From Samgakji Station to Hyochang Stadium: The Complete Half-Day Route

A three-to-four-hour route through a neighborhood where military history and the memory of Korea's independence movement overlap. Check both the cemetery's visiting etiquette and the stadium's match schedule before you go.

The core route

1. Samgakji Station — Start your route at the site of the old traffic rotary.

2. The Samgakji dried-pollack-soup alley — A row of long-running restaurants that began as soldiers' neighborhood favorites.

3. Baekbeom-ro — The road connecting Samgakji to Hyochang Park.

4. Hyochang Park's main gate and the Tombs of the Three Martyrs — Enter the legally protected cemetery grounds and visit quietly.

5. Kim Gu's grave — Ground that independence fighters chose, of their own will, to return to and fill.

6. The Kim Gu Memorial Hall — Review exhibits on modern Korean history and the Provisional Government.

7. Hyochang Stadium — Finish by taking in the history of this internationally regulation soccer venue.

Backup routes for different situations

If it's raining heavily

Start with a meal in the Samgakji dried-pollack-soup alley
→ Spend more time at the Kim Gu Memorial Hall
→ Pay brief, quiet respects at the Hyochang Park cemetery with an umbrella
→ View Hyochang Stadium from the outside only

If the memorial hall is closed

If the Kim Gu Memorial Hall is closed: rely on the cemetery grounds and on-site signage for historical context, and spend more time in the soup alley instead

If walking is difficult, or accessibility is a concern

Walk only as far as the soup alley from Samgakji Station, and save the interior of Hyochang Park's cemetery grounds for a separate visit.

✅ Final check before you leave

Opening hours and closing days for the Kim Gu Memorial Hall
Hyochang Stadium's match schedule
Visiting etiquette and any access restrictions at Hyochang Park's cemetery
Operating hours for individual restaurants in the soup alley
Any restricted zones near the former Yongsan Garrison