What's on this page
  1. What the course is
  2. The stops, in walking order
  3. Yangnyeongsi, the herbal medicine street
  4. Where to eat on the route
  5. Practicalities

What the course is

The city's English tourism pages list the second of Jung-gu's five alley courses under the name "Traveling to the Modern Times". "Modern" here means the period from the 1890s to the 1950s: the arrival of Western missionaries, Japanese colonial rule, the independence movement, and the Korean War, during which Daegu was one of the few cities that did not fall.

That last fact is why the course exists. Much of urban Korea was flattened between 1950 and 1953. Central Daegu was not, so early twentieth-century churches, houses and lanes survive here within a few hundred metres of each other.

The city's guide gives the sequence as: Cheongna Hill and the missionary houses, the March First Independence Movement Road, Gyesan Catholic Church, the old houses of Lee Sang-hwa and Seo Sang-don, and Jin Alley — about two hours in all.

The stops, in walking order

  1. Cheongna Hill (청라언덕) and the missionary houses. A low hill west of the centre where American Presbyterian missionaries built their homes in the early 1900s. Three red-brick houses survive in a garden and are used as small museums; the city's guide gives the address of the Medical Mission Museum as 2029 Dalgubeol-daero and lists the grounds as open all year, free of charge. Start here because it is the only climb, and you do it fresh.
  2. The March First Independence Movement Road. A long flight of steps leading down from the hill, lined with photographs. On 8 March 1919, a week after the nationwide independence demonstrations began in Seoul, students in Daegu used this path to reach the city centre without being seen from the main road.
  3. Gyesan Catholic Church (계산성당). At the foot of the steps: a twin-spired brick cathedral from the first years of the twentieth century. It is a working church, so look in quietly.
  4. The houses of Lee Sang-hwa and Seo Sang-don. Two restored traditional houses, side by side in a lane behind the cathedral. Lee Sang-hwa was a poet of the colonial period, remembered for a poem asking whether spring comes to stolen fields. Seo Sang-don led the 1907 National Debt Repayment Movement, a public campaign to pay off Korea's debt to Japan by donation, which began in Daegu.
  5. Yangnyeongsi, the herbal medicine street. The lane leads out onto Namseong-ro. See the next section.
  6. Jin Alley (진골목). Jin is local dialect for long. A narrow lane of old walled houses, some of which now hold tea rooms and restaurants. The course ends around here, at the edge of the Dongseong-ro shopping streets.

Yangnyeongsi, the herbal medicine street

Yangnyeongsi began as a seasonal market for medicinal herbs in the seventeenth century, held in spring and autumn near the provincial governor's office, and later settled permanently along what is now Namseong-ro. It is still a wholesale street. The shopfronts are full of dried roots, bark and mushrooms, and the Yangnyeongsi Museum of Oriental Medicine is on the street.

For a visitor the appeal is that it is not staged. Most of the trade is between herbalists, and nobody will try to sell you anything.

Where to eat on the route

The walk takes about two hours without stops and closer to three with the museums. The herbal medicine street falls a little past the midpoint, which makes it the obvious place to break.

Two restaurants on that street are listed below.

What is on a Korean soup-house menu, and how the similar-looking bowls differ, is covered in galbitang versus seolleongtang. More options in each direction from the station are in where to eat near The Hyundai Daegu.

If you would rather eat after the walk, Jin Alley puts you at the edge of Dongseong-ro, and ten minutes further east is Samdeok-dong:

Practicalities

Menus, prices and opening hours are quoted from each restaurant's own website as read on 19 September 2026. They change, so check before you go.

The short version

Course 2 is a free, two-hour, west-to-east walk: Cheongna Hill and its missionary houses, down the March First Movement steps, Gyesan Cathedral, the houses of the poet Lee Sang-hwa and the debt-campaign leader Seo Sang-don, through the Yangnyeongsi herbal medicine street, and out along Jin Alley. It survives because central Daegu was not destroyed in the Korean War. The herbal medicine street is just past halfway and is where to eat; Cheongwoo Haejang, a soup house there, closes between 15:00 and 17:00, and Gasik, further along the same street, does not.

Sources

Related guides

Where to Eat Near The Hyundai Daegu and Banwoldang Station

The streets around Daegu's main metro junction, and what is on each of them.

Daegu5 min read

What Is Daegu Famous For Eating? The City's Ten Official Dishes

Ten dishes the city itself calls its own, and why an inland city ended up with them.

Daegu7 min read