Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond Review, Gyeongju, South Korea
This Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond review contains costs, directions for getting to Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond, pictures, and other useful information.
I arrived in Gyeongju around 5:30pm and after a little rest I went to grab some dinner. The lady at my accommodation suggested I check out Wolji Pond (a.k.a. Anapji Pond), so I did. I wasn’t expecting much more than a pond to walk around but it turned out to be much more, enough to write a post about it.
Cost: Free.
Address: 102 Wonhwa-ro, Wolseong-dong, Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea. guide.gyeongju.go.kr. +82 54-772-4041.
Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond
My plan was to walk straight from Nomad House (where I stayed) to Wolji Pond, walk around a little, and then grab some dinner. It didn’t turn out as planned.
First thing I came across were these mounds. They reminded me a lot of the Chocolate Hills in Bohol (Philippines). I saw one with a gravestone in front of it some I am not sure if they are all tombs or not, but I’m inclined to think they are natural.
A traditional Korean house. Probably thousands of years old. The signage was in Korean so I guess I’ll never know.
This is the oldest astro-observatory in Asia. It lights up at night (a recent addition).
Seems to be a running theme in South Korea where they put things you can pose with for photos in fields. Actually, I see this all over Asia.
A lovely line of flowers. On the other side there were many Korean girls getting their pictures taken with these flowers in the background.
A pond full of lilies, but not Anapji Pond.
So far all these things have been on one side of the road. Across the road from the pond pictured above is the actual Anapji Pond, which is the next picture.
Back on the side of the road I was on originally you can follow a path up the hill to see an archeological site where a palace used to be – Donggung Palace I assume.
After the palace is a small forest. I think it is thought that some leader of a great clan was born inside this forest. It is nice to walk through.
At the end you can explore this Hyanggyo, which is an old government run school (thousands of years old). It was burned down by the Japanese but has now been restored. It is not operational, and I don’t think it has been for at least hundreds of years.
This is just one of the buildings inside the complex.
After all that I came down the hill and was where I had started, near the observatory.
Getting to Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond in Gyeongjiu
Gyeongjiu is small. Walk there from where-ever you accommodation is. If you feel lazy you can catch a cab. Shouldn’t cost more than 5,000 KRW.Im sure buses go there too. Maybe the 10 or 11, but I’m not certain.
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