Namyangju Day Trip: Dasan, Sujongsa & Imperial Tombs

Namyangju is the city you pass through without noticing. It wraps around Seoul’s eastern edge, more than 730,000 people live in its apartment towns, and most of them commute into the capital every morning. Line 8 now runs into it; Line 4 reaches its northern end.

But follow the Han east to where its two branches meet, and the city changes character. On the riverbank at Joan-myeon is the house where Jeong Yak-yong, Korea’s most famous reform-minded scholar, was born and buried. Up the hill is a temple that a 15th-century writer called the finest view in the east. In Geumgok-dong lie the last two emperors of Korea, and in the north, King Sejo’s tomb sits inside a forest that has been protected for more than 500 years.

How do you get to Namyangju from Seoul?

Pick the line by the sight: the Gyeongui-Jungang Line for Joan-myeon (Dasan, Sujongsa, the river), the Gyeongchun Line for Hongyureung, Line 4 for Gwangneung. Namyangju is large, about 458 km², and its sights are spread across it. Line 8’s extension to Byeollae (August 2024) is the fastest way into the city, but Byeollae itself is a new apartment district with no major sights.

🚇 Seoul to Namyangju's sights (stop counts from the line maps; Silhak Museum directions page for buses)

For	Route	Approx. time	Notes
Byeollae (city center, fastest)	Line 8 from Jamsil	27 min	Opened August 2024
Sujongsa, Water Garden, bike path	Gyeongui-Jungang Line, Cheongnyangni → Ungilsan	12 stops	Ungilsan Station opened in 2008
Silhak Museum	Ungilsan Station → bus 58	~20 min ride	Bus every 20–40 min
Dasan Historic Site	Bus 2000-1 / 2000-2 from Gangbyeon Station, or bus 167 from Gyeongdong Market	+ ~30 min walk	Get off at Dasan Historic Site Entrance
Hongyureung	Gyeongchun Line, Sangbong → Geumgok	7 stops	Walk from Geumgok Station
Gwangneung	Line 4 to Jinjeop	—	Jinjeop extension opened March 19, 2022; then bus or taxi

The Silhak Museum lists bus 2000-1 and 2000-2 as running every 30–90 minutes and bus 167 every 7–15 minutes. From Paldang, Deokso or Dosim stations on the Gyeongui-Jungang Line, the same buses also stop at the Dasan entrance.

What is Namyangju known for?

Dasan Jeong Yak-yong, and the place where the North and South Han rivers meet. Jeong Yak-yong (1762–1836), better known by his pen name Dasan, was the central figure of 실학 Silhak, the “practical learning” movement that pushed Joseon scholarship toward administration, engineering and the economy. He used a crane of his own design in building Suwon’s Hwaseong Fortress, survived the 1801 purge of Catholics, and spent about 18 years in exile in the south, where he wrote much of his work, including Mongmin simseo, a handbook for honest local officials. He came home to the riverbank where he was born, named his house 여유당 Yeoyudang, and died there.

The confluence itself is 두물머리 Dumulmeori, “where two waters meet.” The famous viewing point sits on the Yangpyeong side of the river, but the best view of it is from Namyangju, high up at Sujongsa.

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What should you see in Namyangju?

Spend most of the day in Joan-myeon (Dasan, the Silhak Museum, Sujongsa and the riverside), and add one of the royal tombs. Joan-myeon’s sights are close together; the tombs are in other parts of the city.

Dasan Historic Site and the Silhak Museum (Joan-myeon). The historic site keeps Yeoyudang, the house where Jeong Yak-yong lived, with his tomb on the slope behind it and a memorial hall. Across the lane, the Silhak Museum, run by the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, explains the scholars of the movement and their links with China and Japan. Free guided tours (about 40 minutes) start in the lobby at 11:00 and 14:00 Tuesday–Friday and Sunday, and at 11:00, 13:30 and 15:00 on Saturday. A special exhibition of donated objects from the Jeonui Lee clan opens on November 19, 2026 and runs to March 1, 2027.

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Sujongsa (Ungilsan, Joan-myeon). The story goes that King Sejo, camped by the river in 1458, heard a bell in the night and found a cave with eighteen arhat statues where water dripped from the rock like a ringing bell; he founded the temple and named it for the sound. Two ginkgo trees are said to have been planted then. Seo Geo-jeong (1420–1488), one of Joseon’s great early writers, called it the temple with the finest view in the east, and from the terrace you look straight down on the meeting of the two rivers that Jeong Seon painted. The tea room, Samjeongheon, carries on a tea tradition tied to the monk Choui, who visited Jeong Yak-yong here. Getting up is the hard part: the temple is halfway up Ungilsan, on a steep road from the Ungilsan Station side.

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Water Garden, Neungnae Station and the bike paths. The Water Garden is a free, always-open ecological park on the Bukhangang riverbank, a walk from Ungilsan Station. When the Jungang Line was double-tracked in 2008, Ungilsan Station replaced the little Neungnae Station about 3.5 km away; Neungnae’s old station building (Dasan-ro 384) is now a rest stop and photo spot, and one of its tracks has become a bike path. Near Ungilsan, the old Bukhangang railway bridge, now for bikes and walkers, crosses to Yangsu-ri on the Yangpyeong side. The Mulsori-gil walking trails often mentioned in the same breath belong to Yangpyeong; Namyangju’s own trail network is the Dasan-gil.

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Hongyureung (Geumgok-dong). Two tombs share one site: Hongneung, for Emperor Gojong and Empress Myeongseong, and Yureung, for Emperor Sunjong and his two empresses. Because Gojong had declared the Korean Empire in 1897, the tombs follow the Ming emperors’ model rather than the Joseon kings’: instead of the usual T-shaped shrine there is a five-bay hall, and the approach is lined with stone qilin, elephants, haetae and lions. Nothing else in Korea’s royal tombs looks like it. It is a walk from Geumgok Station on the Gyeongchun Line.

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Gwangneung (Bupyeong-ri, Jinjeop-eup). King Sejo and Queen Jeonghui lie on two separate ridges sharing one shrine, a layout used here for the first time. Sejo left orders that his tomb have no stone burial chamber and no carved screen stones, to save cost, so the zodiac figures are carved on the railing posts instead. The forest he ordered protected grew into the Gwangneung forest; the Korea National Arboretum (opened 1987, national since 1999) straddles Namyangju’s Jinjeop-eup and Soheul-eup in Pocheon. Don’t confuse the two: the tomb is in Namyangju, and the arboretum’s main address is on the Pocheon side.

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🎫 Visitor information (Silhak Museum official site; Korea Heritage Service royal tomb rules; Namyangju city)

Sight	Hours	Fee	Closed
Silhak Museum	Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, last entry 17:30	Free	Mondays, Jan 1, Seollal & Chuseok
Dasan Historic Site	Daytime	Free	—
Water Garden	Open 24 hours	Free	—
Hongyureung / Gwangneung	Royal tomb hours (seasonal)	Adult 1,000 won; free in hanbok and on the last Wednesday of the month	Mondays

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Where should you eat and drink in Namyangju?

Eat along the river in Joan-myeon (fresh soft tofu, grilled eel or icy dongchimi noodles) and, on a Gwangneung day, grilled meat wrapped in buckwheat crepes. Namyangju has no single signature dish, but the restaurants along the North Han and Paldang Lake have long fed day-trippers from Seoul. All four below are listed by the Korea Tourism Organization (listings updated in 2025) and appear in the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization’s 2026 restaurant data. Hours are from the KTO listings; check Naver Map before a long trip.

Giwajip Sundubu (Joan-ri, Bukhangang-ro 133) — A tofu house on the North Han riverbank. It makes its tofu from Korean soybeans the traditional way, straining the soy milk through a fine cloth bag, and ladles out fresh 순두부 sundubu, soft curds, through the day. Order the sundubu set with rice; the bean-soup set (kongtang) is the alternative. Open daily, 10:30–20:30 (last order 20:00).

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Gamnamujip (Dasan-ro 747beon-gil 45) — On the same lane as the Silhak Museum, an eel house whose tables look out over Paldang Lake. Order the grilled eel with a sweet soy glaze, or the spicy catfish stew made with the house gochujang. 11:00–20:00 (last order 19:30); closed Mondays (open when a Monday is a public holiday) and over Seollal and Chuseok.

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Jugyeojuneun Dongchimi Guksu (Songchon-ri, Bukhangang-ro 547) — The name means roughly “killer dongchimi noodles.” The noodles come in ice-cold 동치미 dongchimi, radish water kimchi, topped with egg; on a cold day there is dumpling soup instead, with acorn jelly and mung-bean pancakes on the side. It is a regular stop for cyclists on the river road, across the water from Yangsu-ri and about five minutes by car from Ungilsan Station. 10:00–20:00 (weekday break 15:30–16:30); closed Mondays.

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Gwangneung Hanokjip (Jinjeop-eup, Gwangneungnae-ro 36) — The lunch stop for a Gwangneung day. Charcoal-grilled pork or beef is wrapped in thin buckwheat crepes, and the menu also has Pyongyang-style naengmyeon. Weekdays 11:00–15:50 (lunch only), weekends 11:00–20:50; closed Tuesdays.

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For tea with a view, finish at Sujongsa’s tea room. Jeong Yak-yong’s pen name, Dasan (茶山), means “tea mountain,” and the temple keeps up the tea tradition he shared with the monk Choui.

🍽️ Namyangju local eats at a glance (Korea Tourism Organization listings, updated 2025)

Place	Area	Order	Pair with
Giwajip Sundubu	Joan-ri, riverside	Soft-tofu set	Ungilsan, Water Garden
Gamnamujip	Joan-myeon, Dasan-ro	Grilled eel	Silhak Museum, Dasan Historic Site
Jugyeojuneun Dongchimi Guksu	Songchon-ri, river road	Dongchimi cold noodles	Bike path, Water Garden
Gwangneung Hanokjip	Jinjeop-eup	Grilled meat in buckwheat crepes	Gwangneung

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What does a day in Namyangju look like?

• 09:00 — Gyeongui-Jungang Line from Cheongnyangni to Ungilsan (12 stops).
• 09:45 — Sujongsa. Climb up Ungilsan for the view of the confluence; tea at Samjeongheon.
• 12:00 — Down to the Water Garden and the old Bukhangang railway bridge.
• 13:00 — Lunch by the river: dongchimi noodles at Jugyeojuneun Dongchimi Guksu or soft tofu at Giwajip Sundubu, a short taxi ride from Ungilsan Station.
• 14:00 — Bus 58 to the Silhak Museum (about 20 minutes), then walk to Yeoyudang and Jeong Yak-yong's tomb. Catch the 14:00 guided tour on weekdays and Sundays, or 15:00 on Saturday.
• 16:30 — Neungnae Station on foot or by bike along the old track, then back to Seoul from Paldang or Ungilsan.
• Different day: Hongyureung (Gyeongchun Line, Geumgok Station) pairs with Donggureung in neighboring Guri for a royal-tombs day.