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Cheongju is the capital and largest city of North Chungcheong Province in central South Korea, spread along the Musimcheon Stream on a plain ringed by low mountains. The province takes the first part of its name from the city, which has been an important regional centre since ancient times.
Remains from the Old Stone Age have been found in the hills around Cheongju, and the town grew under Silla and Goryeo, when Buddhist temples flourished here. In 1377 monks at Heungdeoksa printed Jikji, the oldest surviving book made with movable metal type, and in the Joseon period the city was the military headquarters of Chungcheong.
Today Cheongju is a busy university and industrial city, and visitors come for its printing heritage, the walls of Sangdangsanseong Fortress, the National Museum and the walks along the Musimcheon. To the south, Daecheong Lake and the former presidential villa of Cheongnamdae offer quiet lakeside days.
Cheongju Early Printing Museum opened in 1992 beside the site of Heungdeoksa Temple and was the first museum in Korea devoted to printing. It tells the story of Jikji and Goryeo movable metal type and holds more than 650 books from the Silla, Goryeo and Joseon periods.
Heungdeoksa Temple Site is where Jikji, the oldest surviving book printed with movable metal type, was made in 1377, 78 years before the Gutenberg Bible. The temple burned in the late 1370s, its site was found in 1985, and a prayer hall and three-storey stone pagoda were rebuilt.
The Iron Flagpole of Yongdusa Temple Site stands in central Cheongju and was raised in 962 to hang Buddhist banners. National Treasure No. 41, it rises 13.1 metres, with 20 of its original 30 iron drums held between two granite posts, and its inscription records its exact date.
Ansimsa Temple in Nami-myeon is a small Cheongju temple said to have been founded in 775 by the monk Jinpyo and rebuilt in 1325 and 1626. Its main hall, Daeungjeon, a Treasure since 1980, is the oldest building of the former Cheongwon County, and an inscribed roof tile dates its retiling to 1672.
Sangdangsanseong Fortress is a stone mountain fortress above Cheongju, first built in the Three Kingdoms period, with walls 4.1 kilometres around. Its present form comes from rebuilding in 1596 and from 1716 to 1747, and its east, west and south gates still stand above the city.
Jeongbuk-dong Earthen Fortress is a rampart of packed earth on the plain beside the Miho Stream, 675 metres around and about 3.5 metres high. Its date is uncertain, from the 9th or 10th century or perhaps earlier, and excavations found houses, roads and a moat around the walls.
Cheongju Cheokhwabi stands in Cheongju Central Park and is one of the steles the regent Heungseon Daewongun raised across Korea in 1871, warning that peace with Western invaders meant selling out the nation. Most were pulled down in 1882, and this one was found as a drain cover in 1976.
Jo Heon Battlefield Memorial Stele honours Jo Heon, a Joseon scholar who raised a militia in Okcheon during the Imjin War and, with the warrior monk Yeonggyu, retook Cheongju Fortress from the Japanese. Both died fighting at Geumsan soon after, and the stele was raised in 1710.
Cheongju Hyanggyo is the old Confucian school of Cheongju in Sangdang-gu, one of the local state schools of the Joseon period where young men studied the classics and rites were held for Confucius and his disciples. It was named a provincial tangible cultural property in 1977.
Musimcheon Stream rises in Nangseong-myeon and flows through the heart of Cheongju to join the Miho River and the Geum, marking the boundary between the city's districts. Its banks carry a 17-kilometre cycle path and a sports park, and in spring a cherry blossom festival lines the water.
Cheongnamdae was the presidential holiday villa of South Korea, completed in December 1983 beside Daecheong Lake in Munui-myeon. Presidents planned major policies here until Roh Moo-hyun opened it to the public on 18 April 2003, and it is now a park with gardens and memorials.
Daecheong Dam crosses the Geum River between Daejeon and Munui-myeon in Cheongju, built from 1975 to 1981 at 72 metres high and 495 metres long. Its reservoir, Daecheong Lake, is the third largest lake in South Korea by volume and supplies water to Daejeon and Cheongju.
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