“Jeonju? Yeah, their bibimbap is famous.” For five years, I lived in Seoul and people still talk about bibimbap whenever I first tell them where I am from. “But people in Jeonju don’t often eat that,” I protest.
I say this, as a Jeonju native who at some point found myself hesitating to talk about the city. Seemingly out of nowhere, different restaurants serving octopus skewers and shrimp dumplings, which I’ve never even tasted before, became “famous” at the Jeonju Hanok Village. The Hanok Village’s main street has always been full of new restaurants and crowded with people waiting in long lines to buy food. Jeonju became a famous tourist attraction and is no longer the hometown that I remembered it to be.
No matter how tasty that octopus skewer might be; I hope that is not what people remember after they visit Jeonju. With all my Jeonju pride, I’d now like to introduce the real face of Jeonju as experienced by someone born and raised there, in order to keep the city’s true colors alive. As such, I went on an overnight trip and instead of staying at my parent’s place in Hyoja-dong, I decided to stay at a hanok in the Jeonju Hanok Village.
Jeonju is a great destination for a one-night, two-day trip. It’s a small city in terms of population, buildings and its actual size. There are no subways; but taxi fees, even when far, rarely come out to more than 10,000 won. However, must-see places are easy to pass by without insider knowledge and it’s easy to miss some of the hot spots without noticing. So, please don’t think you had a look at the whole city after taking a selfie in front of Jeondong Catholic Cathedral and taking a short walk in the Hanok Village.
The greatest allure of Jeonju is that it becomes so different if you allow yourself some space to explore. A whole new scenery’s out there if you just walk down another alley and cross that bridge. The places I am going to introduce here might be relatively unknown as I didn’t include places you can easily read about online. Instead, these are places that my friends, family and neighbors recommended. I still go to Jeonju once every month, but to be honest, even I learned about a lot of places thanks to this trip.
