Haedong Yonggungsa Temple

Most Korean temples are built inland and uphill. This one is the exception: founded in the fourteenth century, rebuilt in the 1930s, it clings to a headland with the sea breaking directly under the halls. You come in past a line of stone zodiac figures, through a gate, and down a flight of a hundred and eight steps, and the temple opens out on the rock with a stone pagoda on a spur and salt spray reaching the lower terraces on a rough day. It is the most photographed temple in the country and it behaves like it. Sunrise is the reason to arrive before the coaches, and it is worth the alarm.

What you actually see

• The seaward halls - buildings set on the rock with surf directly below them.
• The hundred and eight steps - the stone descent through the entrance gate.
• The zodiac figures - the row of carved stone animals along the approach.
• Sunrise over the water - the reason to be there before the buses.

When to go

Arrive at or before sunrise if you can; by ten in the morning the walkways have become a slow shuffle and stay that way until late afternoon. Spring and autumn are the comfortable seasons. Avoid the first days of January and Buddha's birthday unless crowds are the point. Rough weather closes the lower terraces.

Honest expectations

It is very crowded and the narrow rock walkways turn into a one-way queue for most of the day. Almost everything standing is twentieth-century work, so it is not an old building in any meaningful sense. The approach is a long strip of stalls and car parks. The steps are steep and slippery when the spray is up.

Nearby

Haeundae beach is thirty minutes south-west; the Osiria coastal walk starts nearby.