Seooreung Tombs & Suguksa Temple Seoul 서오릉, 수국사

I went to see the West Five Royal Tombs in Goyang aka Seooreung, and then Suguksa, a gold-painted temple nearby. It took half a day and was part of me finding isolated places to escape the coronavirus during some downtime.

The bus trip was about an hour and at the end, the driver for some reason said we couldn’t stop at the place I wanted, so cue a ten minute walk back. There were restaurants around, mainly big family affairs, nothing that appealed for an early lunch.

It was 1,000 won to get in. It is a larger park for people to stroll around. The burial areas of the kings are small buildings with the actual burial mound behind; you can walk up to the buildings but you aren’t allowed to go up the mounds. It is similar to Seolleung Park in Samseong-dong, Seoul. It was a pleasant walk up and down the hills and through the wooded areas.

When I had gone around most of it, I headed out to find some food. Nothing really took my fancy, so I decided to go to the golden temple, Suguksa. It was about a twenty minute walk and I went to the back by accident at first and couldn’t get in. Nice neighbourhood though! I got inside by walking through the streets to get to the front entrance. There were signs about coronavirus and there wasn’t anyone around. At the front is a massive yellow building which I guessed was accommodation for monks or a monk school perhaps. The temple itself was quite large and there were lots of lanterns up for Buddha’s birthday celebrations. There is a view to the mountains in the distance but unfortunately, this has been largely ruined by the construction going on now; new apartments. You can still get a temple and mountain photograph with creative angles.

one highlight of the temple is the huge temple Jindo dog, sitting at the top of the steps at the entrance. They looked very regal and totally uninterested in me and my photography.