Andong Folk Museum contains some 3,700 artifacts and a video screening room. You’ll find life-sized ethnographic dioramas depicting life in past centuries, from traditional foods and clothing to everyday rituals and transactions. You can learn about the traditions that once followed Koreans of Andong, from birth and childhood to adulthood, marriage, death, and mourning. (For example, Korean women used to pray to phallic-looking rocks to help with conception.) Koreans and non-Koreans alike can find much to appreciate in the museum’s meticulous documentation of Korean cultural heritage.
Andong Folk Museum is a 20-minute drive outside downtown Andong. If you don’t have a private car, you can take Bus 3 from the Andong bus terminal, which runs every 20 minutes. If you prefer to visit with a guide, guided day trips are available from Busan.
The museum is open year-round, every day except for Jan. 1 and during the Korean harvest festival of Chuseok, celebrated at the end of summer or early fall. In general, most visitors head to Andong from May to September. The spring and summer have pleasant daytime temperatures, although July and August can get rainy.
Learn more about Andong’s Confucian heritage during a visit to Dosanseowon, a school established in 1574 to teach Confucian tenets. While it is no longer active as an educational institution, Dosanseowon still commemorates Confucian history and scholarship. It is reachable by public bus from Andong’s city center. If you have a private car, consider combining it with a stop at Andong Folk Museum.