Chungcheongnam-do
Discover Chungcheongnam-do
Introduction
Chungcheongnam-do sits on the west coast just south of Seoul, on the Yellow Sea, and its landscape is gentle — low hills, wide river valleys and an enormous tidal coastline — which is why it was the agricultural heart of the peninsula and why it holds what it holds.
This was the Baekje kingdom, the third of Korea’s three kingdoms and the one that carried Buddhism and Chinese writing across to Japan. Gongju and Buyeo were successive capitals, and the fortress, royal tombs, temple sites and palace gardens across the two cities form the UNESCO-listed Baekje Historic Areas. Baekje craftsmanship — its gilt-bronze incense burner above all — is the most refined thing to survive from the period.
The coast is the other reason to come. The Yellow Sea has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world, and the mudflats it exposes are a UNESCO natural site and a critical stopover for migratory shorebirds on the East Asian flyway; the Taean coast has beaches and pine forest along a national park. Inland, Gyeryongsan is a small, steep national park full of temples, and Geumsan grows most of Korea’s ginseng and has a market devoted to it. The whole province is within about ninety minutes of Seoul by train.