Located one hour from seoul this city can be your best choice to get out from hectic Seoul ans enjoying one of best city that offer you traditional side of korea and the center of korean unesco's fortress.
수원
SUWON
TRANSPORTATION TO SUWON
by regular MRT to Suwon MRT Station line 1 ( 1 hour)
Or express MRT from only Seoul MRT Station line 1 (30mins)
TRANSPORTATION IN SUWON
For better information, you can visit Tourism center ( Suwon MRT exit 4) and ask them for map. And from there, you can take bus no. 11/13 from infrontof Novotel to the tourism area.
여행코스
WALKING COURSE
Suwon fortress is quite big but if you can manage your time half day is more than enough than you think. And along the way, you can see other tourism object and chill in some cool coffeeshop with beautiful traditional view. Suwon fortress has 4 main entrance, 팔달문 paldamun Southgate, 회서문hueseomun Westgate, 장안문janganmun, and 차룡문 charyongmun. But mostly Paldalmun or South gate is the most famous entrance gate as the main starting point. And walking clockwise along the fortress needs around 3 hours AND can be longer depends if you love taking photos. So let's get started!
#1
팔달문
PALDALMUN GATE
From train station, you get off at Paldalmun as your starting point. There are 2 choices of course, turn left from the gate to do clockwise course or turn right to do the counterclockwise.
#2
화성행궁
HWASEONG HAENGGUNG
From paldaemun, turn left and walk around 10 minutes you can find Hwaseong palace that famous as the shooting location of 대장금 daejanggeum, famous korean cooking colosal drama.
#3
효원의종 태종
HYOWON'S BELL
Bell that located on the top of paldal mountain where you can look all city view and ring the bell!
#4
화서문
HWASEOMUN GATE
West gate of hwaseong fortress,actually nothing interesting with this gate but i found one beautiful cafe near here and can be your fav spot for chilling and taking a rest after a long walk.
원모어
ONE MORE CAFE
경기 수원시 팔달구 화서문로17번길 4
장안동 322-17 CU편의점 2층
You can easily find this coffeeshop on 2ndfloor of CU conveniencestore. 2nd floor is for indoor seats and 3rd floor os for beautiful outdoor "westgate view". price is still affordable around ₩4000 for coffee and ₩6000 for cake. I was ordered 카페라떼 cafelatte and 에어그레이케이크 earlgreytea cake, it suprisingly super good especially the cake, you can really tasted strong earlgrey. And after took photos on 3rd floor, i skipped my lunch and spent my whole lunch time on 2ndfloor.
#5
장안문
JANGANMUN GATE
another gate that located close to each other. Jangan gate can be said as the biggest gate as it translated (Jangan) as "capital" in english, since it located in the north and used as the main entrance when King arrived from 한양 hanyang, or modern seoul.
#6
화홍문
HWAHONGMUN GATE
And not far from there, you can also spotted Hwahong gate, water gates those installed to control Suwon river water flow that cut across from north to the south.
#7
창룡문
CHANGRYONGMUN GATE
The east gate where you can take beautiful palace & wide green field photo. And here, you also can ride hot air ballon, that called 플라잉수원 flying suwon. The ticket price : ₩18000/person. Yeah i know it's quite expensive for around 8 mins ride but it worth the view! For opening hour and air ballon weather forecast you can check here www.flyingsuwon.com
#8
시장
MARKET AREA
so for your final course after long walking around fortress, you can enjoying Suwon main markets, walking around small suwon river, and having dinner with Suwon's famous food
SUWON'S FOOD
as you go to other city, each city offers different food representative and as in Suwon Famous with 2 kinds of food that you have to try.
#1 갈비 galbi, Korean BBQ marinated short ribs
Recommended restaurant: 분수원 BON SUWON
경기 수원시 팔달구 중부대로223번길 43
우만동 103-1
Open hours 11.30~ 22.00
Price/person ₩30000~40000
#2 통닭 tongdak, Korean traditional fried chicken
Recommended restaurant: 진미통닭 JINMI TONGDAK
경기 수원시 팔달구 정조로800번길 21
남수동 117-1
Open hours 12.00~24.00
Price ₩16000/ chicken
But beside these representatives, you can also try Suwon famous 순대걸목 sundae or korean blood sausage road, and some other local foods.
Overall, Suwon is super well organized and great choice for visit if you are a historical lover. You can buy all tourism objects pass ticket for ₩3500/person compared you buy one by one on every objects.
CIAO!!
