Hadong travel info

Hadong sits at the far west of South Gyeongsang Province, squeezed between Mount Jiri and the Seomjin River. Across the water is Jeolla, so at Hwagae Market you hear both dialects over the same stall. Tea has grown here since the Silla era, which is why the slopes along the road to Ssanggyesa Temple are terraced in green, and why in spring the Simni cherry blossom road turns into a tunnel of petals.

The table comes from the river too: clear jaecheop clam soup, giant cherry oysters pulled from the estuary in early spring, and a thick, perilla-seed crab stew. Restaurants on the Jiri side serve mountain-vegetable set meals and grilled deodeok root. The Pyeongsa-ri fields and the Choi Champan manor from the novel Toji are inside the county as well.

Sights are not clustered in town; they are 10 to 30 km apart. County buses cost a flat ₩100 from Hadong Bus Terminal but run infrequently, so many visitors rent a car or mix in taxis. It is about four hours from Seoul by bus and under two from Busan.

From Seoul (BUS)

From Busan, Jinju and nearby cities (BUS)

From Gurye, Gwangyang and Suncheon (TAXI)