Jeonju

Not a Joseon village. These houses went up together in the 1930s, set against the Japanese commercial district. Over seven hundred tiled roofs remain, a good many of them shops now. Hanbok rental fills the lanes, so by evening half the visitors are wearing it.

It holds the portrait of Yi Seong-gye, founder of Joseon, and the painting is a national treasure. Behind it stands a rebuilt archive: of all the stores of the dynastic annals, only the Jeonju copy survived the invasions of the 1590s.

A brick church finished in 1914, built on the ground where the first Catholics in Korea were executed. It faces the gate of Gyeonggijeon directly, so the tiled roofs and the bell tower line up in one frame.

A pavilion on the rise above the hanok quarter, up a flight of steps, and almost every photograph of layered grey roofs was taken from it. A footbridge over the road carries on to Imokdae.

Several ginkgo trees over four hundred years old stand in the courtyard and turn together in early November. Admission is free. Since television crews found it, those two weeks bring a photo queue to the main hall.

Stalls fill the market aisles on Friday and Saturday evenings only, starting around six and packed away before midnight. Upstairs there is a floor of shops opened by young traders, which gives the place something to see in daylight too.

A small neighbourhood clinging to the slope behind Omokdae with every wall of it painted, too steep and too narrow for a pushchair, and small enough that half an hour covers the whole loop.

One of the four gates of the old Jeonju wall survived, and this is it. It now stands like an island in the roadway, so reaching it means a pedestrian crossing — the entrance to Nambu Market is directly behind.

Half the lake goes under lotus leaves, and the flowers open on July mornings. They close again as the day warms, so early is the only time. The bridge across the water is the best place to stand from.

The double blossom here comes late, peaking mid-April when ordinary cherry is finished everywhere else. Getting up there means stairs, which is beyond a wheelchair or a pushchair. For those two weeks parking anywhere nearby is hopeless.

A pavilion on a rock bluff over the Jeonjucheon, credited by tradition to Choe Dam in 1404. Right below it the Hanbyeok tunnel, once on the old Jeolla railway, now carries a footpath. From the east edge of the hanok quarter it is 5 minutes along the stream.

Over the Jeonjucheon bridge from Nambu Market lies this small quarter where painters and craftspeople have made old houses into studios and galleries. Much calmer than the hanok quarter. Each studio keeps its own days, so many doors may be shut.

The Joseon guesthouse for officials and envoys; its front board, Pungpae Jigwan, names the place the founding king's ancestral home. Cafés and boutiques in the lanes around earned them the name Gaekridan-gil. The hanok quarter is around 15 minutes' walk.

Across the Jeonjucheon from the hanok quarter, this national institution exhibits and stages intangible heritage such as pansori, mask dance and master crafts. The permanent exhibition is free. Many weekends bring performances by master artists in its theatre.

A cassette tape plant shut down and sat derelict for years before reopening as an arts venue in 2018. The machine rooms and chimney were kept as they were and serve as galleries. It is inside an industrial estate, so take a bus or taxi from the centre.

A temple on the slopes of Moaksan; Jeonju sits about 40 minutes off by road. Its wooden Maitreya Hall shows three storeys outside but is one open space within, where a colossal Maitreya stands. Rebuilt in 1635, the hall survives as a national treasure.

Under two peaks that rise like a horse's ears, Tapsa temple holds some 80 stone towers. One man is said to have piled them over decades, stones set with no mortar, and still the wind does not topple them. Driving from Jeonju takes about one hour.

Begun in 2000, the Jeonju International Film Festival takes over the cinemas here each year from the end of April to the start of May. Independent and experimental work weighs heavily, so many titles rarely screen elsewhere. Open-air stages appear too.