Why visit
Love in the Moonlight (구르미 그린 달빛, literally Moonlight Drawn by Clouds) aired on KBS2 in 2016 for 18 episodes. Based on the web novel of the same name, it is a coming-of-age youth romance set in 19th-century Joseon: Crown Prince Lee Yeong (Park Bo-gum) meets Hong Ra-on (Kim Yoo-jung), a young woman disguised as a man serving in the palace as a eunuch.
What makes the drama worth traveling for is that its palace is not one place. The production filmed at real heritage sites across Korea, so the “palace” you remember is a composite: a shrine’s bamboo grove in Jeonju, a Confucian school’s lecture hall, a pavilion garden in Namwon, a lotus pond in Gapyeong, a fourteen-building hanok complex in Hadong, and the Crown Prince’s palace itself at Hwaseong Haenggung in Suwon.
This guide covers the places outside Suwon. Hwaseong Haenggung has its own guide: the Love in the Moonlight Suwon guide. Every place is also listed on the Love in the Moonlight filming locations page. The six stops sit in six different areas, so treat them as separate trips — except in Jeonju, where two stops stand close together in the Hanok Village area.
The six stops
1. Gyeonggijeon Shrine bamboo grove — Jeonju
VisitKorea and Korea.net both name the bamboo grove at Gyeonggijeon: in episode 1, Ra-on comes into the palace as a eunuch and meets the Crown Prince here. It is a fitting opening scene for the drama, because Gyeonggijeon is itself a royal place. Founded in 1410, the shrine holds the portrait of King Taejo, the founder of the Joseon dynasty. It was partly destroyed during the Imjin War (1592–1598) and restored in 1614. The bamboo grove and the tree groves around the main hall give the shrine the quiet, enclosed feeling that made it work on screen as palace grounds.
How to get there: The shrine stands by the Jeonju Hanok Village entrance. Plan the last leg with the Kakao Map and Naver Map links on the place card. Its address is 44 Taejo-ro, Wansan-gu, Jeonju.
What to see: The bamboo grove first, then the shrine’s main hall and its grounds. Hanbok rental shops nearby make it easy to walk the area in period dress, as VisitKorea notes.
Tips: A heritage shrine with set hours and admission — check the site’s official page before you go. Allow 30–60 minutes, and combine it with Jeonju Hyanggyo below.
2. Jeonju Hyanggyo, Myeongnyundang Hall — Jeonju
VisitKorea and Korea.net say Myeongnyundang, the lecture hall of this old Confucian school, appears in many scenes as the quarters of Ra-on and Kim Byung-yeon. A hyanggyo was a state-run Confucian school, and its lecture hall — plain wood, open floor, tiled roof — reads on screen as the kind of working palace quarters where a young eunuch and a royal guard would actually live. The site is a historic Confucian shrine and school, not an operating school, and it is open to visitors.
How to get there: In the Jeonju Hanok Village area, a short walk from Gyeonggijeon. Plan the last leg with the Kakao Map and Naver Map links on the place card.
Tips: Keep voices down; ceremonies may close parts of the site. Allow about 30 minutes.
3. House of Choi Champan — Hadong
VisitKorea and Pressian say this hanok complex stood in for Prime Minister Kim Heon’s house, with the feast scene and Ra-on chasing a chicken, filmed in mid-July 2016. The house has its own drama history: it was built as the main set of the 2004 drama Toji, based on Park Kyongni’s novel Toji (The Land), and consists of fourteen hanok buildings in a folk-literature village in Pyeongsa-ri, along the Seomjin River at the foot of Jirisan Mountain. That is why it feels so complete on screen — it was designed from the start to look like a wealthy Joseon household.
How to get there: Hadong is the farthest stop on this page. Plan the trip with Korail and the Kakao Map and Naver Map links on the place card. The address is 66-7, Pyeongsari-gil, Hadong-gun.
What to see: The courtyards and the wooden-floored Daecheong Maru hall connected to the men’s quarters, which looks out over the wide fields of Pyeongsa-ri. Nearby are the Pyeongsari Literature Center, Hwagae Market, and Ssanggyesa Temple.
Tips: A hanok complex open to visitors with set hours and admission — check its official page before you go. Allow 45–90 minutes.
4. Gwanghalluwon Garden — Namwon
VisitKorea says Gwanghallu Pavilion and Ojakgyo Bridge appear on the Crown Prince’s walks, and the pond is where he jumps in to save Ra-on in episode 5. A second source has not confirmed this stop yet, so it stays reported. Even without the drama connection, the garden is worth the trip: it is a Joseon-era pavilion garden and the setting of the classic Tale of Chunhyang, one of Korea’s best-known love stories. Ojakgyo, the Bridge of Crows and Magpies, takes its name from the legend of the cowherd and the weaving girl, who meet once a year on a bridge formed by birds.
How to get there: Namwon; plan the trip with Korail and the Kakao Map and Naver Map links on the place card.
What to see: The pavilion across the pond, the Ojakgyo Bridge, and the garden grounds, which change color with the seasons — cherry blossoms in spring, lotus in summer, autumn foliage.
Tips: A historic garden with set hours and admission — check its official page before you go. Allow 45–60 minutes.
5. Seohwayeon Pond, Garden of Morning Calm — Gapyeong
VisitKorea says the Seohwayeon pond and its pavilion appear as a lotus pond inside the royal palace. A second source has not confirmed this stop yet, so it stays reported. The pond is the most photogenic corner of a large private arboretum: still water, a traditional pavilion, and a tile-roofed house behind it. In the drama it reads as a palace lotus pond; in person it is a quiet garden corner that rewards slow looking.
How to get there: Gapyeong; plan the last leg with the Kakao Map and Naver Map links on the place card.
Tips: A private arboretum with admission and seasonal hours — check its official page before you go. Allow 1–2 hours for the garden as a whole, not just the pond.
6. Gudeurae Sculpture Park — Buyeo
Korea.net lists this park among the drama’s filming locations without naming a scene, and a second source has not confirmed it yet, so it stays reported. Korea.net also says the drama’s final scenes were shot in Buyeo, but without naming a specific place — so the park stands as its own reported stop, not as the final-scene location. It is a public riverside park, and the lightest stop on this page: an easy add-on if you are already in Buyeo.
How to get there: Buyeo; plan the trip with the Kakao Map and Naver Map links on the place card.
Tips: A public park with no admission. Allow about 30 minutes.
Planning your trip
Group by area. Jeonju is the one place where two stops pair naturally: Gyeonggijeon and Jeonju Hyanggyo are both in the Hanok Village area and can be covered on foot in a morning. The other four stops — Hadong, Namwon, Gapyeong, Buyeo — sit in different parts of the country, so plan each as its own trip, or fold one into a wider regional itinerary.
Best time to visit. Spring and autumn suit most stops on this page, with mild weather for walking shrine grounds and garden paths. The Gapyeong garden is also a summer stop. Check each site’s official page for hours and admission before you go, since heritage sites and the private arboretum keep seasonal schedules.
Stay. For the Jeonju pair, base yourself in Jeonju Hanok Village, on foot to both Gyeonggijeon and Jeonju Hyanggyo. For the other stops, stay in the nearest city and travel in for the day.
Visiting shrines and Confucian sites respectfully. Several stops on this page are heritage ritual spaces, not sets. Keep your voice low, stay on the paths, do not enter roped-off halls or courtyards, and ask staff before photographing ceremonies. At Gyeonggijeon, note the dismounting stele at the entrance: it marks the shrine as a sacred place, and visitors are expected to behave accordingly.
Combine with other dramas. If you are spending a day in Jeonju, our Twenty-Five Twenty-One Jeonju guide covers four more filming stops around the Hanok Village, and our 1-day Jeonju route turns them into a full itinerary.
Getting there
These are separate trips from Seoul or Busan. Check trains on Korail to Jeonju, Namwon, Hadong or Gapyeong, and plan the last leg with Kakao Map or Naver Map. For Buyeo, use the map apps to find the current route. Fares and schedules change — verify on the official pages on your travel day.
How we checked
Places named by two independent sources (official or press) are confirmed. Places named by one source are reported. On this page, Gyeonggijeon, Jeonju Hyanggyo and the House of Choi Champan are confirmed; Gwanghalluwon, Seohwayeon Pond and Gudeurae Sculpture Park are reported. Spot status was last checked Oct 1, 2026. The Oct 18, 2026 enrichment added background, planning detail and addresses from the sources below without changing any spot’s status.
Photos: All six stops have verified location photos — five KOGL Type 1 photos from the VisitKorea photo library and one Wikimedia Commons photo (Jeonju Hyanggyo, CC BY 4.0). No drama stills are used.
Sources used: VisitKorea’s Love in the Moonlight filming-site feature, Korea.net’s filming-locations article, Pressian’s Hadong coverage, Netflix’s title page for cast, VisitKorea attraction pages for Gyeonggijeon and the House of Choi Champan (background and addresses), Korean Heritage for Gwanghalluwon’s Chunhyangjeon connection and Ojakgyo legend, National Geographic for Jeonju’s hanok village and food, and AsianWiki and Wikipedia for the drama’s episode count.
Sources
All sources for this guide
Spot sources accessed Oct 1, 2026 (Asia/Seoul); background sources accessed Oct 18, 2026 unless noted.
- VisitKorea — Journey to “Love in the Moonlight” Filming Sites
- Korea.net — Filming locations of ‘Moonlight Drawn by Clouds’
- Pressian — Dramas filmed at Hadong’s Choi Champan house
- Netflix — Love in the Moonlight
- VisitKorea — Gyeonggijeon Shrine
- VisitKorea — Choi Champandaek (House of Choi Champan)
- Korean Heritage — Famed Love Stories (Gwanghalluwon)
- National Geographic — Why Jeonju is the best food city in South Korea
- AsianWiki — Love in the Moonlight
- Wikipedia — Moonlight Drawn by Clouds
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