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Ulsan is a metropolitan city on the south-east coast of South Korea, with over 1.1 million people, Busan to the south and Gyeongju to the north. The Taehwa River crosses the city from the mountains in the west and reaches the East Sea through Ulsan Bay, and the city was raised to metropolitan status in 1997.
People have lived here since the Paleolithic, and the Bangudae rock carvings record whale hunts thousands of years old. In the Silla period Ulsan was a port for Gyeongju, and in 1597 and 1598 it saw fierce sieges of a Japanese castle. Named a special industrial zone in 1962, it now has Hyundai's car plant, the largest in the world, and huge shipyards and refineries.
Visitors come for the World Heritage petroglyphs in Ulju, the bamboo forest of Taehwagang National Garden and the old magistrate's office and Confucian school. On the coast lie the rocks of Daewangam Park, Ulgi Lighthouse, the sunrise cape of Ganjeolgot and Ulsan Bridge.
The Bangudae Petroglyphs are prehistoric carvings on a riverside cliff of the Daegokcheon, a branch of the Taehwa River, made from about 5000 BC to the 9th century AD. Their whales and whaling scenes are unmatched in rock art worldwide, and the site joined the World Heritage List in 2025.
The Cheonjeon-ri Petroglyphs cover a rock face 9.5 metres wide beside the Daegokcheon, 2 km from Bangudae, with more than 600 carvings from the Neolithic era to the Silla kingdom. Found in 1970 and a National Treasure since 1973, they joined the World Heritage List in 2025.
The Ulsan Petroglyph Museum opened in 2008 by Bangu Bridge on the Daegokcheon to introduce the rock art of Bangudae and Cheonjeon-ri. Its wooden building is shaped like a whale and holds life-size models of both carved rock faces, with films and models of prehistoric life, and entry is free.
Ulsan Castle is a Japanese-style castle built in late 1597 by the army of Katō Kiyomasa during the second Japanese invasion of Korea, on a hill in Hakseong-dong. Korean and Ming troops besieged it that winter without success, and parts of its stone walls survive in Hakseong Park.
Ulsan Dongheon is the office where the magistrate of Ulsan handled public affairs, first built in 1681 at the heart of the old walled town and rebuilt in 1763. Restored in 1981 with the magistrate's residence, a pavilion and its gate, it became Ulsan's Tangible Cultural Heritage No. 1 in 1997.
Ulsan Hyanggyo is a state Confucian school of the Joseon era, thought to date from the 15th century and moved to its present site in Gyo-dong in 1652. Its shrine honours Confucius and Korean sages, and its lecture hall faces the Cheongwonru gate tower, first built in 1711.
Taehwagang National Garden lines the Taehwa River in Jung District with ecological, seasonal and water gardens. Its best-known part is Simnidaesup, the largest bamboo forest garden in Korea, where LED lights turn a path among the bamboo into a Milky Way at night.
Seonam Lake Park surrounds the Seonam Reservoir in Nam District, enlarged in 1964 to supply water to Ulsan's new industries and opened as an ecological lake park in 2007. Paths circle the water past a wildflower area, a rose tunnel, a water wheel and an aquatic plant garden.
Daewangam Park covers 942,000 square metres of coast in Dong District, where a pine forest about 600 metres long leads to the granite rocks of Daewangam. Legend says a Silla queen became a dragon that turned to rock here, and a footbridge leads out onto the rocks above the sea.
Ulgi Lighthouse in Daewangam Park began operating in 1906. Its old brick tower, built in 1958 with a vaulted porch, was registered as cultural heritage in 2004, and a newer lighthouse now stands beside it, built after the pine forest on the cape had grown tall enough to hide the old light.
Ganjeolgot is a cape in Seosaeng-myeon, Ulju County, and one of the first places on the Korean mainland to see the sunrise, a minute before Homigot and five before Jeongdongjin. A white lighthouse stands above it, and a giant mailbox built in 2006 takes visitors' wishes.
Ulsan Bridge is a suspension bridge 1,800 metres long linking Nam and Dong districts across the mouth of the Taehwa River, begun in 2009 and opened on 1 June 2015. Its main span of 1,150 metres is the second longest in Korea, and an observatory by its eastern end looks over the port.
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