Start your tour of Delicious Yesan from Yesan Five Day Market! 

   ENJOY YESAN

【The hot, retro style market – Yesan Five Day Market】

 Yesan is famous as the second biggest apple producer in Korea after Daegu, and also as the distribution point of agricultural products of nearby areas thanks to its flat geographical location. These characteristics surely helped popularity of Yesan Five Day Market. However, current popularity of the Market is mostly due to the collaboration between local shop keepers and Mr. Paik Jong Won, CEO of The Born Korea and a famous TV personnel. With lots of time and efforts put in, Yesan Five Day Market has become one of the most popular markets in Korea. Even though it takes approximately 3-hour drive from Seoul, the market continues to gain popularity.

 he Market has 8 entrances, with Entrance Number 1 taking you right through the Yesan Marketplace Square, where you will feel like you are in an amusement park. 10 retro style store signs welcome you to the market and the three different alleys leads you to hidden gems of eateries, naturally wanting you to check out all the famous shops you have searched online. If you happen to visit the Market during the weekends, make sure secure a seat with the entrance kiosk, so that you can enjoy your food in comfort. Because the Market is full of highly sought after shops such as Nakwon Yakgwa, Apple Bakery, Seonbong Noodle, Sinyang Fried Snack, and Gwangshi Castella, we recommend you get there couple of hours before the opening hour as the line can be quiet long.

 If you visit the market during the weekends, you may be able to taste all those famous foods you always wanted, but if you want to enjoy the market with leisure, visit during the weekdays after checking the shop holidays to make sure you can order all the food that you want.

 Many popular eateries gain fame through various social media, but the market also has lots of convenient features. Almost all shops have kiosk, so customers can order exactly what they want. Mr. Paik build and donated new restroom facility, so you can enjoy brightly lit, clean and comfortable restrooms. Helpers wearing high-visibility vests in the Market will swoop in to clean the tabletops as soon as the customers finish the food and leave.

 If the Market is too crowded and you want to eat quickly, you can visit the Gukbap Street, across from Exit Number 4, for a hot Gukbap (beef broth soup with rice). Since the restaurants there have been doing business for a long time, you will get a quality food in any random restaurant you choose.

Address: 967 Hyeongjegogae-ro, Yesan-eup, Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do  
Inquiries: +82-41-333-3318   
Operating hours: 11:00-21:00 (Varies by shops)   
Five Day Market: 5th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th Days of Every Month

 * If you want to enjoy Samgyupsal (pork belly) at the Yesan Marketplace Square, you can do the following:

 ① Visit shops that sell meat such as Shingwang Butcher, buy Samgyupsal and bring it to your table.

 ② Go to the Rent-A-Grill Shop and order side dishes according to the number of your group and bring the grill and other cooking utensils to your table.

 ③ If you need more food, you can order vegetables, garlic, Ssamjang (mixed paste), bowl of rice, beverages and alcohol at the Rent-A-Grill Shop. At Jinyoung Company, you can get a bowl of rice, beverages and alcohol.

   EAT YESAN

【10 Best Eateries at Yesan Five Day Market with Long Wait Lines】

Nakwon Yakgwa

 Nakwon Yakgaw is one of the hottest Yakgaw shops in Korea. Yakgaw is a traditional Korean dessert and Yakgaw sold in Nakwon Yakgaw is made with pastry-like multi-layered dough together with Yesan apples. A gift set is made of 5 individually packaged Yakgwa in a signature green box. You can also buy in singles, but each customer can only buy up to two gift sets and 4 individual Yakgwas per visit, and they go fast so it is recommended you visit the shop early to secure your purchase.

Operating hours: 13:00-19:00 / Closed second and fourth Tuesdays of the month

Seonbong Noodle

 At Seonbong Noodle, you can order only three types of noodles, Spicy Noodle in Scallion Oil, Noodles in Anchovy Broth, and Sweet and Sour Spicy Noodle but you have to have patience to taste the noodle as the line can be long. If you order Noodles in Anchovy Broth, you will feel the hot and deep flavor anchovy broth warm up your body. Spicy Noodle in Scallion Oil shows a perfect combination of thin wheat noodle, scallion oil, anchovy oil and minced spring onion. If you love spicy foods, Sweet and Sour Spicy Noodle that is served with Yeolmu Kimchi (Young Summer Radish Kimchi) on top will be the right choice.

Operating hours: 11:00-21:00 / Open all year round

Gwangshi Castella

 At Gwangshi Castella, fresh castella is baked every day and sold only two times a day, at 11:00 and 15:00. You will surely succumb to the seduction of soft original castella and apple castella that adds butter cream and apple jam to the original castella. Due to the popularity, a customer can buy only two packs of Gwangshi set, which is two kinds of castella with butter cream, per visit. For apple castella, a customer can only buy one per visit.

Operating hours: 11:00-21:00 / Open all year round 

Saengseon Gage (Fish Shop)

 Many people say Saengseon Gage is the best restaurant in Yesan Market. Its main menu is Whole Fried Cutlassfish from Jeju. Since the fish is salted and lightly battered before frying, the fried cutlassfish is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. One of the strong points of fried cutlassfish is its price – only 8,000 Korean Won per one fish. Spicy but delicious Braised Cutlassfish dish is also a popular menu.

Operating hours: 11:00-20:30 / Open all year round

Apple Bakery

 If you happen to arrive at Yesan Market early in the morning, we recommend you run to the Apple Bakery first. The bakery closes the shop once the products are all sold out. Its triangle shaped apple pies have crispy outer layers and sweet and sour apple fillings inside. It looks similar to the typical mass-produced bakery product, but you will know the difference when you taste the excellent quality.

Operating hours: Weekdays from 11:30 / Weekends from 12:00 / Open all year round 

Geumo BBQ

 There are so many fried chicken franchise restaurants in Korea, so you may ask what’s so special about this restaurant? However, if you want to taste a good size chicken with crispy outside and soft meat inside, you have to try Geumo BBQ. Geumo BBQ use bigger chicken than regular fried chicken franchise restaurants and roast them in its self-developed BBQ equipment for a long period of time. The result is a roast chicken with meat so soft that you can pull the bones just by touching them. The outer skin is roasted with apple based thick sweet and sour sauce for a taste that goes perfectly with a beer.

Operating hours: 11:00-21:00 / Open all year round 

Tobogi House

 Tobogi House has a small menu list. You can only order chicken feet, Dakbokkeumtang (Spicy Braised Chicken), Spicy Stir-fried Pork, and Stir-fried Squid, which are all very spicy. The restaurant is well-known for its value for money backed by the huge serving size. Spicy Stir-fried Pork is especially tasty as Tobogi House buys fresh pork directly from the butcher shop across the restaurant. Unlike other popular restaurants in the Market, the waiting line is not that bad, because the cooking speed is amazingly fast.

Operating hours: 11:00-17:00 / Closed Sundays 

Sinyang Fried Snack

 Sinyang’s fried Gimmari look very much like normal fried Gimmari (Deep-fried Laver Roll Stuffed with Glass Noodles) you can find around Korea, but once you take a bite, you will be surprised with the taste of juicy meat inside. The restaurant used seaweed from nearby town Gwangcheon, fresh minced pork and local vegetables to make the Gimmari, and put just the right amount of batter and fry them to the perfectly crispy level. They are available only in Yesan Market, so you may want to buy one 15-piece box and keep it in your freezer for when you have a craving.

Operating hours: 11:00-20:30 / Closed second Wednesday of the month

Tuktaktuk Chicken Gangjeong (Deep-fried and Braised Chicken)

 You now can forget about the notion that good Deep-fried and Braised Chicken come from Sokcho area. Tuktaktuk Chicken Ganjeong in Yesan uses Yean apple-based sauce to enhance the flavor. You can order mild flavor and spicy flavor with hot Cheongyang pepper as a half & half set. You will finish the box in no time once you start eating. If you prefer soy sauce-based flavor, you can order sesame chicken Gangjeong. You may want to order just a small size box that cost 8,000 won to have some room in your stomach for all the other delicious foods Yesan Market offers.

Operating hours: 10:00-20:00 / Closed Sundays 

Golmok Brewery & Baeksul Company

  At Golmok Brewery, you can tasted Golmok Makgeolli (traditional raw rice wine) which was created by a collaboration between Mr. Paik Jong Won and Mr. Park Yoo Deok, the brewery’s owner. Right next to Golmok Brewery, Baeksul Company sells selected traditional alcohol products made by famous breweries, trendy ciders, and premium Makgeolli. You can also purchase Handmade Beer, such as Mr. Paik Jong Won’s beer Baek Larger, Yesan’s specialty Apple Beer, and Jeju Tangerine Oreum.

Operating hours: 11:00-21:00 / Open all year round

   TRIP YESAN

【Yesan Healing Tour with Clean Water & Deep Forest】

Yedangho Lake

 Also known as the best reservoir in Korea, Yedangho Lake is full of clean blue water. Thanks to the reflections of clouds in the water, you will feel like you are walking on clouds when you walk on its suspension bridge. During the nighttime, a beautiful music fountain show brings out interjections of joy from the visitors. The best place to view the music fountain show is at the main tower area, at the center of the bridge. You can hop on the monorail to get to the Shuim House where you can relax. You can also walk down the Slow Lake Trail, a comfortable wooden trail, to get to Central Eco Park where you can enjoy the view of calm lake and feel at peace.

Address (Yedangho Monorail): 158 Yedanggwangwang-ro, Eungbong-myeon, Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do  
 

Sudeoksa Temple

 The essence of Sudeoksa Temple is its Daeungjeon Hall (main hall). It is not clear when Sudeoksa Temple was built, but its Daeungjeon Hall which was built in 1308, is the oldest standing wooden building in Korea. Sudeoksa Temple’s Daeungjeon Hall boasts its magnificently long and high roof framing, which is a characteristic of wooden buildings built during the period of Goryeo dynasty. It has no colorful Dancheong (pattern of many colors) paintings, but you can feel the history of the building and calm your mind when you put your hands on the pillars of the building which withstood more than 700 long years. On the way down from Sudeoksa Temple, you can visit Sudeok Hotel, where a famous painter Goam Lee Ungno stayed and made his artworks. Nearby Zen Art Museum, Korea’s fist Buddhist Art Museum is also a place worth a visit.

Address: 79 Sudeoksaan-gil, Deoksan-myeon, Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do  
 

Bongsusan Mountain Natural Recreation Forest•Arboterum

 There two recommended ways to fully enjoy Bongsusan Mountain, where you can get a panoramic view of Yedangho Lake. First, visit the arboretum and then visit the insectarium. You can enjoy a panoramic view of Yedangho Lake while walking on its sky deck route, which is built several feet above the ground. If you want to see more of Yesan and Yedangho Lake, walk up further to the Bongsusan Mountain Natural Recreation Forest. After walking along the forest made of both natural forest and plantation forest, you will get to the summit of Bongsusan Mountain. When the timing is right, at the summit, you can enjoy the beautiful sunset that fills the West Sea. Staying a night at the log cabin and enjoying the tranquility of the Bongsusan Mountain Natural Recreation Forest is highly recommended.

Address: 153 Imjonseong-gil, Daeheung-myeon Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do   
 

Agroland Taeshin Farm

 Agroland Taeshin Farm is the first hand-on experience dairy farm in Korea and you can enjoy unique experiences such as milking cow, feeding milk to calf, and feeding hay to cows. Various types of flowers bloom throughout the year in the grass field where cows and sheep roam freely. At the Farm, you can enjoy green barley field and cherry blossom in spring, corn flower in summer, cosmos in fall, and white snow in winter. So, bring your camera and visit Agroland Taeshin Farm in any season you like to enjoy the beauty of nature.

Address: 231 Sangmong 2-gil, Godeok-myeon, Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do   
 

Yesan National Center for Forest Therapy

 Yesan National Center for Forest Therapy is not widely known yet, because it was open to the public right after the Corona Pandemic. It is the perfect place for people who want to enjoy a leisurely walk in quite natural surroundings. Your stress will be released when you stop your walk every now and then to read forest therapy guides. It takes about one and a half hours to walk the trail of Yesan National Center for Forest Therapy, where you may realize you are a part of nature just like the forest, wind and sunlight, during the walk.

Address: 203-31 Chiyusup-gil, Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do   
 

 * This column was last updated in December 2023.   
Ownership of all the information contained belong to Korea Tourism Organization, and no information shall be used without expressed written consent of Korea Tourism Organization.