Visiting K-Drama: ‘Our Beloved Summer’ (그 해 우리는) Filming Locations

It has been about a month since my arrival and it took some time to adjust to Korea’s transportation system. There were two apps that I primarily used: Kakao Maps and Naver Maps. From my personal experience, I did use Naver Maps for a while, but I had found out that for myself, I was more comfortable using Kakao Maps but either is fine depending on your suit of comfortability. Until then, it was time to put my skills and knowledge to the test. I decided to spend the weekend to myself and travel to primarily five filming locations that took place in Suwon (수원), Osan (오산), and Seoul (서울) in the K-drama, ‘Our Beloved Summer’ (그해우리는). The two main actors in the story were Kim Dami, who played as Kook Yeon-su, and Choi Woo-sik, who played as Choi Ung. When I arrived in Korea, I didn’t really have any plans or a list of things I wanted to do, so when this idea of visiting K-drama locations came up, I was extremely excited to go on this mini-trip! 

Here is the vlog that I made!

Suwon and Osan

For the locations that took place in Suwon and Osan, this was approximately two to three hours away from Yonsei University. When I visited the two locations, I remember meeting other people who were also fans of ‘Our Beloved Summer’! They even visited two of the same locations as me and helped take pictures for my vlog. Choi Ung’s home from the K-drama was an abandoned coffee shop in real life so I can imagine that the director decided to use this as a set for the film. The neighborhoods were also in a residential area so it was expected to respect the people still living here. The travel between the two cities, Suwon and Osan, took about an hour. I had to transfer buses and the wait time was roughly thirty minutes. The bus stop I can imagine, was along the side of the highway and there were no convenience stores or anything nearby. Thankfully, time had passed by quickly. When I arrived at Dolmen Park in Osan, the scenery was so beautiful. I felt like I was back home in Cranston, Rhode Island. There was a small neighborhood, a basketball court, families going on walks, the atmosphere was amazing for me. My favorite part was just seeing everyone in a good mood and it was very wholesome. I continued to explore the park right before the sun had set and eventually had to take a three hour subway ride back to Seoul.

Here are the places that I decided to visit in Suwon: 

1. Choi Ung’s House 최웅집 

Address: 

Korean: 경기 수원시 팔달구 장안동 109-1 

English: 09-1 Jangan-dong, Paldal-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do

 

2. Kook Yeon-soo's House 국연수집

Address:

Korean: 경기 수원시 팔달구 창룡문로 75-5

English: 75-5 Changnyongmun-ro, Paldal-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do

 

A location filmed in Osan: 

1. Dolmen Park 고인돌공원

Address:

Korean: 경기 오산시 수목원로 449

English: 449 Sumogwon-ro, Osan-si, Gyeonggi-do

 

Seoul

The last two filming locations I visited were taken in Seoul and were about 30-43 minutes away from Yonsei University. During this time, my SIM card was out of data so I did not go to these locations on the same day when I had visited Suwon and Osan. This took a couple of days to resolve (I ended up getting a new SIM card where I was able to receive 3 months of free data). I had a lovely friend who went on this trip with me to help take photos and videos for my vlog. For the filming location that was near Hanok Village, I was unable to find the address on the web so I looked on Youtube for to find reference. Surprisingly in a video I found, the address was shown and I went ahead and searched for this in Kakao Maps. I was proud of myself for discovering this location on my own. This same scene was also filmed in another K-drama, ‘Guardian: The Lonely and Great God’ (쓸쓸하고 찬란하神-도깨비). The last location I visited was an abandoned Supermarket. When I arrived, I was so shocked because about a year ago, the store was still running. Unfortunately, I did not experience and was unavailable to see what the interior of the store was like. At the time, it was around 10pm and I went ahead and returned back to my dorm. This was an adventure I will never forget!

Here are the two filming locations I visited that took place in Seoul: 

1. Jaha Super 자하슈퍼

Address:

Korean: 서울 종로구 자하문로42길 57

English: 57 Jahamun-ro 42-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul

 

Near Bukchon Hanok Village 북촌한옥마을

Address:

Korean: 서울 종로구 율곡로3길

English: Yulgok-ro 3-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul

 

An Exciting Landmark I Encountered

When visiting Suwon, the two filming locations were right next to Hwaseong Fortress (수원 화성). This cultural site was built in 1794-1796 by King Joseon in honor of his father, Prince Sado who was locked alive in a rice chest by his father, King Yeongjo after failing to obey a command to commit suicide. During this journey, not only was I able to go on a K-drama expedition, I also took the opportunity to walk around each part of the fortress and learn how this site had a historical and cultural significance impact.
 

Here are some photos I took in Hwaseong Fortress: 

 

After going on this solo adventure and knowing I would be far from Seoul, there was something I had learned from this trip. 

Don't be afraid to explore alone, it’s the best remedy.

To the people who are doing things in Seoul alone, don't worry, I am in the same boat! You don't need a group of friends to have fun when studying abroad. If you guys don’t know, my myer briggs personality type is INFJ-T. To this day, I still don’t even know what these letters mean. All I know is that the letter “I” stands for introvert. Making friends since I came to Korea wasn’t that easy as I am someone who tends to spend most of my time alone, rather than gaining energy from others. Maybe some of you guys can relate? Traveling alone, I was able to make new friends, learned how to navigate, and was able to explore Korea at my own pace instead of having to worry about keeping up with others in a group. At the end of day, I felt relieved and was excited to create my next vlog!

One last thing, never be afraid to ask others to take pictures of you or even record! There were so many people that I've met and they were so nice! (They were even great photographers themselves). For a tip, if there's no one around to help take a photo, don't be afraid to set up your phone on the ground! (I always carry a water bottle on me to set my phone up against it ㅋㅋㅋㅋ).