gwangdeok Bridge for Hahoe and Buyongdae, and the return service for Byeongsan, and the rest arranges itself.
In this list
- Nationwide
Andong Hahoe Folk Village
A UNESCO-listed village inside a bend of the Nakdong River, walked through lanes of tiled and thatched houses. It is the one of the three that people still live in — which is why cars cannot enter and there is nowhere to eat inside it, and why most of the rules here exist at all.
- What you'll see
- A World Heritage village inside a river bend
- How you get there
- City bus 210 from Andong
- How long it takes
- Half a day
- Best for
- Walking a village slowly
Apr–Sep 09:00 (last entry 17:30) · Jan–Mar, Oct–Dec 09:00 (last entry 16:30)₩900–₩5,000
See details
NationwideBuyongdae
The cliff on the far bank from Hahoe, and the place the village view every guidebook prints was taken from. You can see it plainly across the water from the village and there is no crossing — which makes it the nearest of the three and the most awkward to reach.
- What you'll see
- The whole village seen from a clifftop
- How you get there
- Out of the village and round over Gwangdeok Bridge
- How long it takes
- An hour or more, there and back
- Best for
- Photographing the village whole
not published by the operator
See details
NationwideByeongsan Seowon
A Joseon academy seated facing the Nakdong, where the thing to do is sit up in the Mandaeru pavilion with the river and the hills in front of you. It is the one of the three where neither admission nor parking costs anything, and the difficulty is not the price but that only three buses a day come back out.
- What you'll see
- An academy facing the river, and its pavilion
- How you get there
- Bus 210 — three services a day back out
- How long it takes
- An hour
- Best for
- Sitting still somewhere quiet
Summer 09:00–18:00 · Winter 09:00–17:00Open year-roundFree
See details
Frequently asked questions
Can I do all three in a day?
They fit inside three kilometres, but the travel does not follow the distance. There is a river between Hahoe and Buyongdae with no crossing, so you go round over Gwangdeok Bridge; and only three buses a day come back out from Byeongsan. Pairing Hahoe with Buyongdae and treating Byeongsan separately is the realistic plan.
Can I walk to Buyongdae from Hahoe Village?
It is 448 metres in a straight line and you cannot walk it. The river is in between and there is no crossing, so you leave the village and go round over Gwangdeok Bridge. That is why Buyongdae cannot simply be slotted into a village visit — it needs a leg of its own. Its opening hours and admission are not published by the preservation society.
Can I reach Byeongsan Seowon by bus?
Yes, but work out the return first. On the 210 timetable the preservation society publishes, Andong to Hahoe runs 13 times a day in each direction — but the service that goes via Byeongsan and on through Hahoe to Andong runs three times: 09:30, 12:25 and 15:30. What that table lists is the direction out of Byeongsan; the service in is not listed separately. The fare is 1,500 won cash and Andong to Hahoe takes about 50 minutes.
How much is Hahoe Village?
5,000 won for an adult, 2,500 for teenagers and uniformed personnel, 1,500 for children. Residents of Andong and Yecheon pay 1,000 as adults — a fifth of the standard rate — and groups of 30 or more pay 4,000 / 2,000 / 1,200. Parking is free. Byeongsan Seowon is free to enter and to park at, and Buyongdae publishes no price at all.
Can I see the Hahoe mask dance?
There is a free regular performance from 2pm to 3pm — Saturdays and Sundays in January and February, and Tuesday to Sunday from March to December, closed Mondays. Note that the preservation society's page for it is headed as the 2025 schedule rather than an updated one, so if the performance is the reason you are going, confirm that the days still hold this year.
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