Andong

Andong (안동) is the centre of Confucian Korea, a river town in the southeast that kept its aristocratic clan villages and its academies when most of the country modernised past them. Hahoe, on a loop of the Nakdong, is a working village of thatched and tiled houses laid out by geomantic principle, listed by UNESCO in 2010, and the home of the Hahoe mask dance, a satirical drama performed for centuries by commoners at the expense of monks and gentry. Two of Korea's great seowon, the Confucian academies at Dosan and Byeongsan, stand upriver and were themselves listed in 2019. The wooden Woryeonggyo footbridge crosses the river on the edge of town. Andong is equally known for its food, jjimdak braised chicken, salted mackerel and a strong distilled soju with its own museum.