Pohang Filming Locations: Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, When the Camellia Blooms

Cheongha Gongjin Market supplied the drama's Gongjin Market setting. It was formerly called Cheongha Market and adopted its current name after Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.

Wolpo Beach supplied Gongjin's seaward setting. VISITKOREA identifies it as the real filming location for Gongjin Beach, placing both Gongjin stops in Cheongha-myeon.

They are sensible to consider together, but the market's operating day, local transport and current opening information should decide the order.

Guryongpo Japanese Houses Street supplied the setting for Ongsan in When the Camellia Blooms. Wooden houses line the street, and a steep stone stairway at the entrance leads toward the hilltop park and its shrine hall.

The stairway is also associated with scenes featuring Dong-baek and Yong-sik. The combination of filming landmarks and the surviving streetscape gives visitors more to look for than a single photo point.

Pohang City's guide also says the alley was used for Japanese-street scenes in the drama 여명의 눈동자.

If you watched Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, the two Cheongha stops are the heart of it. Gongjin Banjeom, Bora Supermarket, Cheongho Hardware and Oyun Cafe from the drama are grouped around the market hall in the middle of the market. KTO notes that Bora Supermarket's sign and frontage are almost unchanged but you cannot see inside, and that at weekends the crowds are such that you queue to take a photo.

If you watched When the Camellia Blooms, give Guryongpo generous time on its own. Take in the front of Camellia, the Ongsan crab-stew alley and the steps where Dongbaek and Yong-sik sat, then climb to the top of the steps and look down over Guryongpo harbour.

If you have seen neither, Guryongpo is the one. Pohang City presents the street as a surviving quarter of Japanese-era houses, with a shrine hall on the hilltop park above the stairway where sailors once prayed for safe voyages. It is worth going for the history of the street itself. If broad sand and calm water are what you want, Wolpo Beach also works simply as a beach.

KTO's guide describes taking a city bus from the Pohang Station stop to the Cheongha Market stop, which leaves you right by Cheongha Gongjin Market, and for Guryongpo taking a different route from the Pohang Station stop to Guryongpo Transfer Center and walking from there. Route numbers and frequencies may have changed since that guide was written, so check them on Pohang's bus information.

KTO's suggested day trip sees Cheongha Gongjin Market first and then heads south to Guryongpo; split over two days, it does the market and Homigot on the first day and the Guryongpo side on the second. Wolpo Beach is in the same Cheongha-myeon, so add it to the market day. VISITKOREA lists parking at Wolpo Beach.

Cheongha Gongjin Market — a five-day market trading on dates ending in 1 and 6. The shops from the drama are independent businesses, so check separately whether they are open.

Wolpo Beach — the official pages this article cites give no season or hours. If you intend to swim, check the opening season with Pohang's own information.

Guryongpo Japanese Houses Street — the street is somewhere you walk around, but Pohang City's page lists the Guryongpo Modern History Museum, which manages the street, as closed for now. If you want to see inside the museum, check first whether it has reopened.

If you reach Cheongha on a non-market day, do not expect the five-day market stalls. That is fine if the storefronts from the drama are what you came for; if you want the market as well, match your date to a market day.

If the Guryongpo Modern History Museum is closed, the street, the stone stairway, the hilltop park and the shrine hall are all still there. Spend the time at the top of the steps looking over the harbour instead of indoors.

If one day is not enough, do not force the two areas together: keep only the area for the drama you watched, or split it over two days as KTO suggests.