The spiritual capital of Korean Confucianism — Hahoe village and dried fish
Andong is the heartland of Korean Confucian culture — the 'Capital of Korean Spirit' where traditional clan villages, ancestral shrines, and Confucian academies have been preserved with unusual tenacity. The Hahoe Folk Village (UNESCO World Heritage Site) is one of Korea's most beautiful historic settlements, a clan village of thatched and tiled roofs in a river bend that has been continuously inhabited for 600 years. Andong jjimdak (braised chicken with glass noodles) is the city's beloved dish, and the October Maskdance Festival is one of Korea's most theatrical events.
Andong was the base of the Ryu clan — one of Korea's most powerful Confucian lineages — and the Hahoe village where they lived has been preserved because descendants still live there. The Dosan Seowon (1574), a Confucian academy founded by the scholar Yi Hwang (Toegye), is one of the Nine Seowon inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2019. The region resisted Buddhist and later Christian influence more tenaciously than anywhere in Korea, preserving a rare concentration of pre-modern Korean culture.