Haengridan-gil(행리단길) : The Cafe Street Inside a UNESCO Fortress
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There Is a Trendy Cafe Street Hidden Inside a 230-Year-Old Fortress
Most people visit Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon for the history. They walk the walls, see the gates, and leave. What most of them miss is the neighborhood directly below the fortress. Haenggung-dong, the district that surrounds Hwaseong Haenggung Palace, has quietly become one of the most interesting cafe and food streets near Seoul. Locals call it HAENGRIDAN-GIL (행리단길), and it has the kind of atmosphere that is almost impossible to engineer on purpose.
What Is HAENGRIDAN-GIL?
The name HAENGRIDAN-GIL comes from combining "Haenggung-dong" with "Gyeongridan-gil," the famous street in Itaewon, Seoul, that started the trend of naming hip neighborhoods after the "-dan-gil" suffix. The street itself stretches roughly 612 meters from Hwaseo Park to Hwahongmun, the water gate of Hwaseong Fortress. Along the way, old residential buildings that once housed fortune tellers and traditional shops have been converted into cafes, restaurants, craft studios, and small boutiques. The exteriors are mostly unchanged. Only the insides have been renovated. That contrast between the worn outer walls and the carefully designed interiors inside is exactly what makes the street feel different from everywhere else.
From Fortune Teller Village to Cafe Street
Just five or six years ago, Haenggung-dong was known locally as a fortune teller village. The alleys were filled with JEOMJIP (점집), small shops where people came to have their futures read. When cafes started moving in, the younger generation followed. The fortune tellers gradually disappeared and the cafes multiplied. Today the same narrow alleys are lined with specialty coffee shops, dessert cafes, and small restaurants. The murals that cover many of the walls along the street were painted during that transition period and have since become one of the most photographed spots in the neighborhood.
The Setting Is Unlike Any Other Cafe District
What separates HAENGRIDAN-GIL from other trendy neighborhoods in Korea is the setting. Seoul has Ikseon-dong for the hanok-meets-modern atmosphere. Busan has Gamcheon for the hillside murals. HAENGRIDAN-GIL has a UNESCO World Heritage fortress directly overhead. You can sit in a cafe with a view of the palace gates. You can walk the fortress wall and come back down into the same neighborhood for coffee. The combination of a working historical site and a contemporary street culture scene in the same small area is something that does not exist in many places on earth.
What to Do There
The recommended way to spend a day in Haenggung-dong is to start at Hwaseong Haenggung Palace (화성행궁), the restored royal residence at the center of the neighborhood. Entry costs 1,500 won. From there, walk up to the fortress wall and follow the path as far as you want to go. When you come back down, the cafe street is right there. The street is compact enough to walk in under an hour, but most people take longer because every second or third building has something worth stopping for. Sunset is considered the best time to be there. The light hits the old walls at an angle that makes everything look like a film set.
Drama Fans Have an Extra Reason to Visit
Haenggung-dong and the areas around Hwaseong Fortress have been used as filming locations for several popular Korean dramas. The area around the palace appeared in "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" (이상한 변호사 우영우) and "Lovely Runner" (선재 업고 튀어). For international fans who travel to Korea specifically to visit filming locations, Haenggung-dong offers the rare combination of a drama site and a genuinely interesting neighborhood to explore on its own terms.
How to Get There
Take subway Line 1 from Seoul to Suwon Station, then take a local bus or taxi for about 8 minutes to Haenggung-dong. The area is walkable once you arrive. The neighborhood is busiest on weekends, but the streets are narrow enough that it never feels overwhelming. Weekday mornings are the quietest time to visit if you want the alleys mostly to yourself.