Customs, food, and the quiet rules locals notice when foreigners arrive.
From the One Pillar Gate to the side door of the main hall, these are the quiet rules regulars follow at a Korean Buddhist temple. Visitors learn them by watching. KO: 가운데 문은 비워 두고: 한국 절을 걷는 법
At Korean counters, on the phone and across market stalls, the words that do the work of yes and no are usually other ones. A field guide to hearing them right. KO: ‘네’와 ‘괜찮아요’, 예도 아니오도 아닌 말
At a market stall, a pharmacy counter or a guesthouse desk, the free hand matters. A guide to the gesture visitors are the last to notice. KO: 두 손으로 주고, 두 손으로 받는다
On dongji, the winter solstice, Koreans eat a bowl of red bean porridge. Custom says to eat one rice ball in it for every year of your age. KO: 동짓날 팥죽, 나이만큼 먹는 새알심
Bungeoppang, eomuk broth and seed-stuffed hotteok: the winter carts Koreans track by neighbourhood, and how to find them, pay at them and eat from them. KO: 붕세권, 겨울 노점으로 동네를 재는 법
One price, one tray, and whatever the kitchen cooked that morning. Baekban is the everyday Korean lunch that top-ten lists tend to walk past. KO: 백반, 메뉴판 없는 직장인의 점심
Restaurant platforms, bathhouse lockers, temple stones, fitting-room mats: in Korea the floor itself tells you when your shoes stay behind. KO: 한 칸 높은 바닥에서 신발을 벗는다
Seoul's buses and subway share one fare. The free transfer depends on a single tap at the rear door that many visitors skip. KO: 버스에서 내릴 때 한 번 더: 서울 환승의 규칙
In many Korean restaurants no one brings the spoons or pours the water. The table already has what you need, if you know where to look. KO: 수저 서랍과 호출벨: 한국 식당의 셀프 규칙
A route through Damyang, north of Gwangju: start at a sixteenth-century garden, climb the back trails of the bamboo grove, then walk the levee forest to Metasequoia-gil. KO: 담양의 하루: 소쇄원, 죽녹원, 그리고 둑길
Two days down the Seomjin River, from an unpainted hall on Jirisan to a cliff hermitage, a market where two provinces meet, and slopes of wild tea. KO: 섬진강 따라 이틀, 구례에서 하동까지
Baekje moved its capital down the Geum River, from Gongju to Buyeo. Two days by bus and on foot follow it: a fortress wall, a sealed tomb, a cliff, a lotus pond. KO: 공주에서 부여까지, 백제의 이틀
At the foot of Seolhwasan, a clan village where families still live behind five kilometres of dry-stone walls, two hours south of Seoul on Line 1. KO: 아산 외암마을, 지하철로 가는 조선의 돌담길
A ninety-nine-kan manor near Gyeongpo Lake, still home to the family that built it, and open to anyone who pays at the gate. KO: 강릉 선교장, 삼백 년을 떠나지 않은 집
On Korea’s south-west coast, a root-tangled path climbs to Jeong Yak-yong’s exile hall, then crosses a ridge to the camellia temple where he went to drink tea. KO: 강진 다산초당, 유배 학자가 차를 찾아 넘던 오솔길
A steel barge you pull across by hand, a sand-spit village built by families from the far north-east, and the faded stills of a drama from 2000. KO: 손으로 끄는 갯배, 가을동화의 아바이마을
On Seoul's lowest inner mountain, a floodlit Joseon-era wall gives dramas their favourite night frame. Here is the route up from the theatre streets, and the village to pass quietly. KO: 불 켜진 낙산 성곽길, 드라마가 걷는 서울의 밤
A single lane of refugee-built houses on a Busan cliff, open sea behind every shot. Why film crews keep framing it, and how to walk it quietly. KO: 흰여울문화마을, 영도 절벽 위의 촬영지