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Pohang is the largest city in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, home to about 499,000 people on the shores of Yeongil Bay at the mouth of the Hyeongsan River. Gwamegi, half-dried herring or saury, is its best-known specialty, and its coast runs out to Homigot, where crowds greet the first sunrise of each year.
Still a small fishing village in 1900, Pohang grew around a modern harbour built in 1930 and became a city in 1949. On 18 July 1950 UN forces landed here unopposed in the first large amphibious operation since World War II, and in 1968 the steel maker POSCO was founded, its works on the bay starting production in 1972.
Visitors today pair the sea at Yeongildae Beach and the walkable Space Walk sculpture with the old temple of Bogyeongsa and the waterfalls of Naeyeonsan above it. Jukdo Market and the old Japanese houses of Guryongpo show the fishing side of the city, and since 2015 KTX trains have run directly to Pohang Station.
Homigot, the tiger's tail cape of Pohang, is one of the easternmost points of the Korean Peninsula, and thousands gather here every 1 January to greet the year's first sunrise. On its shore stand the Hands of Harmony of 1999, a right hand rising 8.5 metres from the sea and a left hand on the plaza.
Homigot Lighthouse was built in 1908 at the tip of Homigot in Pohang and, at 26.4 metres, is the largest lighthouse in South Korea. Its octagonal tower was raised in brick without any steel reinforcement, and inside its six floors each ceiling carries the plum blossom emblem of the Korean Empire.
Yeongildae Beach in Buk-gu is Pohang's city beach, 1,750 metres of fine sand looking across Yeongil Bay to the POSCO steelworks. Opened in 1976 as Bukbu Beach, it took its name in 2013 from Yeongildae, the first sea pavilion in Korea, which stands on the water 100 metres offshore.
Space Walk in Pohang is a walkable steel sculpture shaped like a looping roller coaster, with steps along its curving track that visitors can climb for wide views over the city and the sea. It was designed by the German artists Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth and opened in 2021 as a new city landmark.
Bogyeongsa Temple sits at the foot of Naeyeonsan in Songna-myeon, Pohang. Legend says the monk Jimyeong founded it in 603 after burying a magic eight-sided mirror here, which gave the temple its name, and it holds five Treasures, among them the stele and stupa of Wonjin, its Goryeo abbot.
The Naeyeonsan Twelve Waterfalls line a deep gorge of volcanic rock above Bogyeongsa, part of a national geopark on the Gyeongbuk coast. The trail passes cascade after cascade and green pools to Yeonsan Falls, the largest, and the painter Jeong Seon came here to paint the triple falls of Samyongchu.
The National Lighthouse Museum stands beside Homigot Lighthouse and grew from a small lighthouse museum opened in 1985, reopening in its present form in 2002. Its halls trace the history of lighthouses and other aids to navigation in Korea and the world and show the daily life of lighthouse keepers.
Pohang Canal is a 1.3-kilometre waterway opened in January 2014 to reconnect the Hyeongsan River with the Dongbin inner harbour, restoring a channel cut off for some 40 years. Built to clean the water and revive the old town, it made Songdo an island again, in a revival inspired by Bilbao.
Jukdo Market in Buk-gu grew from street stalls of the 1950s into a great traditional market, with about 1,200 shops in 2008 under a long arcade roof. Its fish halls and raw fish restaurants are famous for snow crab, gwamegi and cold raw fish soup, and draw visitors from all over Korea.
Guryongpo Modern Culture and History Street in the fishing town of Guryongpo keeps a row of Japanese houses from the colonial era, restored and opened by the city in 2010. The house of Hashimoto Zenkichi is now a museum, and the street appeared in the drama When the Camellia Blooms.
Guryongpo Beach is the sandy bay of Guryongpo-ri in Nam-gu, beside the harbour of Guryongpo, an East Sea fishing base that handles about 80 percent of the trade in gwamegi. The town is also known for its snow crab, named for legs as straight as bamboo and sold nationwide, and for half-dried squid.
Gwamegi is the winter specialty of Pohang: herring or Pacific saury hung in the cold sea wind to freeze and thaw again and again until half-dried. Racks of it fill Guryongpo each winter, and it is eaten in seaweed or lettuce with garlic and chilli; Joseon records list it as a Yeongil tribute.
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