Daegu

Daegu (대구) is Korea's fourth city, sitting in a basin that traps summer heat so reliably that the country nicknames it Daefrica. Its core is Seomun Market, one of the three great markets of the Joseon period and still running, with a night market that fills its aisles after dark. A short walk away, Modern History Street threads past the red-brick Gyesan Cathedral and the missionary houses on Cheongna Hill, the quarter where Korean Protestantism took hold. Yangnyeongsi, the herbal medicine market, has traded the same roots and barks since the seventeenth century and keeps a museum. Behind the city, Palgongsan rises to over a thousand metres with Donghwasa on its slopes, and Apsan Park's cable car gives the standard view back over the basin.