Oeam Folk Village

Oeam has been the seat of the Yean Yi family for some five hundred years and about seventy households still live in it, which is the distinction worth holding onto: it is a village, not a folk museum, and the houses are homes. What people notice first are the walls - dry-laid stone, running for kilometres along every lane, low enough to see over and old enough to have settled into the ground. The other feature is water: a channel was led in from the stream and split through the village so that it runs past and sometimes through individual yards, feeding small ponds and gardens, which is unusual and was a mark of the family's standing. Houses range from thatched cottages to tiled yangban homes; the largest, Yeongam-gun's house, has a garden that can be visited. Some households offer hanok stays and make traditional liquor. Visitors are asked to keep to the lanes.

What you actually see

• The dry stone walls - kilometres of them along every lane.
• The water channels - the stream led through yards and ponds.
• The range of houses - thatched cottages to tiled clan homes.
• The working village - about seventy households living in it.

When to go

April to June and October. Weekday mornings are quiet. Autumn, when persimmons are hung to dry along the walls, is the local favourite.

Honest expectations

Ticketed, and most houses are private - you walk the lanes and see gardens from the gate. It is quieter and plainer than Hahoe, which some prefer and others find thin.

Nearby

Onyang hot springs and Hyeonchungsa are in Asan; Gongju is south.