Three filming locations in Pohang — and one invented village name became a market's real one
Gongjin from Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha and Ongsan from When the Camellia Blooms are both Pohang. The three places this site holds a record for, set out by their name on screen, what they are and where they are. Two sit within 3 km in Buk-gu; the third is 30 km south.
Language
Gongjin, the village in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, and Ongsan, the village in When the Camellia Blooms, are both invented. Both are also Pohang — two productions built one village each along the same stretch of coast, and this list is the three places among them that this site holds a record for.
One of the three took the invented name and kept it.
Two villages sharing one coastline
Gongjin is Cheongha-myeon, in Buk-gu. Cheongha Gongjin Market and Wolpo Beach are that village's market and its beach, and they sit inside the same myeon less than 3 km apart in a straight line. Ongsan is a single street 30 km south, in Guryongpo-eup, Nam-gu.
Which makes these three less "Pohang's three filming locations" than two villages — one scattered across two points, one gathered into a single street. That is also exactly where planning divides: the first two fit into a half-day together, and the third does not join them.
The two villages treated the real place names in opposite ways. Ongsan used Guryongpo as a backdrop and moved on, and Guryongpo is still Guryongpo. Gongjin did not: after the drama ended, Cheongha Market renamed itself Cheongha Gongjin Market. On this list, the invented name became the real one exactly once.
No single source names all three
The Korea Tourism Organization's Pohang filming article covers Cheongha Gongjin Market and Guryongpo, and Wolpo Beach never appears in it. That Wolpo Beach is the drama's Gongjin Beach is stated on a different page by the same organization.
So this list's criterion is what this site holds rather than what any one source's contents run to — and the difference shows in what is missing. That same article names the red lighthouse on the breakwater at Seokbyeong 1-ri as the spot where the confession scene was shot, but gives no address and no administrative unit, so no place record could be built from it. Sabang Memorial Park was a candidate for the same drama until both pages that would have been cited for it turned out to name no drama at all.
Guryongpo was already worth the trip before the drama
Cheongha Gongjin Market and Wolpo Beach were not places people made a journey for until a production brought them one. The Guryongpo street is different. Wooden houses from the occupation still stand along it, a steep stone stairway at its entrance climbs to a park on the hill, and in that park is a shrine hall where prayers were once made for sailors' safe passage.
Those stairs then became known a second time, as the place Dong-baek and Yong-sik sat. The same stairway is photographed for two different reasons, and that overlap is what makes this street the one that holds you longest of the three.
🔵 It is also not the first production this alley has taken. Pohang City's guide says the street was used as a set for the Japanese-street scenes of a drama it names only in Korean, 여명의 눈동자. This list does not count that one, and the reason is a missing English title rather than a thin source: the city states the filming plainly, and no publisher within reach gives the work the international title a record here would have to carry.
The two in Buk-gu join up; Guryongpo takes its own day
Cheongha Gongjin Market and Wolpo Beach are in the same myeon and fit into a half-day. Guryongpo is 30 km south in a straight line, and further in practice, because the road runs around the Homigot headland. The Korea Tourism Organization's Pohang article divides it the same way: a day trip joins the market to Guryongpo, while a two-day version gives the first day to the market and Homigot and the second to Guryongpo.
If the market is the destination, check the trading day before you go. It is not a permanent market but a five-day one, trading on days ending in 1 and 6.
In this list
- Nationwide
Cheongha Gongjin Market
The one the drama went deepest into. The other two became filming locations and kept the names they had; this market took the name it was given on screen and made it its own. That makes it both the list's starting point and its clearest illustration of how far the phrase "filming location" can travel.
- Its name on screen
- Gongjin Market
- What kind of place
- A five-day market — trading days end in 1 and 6
- Where it is
- Cheongha-myeon, Buk-gu — the northernmost
- When to add it
- When you can time the visit to a market day
No entry fee — you pay each vendor
See details
- Nationwide
Wolpo Beach
The same drama's seaward half, and the only entry here that a different source brought in. It sits in the same myeon as the market above, so in practice the two move together — not a walk, but the only pair on this list that fits into one half-day.
- Its name on screen
- Gongjin Beach
- What kind of place
- A beach — broad sand, shallow water
- Where it is
- Cheongha-myeon, Buk-gu — within 3 km of the market
- When to add it
- Paired with the market for a half-day
See details
- Nationwide
Guryongpo Japanese Houses Street
A different drama, and a different village. Where the first two were an ordinary fishing market and beach until a production arrived, this street was already something people came to see, and the drama landed on top of it. It holds you longest of the three, and it is the one that needs a day set aside.
- Its name on screen
- Ongsan
- What kind of place
- A street — wooden houses from the occupation, and a stone stairway
- Where it is
- Guryongpo-eup, Nam-gu — 30 km south of the market
- When to add it
- When Pohang's south coast gets its own day
See details
Frequently asked questions
Can all three be seen in one day?
The two in Buk-gu pair up; Guryongpo is better given its own day. Cheongha Gongjin Market and Wolpo Beach are in the same myeon, under 3 km apart in a straight line, while Guryongpo is 30 km south of them in a straight line and past Homigot. The Korea Tourism Organization's own Pohang article splits it the same way: its day trip joins the market to Guryongpo and nothing else, and its two-day version puts the market and Homigot on day one and Guryongpo on day two.
What was Cheongha Gongjin Market called before?
Cheongha Market. After it appeared in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha as Gongjin Market, the market renamed itself Cheongha Gongjin Market. It is the only place on this list whose name the drama changed.
Is there one source that covers all three?
No. The Korea Tourism Organization's Pohang filming article covers the market and Guryongpo and never mentions Wolpo Beach at all; that Wolpo Beach is the drama's Gongjin Beach comes from a different page by the same organization. So this list's criterion is not the three a source names, but the filming locations in Pohang this site holds a place record for.
Is When the Camellia Blooms the only drama filmed on the Guryongpo street?
No. Pohang City's own guide to the street says the alley was used as a set for the Japanese-street scenes of a drama it names only in Korean — 여명의 눈동자. This list does not count that production because this site holds no record of the work, and building one needs an established English title that no source within reach publishes. The filming claim itself is the city's own.
Are there other filming locations in Pohang?
Yes, and one of them nearly made this list. The same KTO article names the red lighthouse on the breakwater at Seokbyeong 1-ri as the spot where Hye-jin confesses in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, but gives it no address and no administrative unit, so no place record could be built for it. Sabang Memorial Park was also a candidate until both pages that would have been cited for it turned out to mention no drama at all.
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Last verified:
Official sources
- Fact check: Korea Tourism Organization — 'Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha' and 'When the Camellia Blooms' locations in Pohang, at Cheongha Gongjin Market and Guryongpo
- Fact check: KTO VISITKOREA — Wolpo Beach, the real Gongjin Beach of 'Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha'
- Fact check: Pohang City — Guryongpo Japanese Houses Street: the houses, the stone stairway and the shrine hall, and the other production filmed in this alley
Photo credits