Hahoe Village: A Clan Village Inside a River Bend

The name says most of it. Hahoe means roughly "the river turning around," and from above you can see why: the Nakdong River loops around the village in a wide S-curve, leaving a pale sandbank on one side and a wall of cliffs on the other. Inside that loop sits one of the best-preserved clan villages in Korea, home for centuries to the Pungsan Ryu family, and still lived in today.

That last point is what separates Hahoe from a museum village. People farm the fields at the edge of town, hang laundry in courtyards and park bicycles by walls that are several hundred years old. In 2010, UNESCO inscribed Hahoe together with Yangdong Village near Gyeongju as the "Historic Villages of Korea," recognizing how both kept their layout, architecture and social life intact across the Joseon period. If you have already walked the Silla tombs of Gyeongju, Hahoe is the natural next chapter: a later, quieter, more domestic kind of heritage.

Walk slowly and you start to read the village as a social map. The large tiled-roof houses, such as Yangjindang and Chunghyodang, belonged to the aristocratic yangban households, including the family of Ryu Seong-ryong, the scholar-minister who guided Joseon through the Japanese invasions of the 1590s and wrote the war memoir Jingbirok. The thatched houses that surround them were homes of tenant farmers and servants. Many compounds join the two, a thatched wing pressed against a tiled one, which is the detail most visitors end up photographing.

Give yourself at least three hours inside the village. Follow the earthen lanes toward the centre, where an old zelkova tree, known locally as Samsindang, is hung with paper wishes. Then take the path out to the riverside pine grove, Mansongjeong, planted long ago as a windbreak and now the best place to sit and watch the light move across the cliffs opposite. Autumn is a generous time to be here. The paddies around the village turn gold through late September and October, and the heat of summer has eased enough that walking the whole loop is a pleasure rather than a chore.

A note on manners: these are private homes. Some houses open their gates to visitors and some do not. Look for the signs, keep voices low, and ask before photographing anyone. If Hahoe gives you a taste for slower places, our guide to hidden Korean villages collects a few more worth the detour.

The Masks, the Byeolsingut and the Festival

Hahoe is also the birthplace of Korea's most recognisable masks. The Hahoe and Byeongsan masks, carved from alder wood and lacquered, are designated National Treasures, and they are unusually expressive. Several of them, including the aristocrat, the scholar, the monk and the butcher, have a separately carved lower jaw tied on with cord. When the dancer tips his head back, the mask seems to laugh; when he lowers it, the face turns sullen. It is a simple piece of engineering that makes a wooden face feel alive.

The masks were made for the Hahoe Byeolsingut Talnori, a mask dance drama once performed as part of a village rite for its guardian spirit. Its scenes poke fun at pompous aristocrats, a lustful monk and the petty rivalries of village life, and ordinary villagers once used it to say things they could not say out loud. Today it is a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, and in 2022 Korea's mask dance dramas, known collectively as talchum, were added to UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

You do not need a festival to see it. A regular performance of the Byeolsingut is staged at the mask dance hall near the village entrance, generally at 2 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday between March and December and at weekends in winter. It is free and lasts about an hour. The schedule can change around holidays and festival week, so check it on the day.

The Andong International Mask Dance Festival is the bigger stage. It has been held since 1997 and brings Korean mask dance troupes together with performers from abroad. For 2026, the festival is scheduled to run from Thursday, September 24 to Sunday, October 4, with programs spread across the Mask Dance Park in downtown Andong, the old downtown streets, the former railway station site known as Jungang-seon 1942 Andong Station, and Hahoe Village itself. Downtown is where the parades, workshops and international troupes gather; Hahoe is where the traditional performances feel most at home.

If you can, stay for an evening in Hahoe. On selected nights the village revives Seonyu Julbul Nori, a Joseon-era fire game in which long ropes of burning pouches are strung from the top of the Buyongdae cliff across the river, sending sparks drifting down over the water while lanterns float below. Dates are announced in the official festival program, and the riverbank fills early, so check the timetable before you plan your day around it.

Buyongdae and Byeongsan Seowon: The Views Beyond the Village

Most visitors see Hahoe from the inside. The better photograph is taken from outside, looking back. Buyongdae is the cliff that rises from the opposite bank of the Nakdong, and from its top the whole village appears at once: the river curling around it, the sandbank, the pine grove and the patchwork of roofs. It is the view on most postcards of Andong, and it explains the geography of the place in a single glance.

Reaching it takes a little planning. By road, the top of Buyongdae is a short drive around from the village by way of a bridge downstream, with a small car park and a short walk to the edge. At times a small boat also crosses from the village sandbank to the foot of the cliff, depending on season and water level. Either way, go in the late afternoon, when the light falls from the west onto the village and the cliff face behind you turns warm. Nearby, Hwacheon Seowon and the Okyeon pavilion sit quietly by the water and make an easy add-on.

The second essential stop is Byeongsan Seowon, a Confucian academy about four kilometres upstream along a gravel road. It was founded in memory of Ryu Seong-ryong, the same statesman whose family home stands in Hahoe, and in 2019 it was inscribed by UNESCO as one of the nine "Seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian Academies." Its great open-sided pavilion, Mandaeru, faces a river and a line of cliffs so squarely that the building feels designed around the view. Sitting on its worn wooden floor is one of the most peaceful half-hours you can spend in Korea.

Byeongsan is not well served by public transport. A taxi from Hahoe is the simplest option, and some visitors walk the riverside road in about an hour each way. Combine it with Hahoe on the same day and you have a complete portrait of Joseon life: the clan home, the view that framed it and the school where its scholars were trained.

Getting There, Staying Over and What to Eat

From Seoul. The KTX-Eum train from Cheongnyangni Station reaches Andong Station in a little over two hours. Andong Station and the city's bus terminal sit side by side, and from there local bus 210 runs to Hahoe Village in roughly 50 minutes to an hour. It departs only several times a day, so photograph the timetable when you arrive. Taxis are easy to find and save time if you are travelling in a group. During the festival, extra shuttle services usually link downtown and Hahoe; check the official festival site before you travel.

At the village. You buy an admission ticket at the visitor centre, where adult admission has been around 5,000 won, then take the free shuttle bus for the final stretch to the village gate. Allow half a day for Hahoe alone and a full day if you add Buyongdae and Byeongsan Seowon.

Staying over. Several families in Hahoe run hanok guesthouses, and a night inside the village is the best way to see it after the day visitors leave. Rooms are simple, with floor bedding and shared or basic bathrooms, and they book up quickly during festival week. If you prefer a hotel, downtown Andong has plenty, and it puts you close to the festival's evening programs. For an even quieter night, a templestay at one of the region's mountain temples is another option.

What to eat. Andong has a food identity of its own. Jjimdak, braised chicken with potatoes, vegetables, dried chilies and glassy sweet-potato noodles, is the city's calling card; the classic version is soy-based and savoury, and many restaurants in the old market's jjimdak alley also serve spicier red versions. Look out as well for heotjesabap, a mild bibimbap modelled on the food offered at ancestral rites and seasoned with soy sauce rather than chili paste, and for grilled salted mackerel, a dish born of the days when fish had to be salted to survive the journey inland. Andong soju, a clear distilled spirit with a long local history, makes a good bottle to take home.