Life has many journeys and each journey will teach you a new thing. If you ask me what Suncheon brought me, I should answer that it is "The know-how of a long and healthy life is living with gratitude."

Suncheon people taught me how to respect and be grateful for nature, and to live in harmony with other creatures.

If you take part in Suncheon City Tour, besides the introduction of tourist spots, you will be told the story of Suncheon’s development. Back to the past when the ecological and economic potential of Suncheon Bay was discovered, leading to concerns regarding environmental conservation. However, these concerns were addressed with the city government and citizens’ effort to create an ecotourism strategy. Its incredible biodiversity and pristine landscape are protected and enhanced, while simultaneously offering various social and economic benefits to the community; including flood control, increased groundwater quality and quantity, and prevention of marine disaster. Therefore, Suncheon now is well-known as an eco-city; one of the most well-preserved cities in Korea in both aspects of nature and culture. Let go to wholly embrace the beauty of Suncheon.

Seonamsa Temple

Seonamsa Temple and Suncheon Wild Tea Experience House

Seonamsa Temple is one of the prettiest temples in South Korea, especially at this time of year: the plum flower blooming season. It is certainly a great hideout if you want to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. I had to walk for about 1 kilometer to get to the temple from the car park entrance, but it was worth all the effort because the journey was just beautiful. Before reaching the temple, you will get to see a rainbow shaped bridge called Seungseon Bridge. It is famed for its beautiful outlook that blends well with the valley.

On my way down from Seonamsa Temple, I stopped by the Suncheon Wild Tea Experience House to participate in a tea ceremony experience program while waiting for the bus to go back to the city. It cost 3000KRW to learn basic etiquette and customs of Korea’s darye, or tea ceremony, through demonstration and experience. It was a nice opportunity to cleanse my body and mind while learning about Korean people’s respect for tea.

Seonamsa Temple

Hwapo Beach

Luckily, I was on time to catch the bus at 15.30pm from Seonamsa Temple, back to downtown Suncheon, and to transfer to another bus to Hwapo Beach to see the sunset here. Actually, it was not really a beach, but a peaceful fishing village. No tourists, no noise, so I could just enjoy the peace and quiet while waiting for the sun to set.

Hwapo Beach

The second day in Suncheon, I participated in the Suncheon City Tour – Drama Filming Location course. The tour started about 10:00 am from Suncheon Station, then for a reasonable price of 13,500 won, I was ferried to four different attractions including Drama Filming Location, Naganeupseong Folk Village, Suncheonman Bay National Garden, and Suncheonman Bay Wetland Reserve.

Drama Filming Location

Drama Filming Location

The filming location was a great place to revisit the past. Located in the neighborhood of Jorye-dong, the set was created for movies and dramas in 2006 and is now a popular tourist attraction. The village is split between three eras: 1950’s Suncheon, 1960’s Seoul Bongcheong-dong village, and a 1970’s Seoul suburb.

Most of the Korean visitors were dressed up in the 1970s -1980s school outfits. For the older crowd, it was a chance to remember their youth. For the young, it was a chance to experience their parents’ life in the past and take some nice nostalgic photos. The whole course probably takes an hour or two of meandering, and it’s fun to see my generation running around taking photos in their costumes. It has to be a little surreal for the older generation who actually lived these sets to see their kids and grandkids reliving their past!

Seonamsa Temple

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Naganeupsong Folk Village

Naganeupseong Folk Village

Naganeupseong is considered one of the best-preserved town-fortresses in South Korea. As my tour guide said, that little piece of heaven was lucky enough to be left almost untouched during the Japanese occupation. In the past, the town fortress was selected as an administrative core city back in the Joseon dynasty. Visitors will get to see public and private facilities packed in one town fortress: government offices, private houses, and ritual sites. In fact, there are people living in the village today. I would say it is a living museum, where visitors can catch a glimpse of the Korea of centuries ago, or even enjoy a night or two staying in the fortress town. Artifacts are carefully preserved and visitors are given an opportunity to immerse themselves in the beauty of intangible cultural heritages such as Samulnori, Pansori, Gayageum, and seasonal customs and rites.

Suncheonman Bay National Garden

Suncheonman Bay National Garden

As a garden built for the Suncheon Garden Expo in 2013, this park provides different mini gardens from many countries including China, Japan, European, Southeast Asian and North American countries. However, the most impressive part is the garden located by the lake at the center of Suncheonman Bay National Garden. It was designed by renowned landscape designer Charles Jencks based on the unique topography of Suncheon. It is a quite interesting place to take some quirky pictures.

Suncheonman Bay Wetland Reserve

Suncheonman Bay
Wetland Reserve

The famed ecological bay lived up to all the hype it received on social networking sites. Nestled in the middle of vast mountains, one will be forgiven if you were to lose yourself right there and then. The weather was not fine on the day I visited, but I still imagined how incredible the sight was during the sunset on a nice day when the field reflected the sun's rays. I did not have enough time to climb the mountain for a bird's-eye view, so I decided to capture some photos of some birds there. Next time, I will definitely walk to the end of the reed field and head towards the observation deck on Yongsan Mountain for a more unobstructed view.

It can be said that every tourist destination in Suncheon gave you the opportunity to put down your burden, soak in nature, and relax.

If the above reasons are not enough to entice you to take the tour bus, here's another: it's a great opportunity to make friends with the locals! The tour was made so much more memorable with them around. As I was the only foreigner in that group tour, the tour guides, the bus driver and other guests were so thoughtful and caring to me. I was feeling blessed and forever thankful. Till we meet again…!

Naganeupseong Folk Village

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Suncheonman National Garden

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Suncheonman Wetland Reserve

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What is the first thing you look forward to when booking accommodations? For me, it is location. To be honest, I had some not so good experiences when traveling to the countryside because public transportation was not convenient, while taxis are never really a good choice for a solo traveler due to the price. However, Nreem Guesthouse totally changed my mind since it just took me less than 10 minutes from Suncheon Express Bus Terminal on foot. It's amazingly accessible!

Common Room

Moreover, I was very excited to find out that Suncheon Station was just 300m from the guesthouse in the opposite direction as the bus terminal. Since I booked a Suncheon city tour, which would start from Suncheon station at 10 am the next day, it was so nice to not have to wake up too early, but still have enough time to have breakfast and get ready for the tour. Furthermore, because Nreem guesthouse is located between the Suncheon bus terminal and station, most Suncheon city buses stop by the guesthouse. The transportation there is very convenient; it is easy to catch any bus to tourist spots of Suncheon.

Room

I arrived earlier than check-in time, however, the staff was very kind to store my luggage and guide me on how to get to my first stop in Suncheon: Seonamsa Temple. Get in the bus number 1 and get off at the final stop, that was a piece of cake. However, she carefully showed me the bus timetable and advised me I should be on time or I would have to wait 1 hour for the next bus. The staff was so helpful that my first day in Suncheon was so comfortable.

Common Room

In terms of guesthouse facilities, they used grey-blue and white tones, making a classic and elegant house. All corners of the guesthouse were clean and tidy. I think the owner made a lot of effort to decorate every small corner of the guest house. You may find some series of small lovely cactus, pictures, or souvenirs on the window sill, along stairs, on the balcony, basically all around the guesthouse. Every room there has its own bathroom which all offer shampoo, rinse, body wash, and hand soap. They provided clean sheets, pillow covers and 2 towels arranged tidily on my bed. Air conditioner and the heating system were inside each room, as were a mini security box, hair-dryer and slippers too. One more thing that I really like about the room is that the powder room for girls to do their make-up is on the 3rd floor. The guesthouse also offers a large common room on the underground floor. Actually, the common room looks like a book cafe with some cool facilities including a well-equipped kitchen, public PC, and a board game room. The large garden in front of the guesthouse and by the river could be perfect for a BBQ party. Honestly, the guesthouse made me regret travelling here alone. You know, how exciting it could be if your crazy friends are there to enjoy that space with you. It would be full of worthwhile memories. But it is fine, I definitely will come back… with my friends, of course!

To sum up, with its well-connected site to major attractions, and it’s cozy space, I would recommend Nreem guesthouse to you without reservation.