Suwon Hwaseong & Haenggung-dong

수원 화성 · 행궁동 · Gyeonggi & Incheon  ✓ Verified August 2026

Free to visitThe wall and every Lovely Runner spot are free and open at any hour; only the palace and museums are ticketed.

The walls of UNESCO-listed Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon
Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC0 via Wikimedia Commons

A UNESCO fortress wrapped around a mural-village neighborhood an hour from Seoul — Lovely Runner turned its gates and alleys into 2024's biggest new pilgrimage site.

Address
Haenggung-dong, Paldal-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi
Getting there
Line 1 or Suin-Bundang Line to Suwon Station (about 1 hour from Seoul), then a 10–15 minute bus or taxi to Hwaseong Haenggung.
Hours
The fortress wall is open 24 hours, year-round. Hwaseong Haenggung palace 09:00–18:00.
Admission
Wall walk free. Haenggung palace ₩2,000 adults, ₩1,500 teens and serving military, ₩1,000 primary school. A ₩4,000 combined ticket adds the Hwaseong and Suwon museums.

What Korean visitors report

🔎 Last checked · August 2026

Korean-language visitor reports carry details that English guides do not — what is still standing, what closed, and what the walk from the car park is actually like. We read them and summarise the facts here.

You cannot reproduce the Hwahongmun shot
This is the thing to know before you travel. The confession scene was filmed on the stone bridge at Hwahongmun, and the bridge is there and free — but water runs beneath the span where the camera sat, so the drama's exact framing is not physically available to you. Korean visitors settle for sitting on the bridge itself or standing to the left of the gate. Go for the fortress; do not go expecting that photograph.
Walk it, do not drive it
Parking in Haenggung-dong is genuinely competitive, and every Lovely Runner location sits within a short walk of the others. Korean visitors repeatedly recommend arriving by train and doing the whole thing on foot. The efficient order is Hwahong Mart, then Hwahongmun, then Yongyeon pond and Banghwasuryujeong.
The yellow umbrella house is a working café
Sol's house is Monted, at 14 Hwaseomun-ro 48-gil. The yellow umbrella marks it. The photo position Korean visitors recommend is from the side where the café chairs are. Sun-jae's house opposite is an ordinary private home — photograph and move on. Monted closes on Wednesdays.
One location most guides miss
The scene where Sun-jae sprints after the bus Sol could not get off is at the Yeonmu-dong public car park, 57 Gyeongsu-daero 743beon-gil. Search 연무동 공영주차장.
It is quieter than the hype suggests
A visitor arriving at Monted at 11:30 on a Saturday in peak summer found one family there and no queue at all. This is a pilgrimage site you can do at your own pace.
The trolley needs booking at weekends
The Hwaseong tour trolley requires advance reservation on weekends through Suwon's tourism site. Turning up and hoping is the common failure.
Buy the combined ticket if you are going inside anything
Palace entry alone is ₩2,000; ₩4,000 covers the palace plus Hwaseong Museum and Suwon Museum. If you plan to enter more than the palace, the combined ticket pays for itself immediately.
Summer nights are a different site
Haenggung runs night openings, and the Suwon heritage night festival lights Yongyeon, Hwahongmun and the stream with exhibitions and performances. If your dates line up, the fortress after dark is the better version.

Based on: Naver Place listings, Suwon tourism guides published in 2026, and Korean visitor reports on the Lovely Runner locations

Sources checked:
  • Naver Place listings — fortress and palace hours, admission tiersRegistry
  • Suwon tourism guides, 2026 — combined ticket, trolley booking, night openingVisitor report
  • Korean visitor reports on the Lovely Runner locations — framing, route, crowdingVisitor report

Dramas filmed at Suwon Hwaseong & Haenggung-dong

Lovely Runner

Hwahongmun's confession bridge, the Yongyeon pond bicycle lesson, and Sol's yellow-umbrella house (now a café) in the alleys.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

The exterior of Woo Young Woo Kimbap is a real restaurant in the same Haenggung-dong old town.

Twenty-Five Twenty-One

The prop bus stop by Paldalmun's fortress wall — the shoelace scene, revisited in the finale.

Two dramas, one neighborhood

Haenggung-dong is the rare place where two megahits overlap within a 15-minute walk: Lovely Runner’s bridge, pond and café-house, and Extraordinary Attorney Woo’s kimbap shop. Add the fortress wall itself — a 5.7km UNESCO loop with gates, sentry towers and city views — and this is the best half-day drama trip outside Seoul.

Visiting tips

Start at Hwahongmun (the water gate with the confession bridge), walk the wall east for views, then drop into the Haenggung-dong alleys for the café-house and murals. The neighborhood has quietly become Suwon’s café district, so refuel locally. Dusk is the magic window: the fortress lights come on and the crowds thin.

What’s nearby

Suwon’s other claim to fame is wang-galbi (king-size marinated ribs) — the galbi streets near the fortress are the standard dinner. The Korean Folk Village (My Love from the Star’s Joseon flashbacks) is 40 minutes away by bus if you’re building a full Gyeonggi drama day.