Goheung National Heritage Night Tour

🗓️ 2026.08.28 ~ 2026.08.29

Goheung National Heritage Night is a representative night-time national heritage festival that reinterprets the history and cultural heritage of Heungyang-hyeon, the Joseon Dynasty administrative district that once governed the area, with modern sensibilities. The festival is built around the historical significance of Heungyang-hyeon in 1441 and the region’s cultural value, using lights, performances, exhibitions, experiences, and mission programs to draw visitors into the Heungyang-hyeon Eupseong (town wall) area. By placing the action at Goheung’s representative national heritage sites—Jonsimdang, Heungyangjeong, Seomun-ri Honggyo (Red Bridge), and Okha Park—the event turns historical spaces into a walking, playing, and discovering ground for visitors of all ages.

This is not a conventional night lighting festival. The program lineup is built around the story of Heungyang-hyeon, from the recreation of a Joseon-era official procession to a creative musical drama based on local history. Visitors are invited to take on the role of a Confucian scholar, military officer, commoner, or merchant, then move through the festival grounds completing missions and collecting stamps. Through storytelling content and night landscape production, the festival aims to extend the duration of visitor stays and contribute to the revitalization of regional tourism. It is a high-quality night national heritage festival that anyone—families, couples, and friends—can enjoy together, and it seeks to establish itself as sustainable cultural tourism content where the value and meaning of national heritage can be naturally experienced.

Representative Programs

1441 Iphyeon Procession Parade

An opening parade recreating the Iphyeon procession of Heungyang-hyeon from the Joseon Dynasty. This is the representative program that announces the start of the night festival, featuring military bands, naval forces, and traditional costume performers.

Heungyang 1441 Musical Drama

A creative historical musical drama based on the history and figures of Heungyang-hyeon in 1441. This main performance combines acting with media production to bring the era to life on stage.

Experience Programs

Heungyang-hyeon People’s Mission Road

A participatory program where visitors are issued an entry permit, assigned a status such as a Confucian scholar, military officer, commoner, or merchant, and perform missions throughout the event venue.

Yukbang (Six Offices) Experience Yard

Experience programs designed for families to enjoy together, including traditional clothing experiences, face painting, making naval flags, making citron diffusers, making citron soap, and making bottle cap keycaps.

Okha Moonlight Village School

A participatory historical experience where visitors learn by solving quizzes themed around the history and national heritage of Heungyang.

Engraving Stamp Tour

A night tour program where visitors walk around the event venue to collect engraving stamps and receive souvenirs.

Eupseong Tour with a Guide

A night historical tour exploring the history and cultural heritage of Heungyang-hyeon Eupseong with a professional cultural tourism commentator.

Performance Programs

Awakening the Spirit of Heungyang

A stage where the beauty and excitement of the region can be felt through intangible heritage performances of the Goheung region and traditional art performances.

Okha Small Concert

An emotional busking performance held at Okha Park. This night performance offers acoustic music and various other genres in an intimate outdoor setting.

The Story of Heungyang that Protected Joseon

A program to encounter the stories of Heungyang and the Joseon Dynasty easily and interestingly through history lectures and storytelling.

Thrilling Heungyang Tightrope Walking

A representative attraction presenting the charm of traditional entertainment through a National Intangible Heritage tightrope walking performance.

Night Landscape Programs

Heungyang Government Office Under the Moonlight

Night photo zones and landscape lighting that portray the Jonsimdang area as a Joseon Dynasty government office.

Connecting Wishes to the Red Bridge

A participatory night program where visitors write wish tags at the Seomun-ri Honggyo (Red Bridge).

Heungyang-hyeon Eupseong Path of Light

Night landscape content connecting various parts of the event venue with beautiful lighting.

Supplementary Programs

Time of Heungyang Lingering in the Alleys

An exhibition program featuring the works of artist Chun Kyung-ja and the old appearance of Goheung.

Heungyang-hyeon Traditional Game Yard

A traditional game experience space that people of all ages and genders can enjoy together.

Byeol-byeol Night Market

A night market featuring local food and various sales booths.

Bamcham (Night Snack) Cafe

A night food space where visitors can enjoy Goheung’s local specialties and various snacks.

Visitor Information

📍 Address: 88-1 Okha-ri, Goheung-eup, Goheung-gun, Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City

🛏️ Accommodation near the event

💰 Fee: Free

📞 Inquiry: 061-830-6773

⭐️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gh_heritage/

🖥️ Homepage: https://www.ghheritage.kr/

Goheung’s Joseon dynasty heritage comes from two features of its position: it was a coastal county far from the capital, and it sat near the sea routes used by Japanese fleets. During the Imjin War and the decades after, the area was equipped with fortifications, beacon mounds, and command posts. Heungyang Fortress is the most substantial surviving example. As a eupseong, it contained the magistrate’s office and its walls gave shelter to local people during attacks. The fortress now looks out over the inland sea, but the practical purpose of those walls is still evident.

Its distance from the capital also made Goheung a place where disgraced officials were sent into exile. Those men brought Neo-Confucian learning with them: texts, genealogical records, and the formal practices of ancestral rites. Local schools and seowon followed, where young men studied the Chinese classics. Over time the area became a provincial center of scholarship, and the surrounding villages developed forms of Confucian family ritual that continue today.

Goheung’s Joseon remains are not concentrated in a single monument. They consist of military works, school buildings, and customs carried out in village houses. The fortress walls survive from a period of invasion; the pavilions and libraries reflect a more settled life. Visiting them shows a part of the dynasty that operated away from the court, in a place whose importance lay in guarding the coast and sustaining a scholarly community in exile.