Perfect Crown Day Trip to Wanju: 2 Spots (1 Confirmed)

About the drama

Perfect Crown (21세기 대군부인) is an MBC Friday–Saturday drama that aired from 10 April to 16 May 2026 in 12 episodes, and also streamed on Disney+. It imagines a present-day South Korea that kept a constitutional monarchy: IU plays Seong Hee-ju, a chaebol heiress, and Byeon Woo-seok plays Prince Ian (Lee Wan), second in line to the throne, with Noh Sang-hyun and Gong Seung-yeon in support. The palace world of the drama was not built on a soundstage alone — production coverage and tourism sources place several of its houses and gardens in real heritage sites around the country, and two of them stand in one small village in Wanju.

Filming locations in Oseong Hanok Village

Oseong Hanok Village, in Soyang-myeon on the eastern side of Wanju (next to Jeonju), is a real village, not a set: VisitKorea counts 23 hanok lived in by about 50 households, and the village was selected for the Korea Tourism 100 in 2025–2026. That selection is confirmed by both the Welchon article and VisitKorea’s own Korea Tourism 100 listing for the village, so it is not resting on a single page. The 23 hanok are a mix — houses relocated here, houses built new, and older houses renovated in place — and the Welchon article puts annual visitors at around 700,000, which makes the village a busy place despite its small, residential scale.

The village’s name itself tells part of the story: it combines one character from each of two former place names. It sits in a valley between Jongnamsan and Seobangsan mountains, and, importantly for anyone wondering whether this is a purpose-built backdrop, it was shaped by its own residents. The Welchon article traces a village-making effort that began in spring 2012, when locals listed what they already had — paper mulberry, the reservoir, hanok and forest — as the basis for project applications. In other words, the lanes the drama filmed were already a community’s home ground long before any camera arrived, and that lived-in quality is exactly what the drama used — and it is why the etiquette note under the stops matters.

The stronger of the two stops is Awon (Confirmed). It is a hanok of some 250 years that was moved here from Jinju and now works as a gallery, café and hanok stay. The Korea Tourism Organization’s Welchon article — a rural-tourism feature run with the Korea Rural Community Corp — describes Awon as the background for Perfect Crown scenes in which past and present cross, and Preview magazine’s location roundup independently names Awon as the private residence of Prince Ian, with several scenes of the prince and his secretary filmed inside. A third independent source, Xinmedia’s October 2026 Wanju guide, agrees with Preview on that residence role, so Awon’s filming link now rests on three sources rather than two — one official and two press — and the stop stays Confirmed, now more firmly supported. Day visitors can enter the shared areas from 12:00 to 16:00 for an admission fee (Preview, 2026, corroborated by VisitKorea’s Hallyu feature for Awon); overnight guests stay in the hanok houses.

Awon rewards a slower look even apart from the drama. It stands at the foot of Jongnamsan, and its name carries the idea of a garden open to everyone. The complex centres on the Jinju-origin hanok, with modern concrete buildings gathered in the same grounds, so old timber and contemporary architecture sit side by side rather than in separate zones. A media and art gallery on site hosts a small number of contemporary exhibitions each year, and day visitors can walk the bamboo path and the hanok wooden floors that the Welchon article describes. Parking is available, according to VisitKorea’s English listing for Awon, and that listing also gives an inquiries phone number (+82-63-241-8195) worth using only to check current hours before you go — not as a booking line.

A few minutes’ walk away, Soyang Gotaek (Reported) gathers hanok of 100–200 years brought from Gochang and Muan as a hanok stay. The Welchon article says its house Yeoiru appears in the drama as the protagonist’s house, and that visitors now come looking for its scenes — one official source, so the stop is graded Reported. The houses here were not simply collected for effect: the research behind this guide describes hanok that were at risk of demolition in Gochang, Muan and elsewhere, moved here and restored by heritage craftspeople. Read the two stops’ source wordings side by side and you will notice the sources do not fully agree on which house plays the prince’s residence: Preview gives that role to Awon, while the Welchon article ties Yeoiru to the protagonist’s house. This guide keeps each source’s claim attached to its own house rather than merging them. Xinmedia’s October 2026 guide does name Soyang Gotaek itself as a filming location for the drama, which is a second source at the property level — but it names no house and assigns no role, so it does not lift the Yeoiru-specific claim, which reportedly rests on the Welchon article alone. The stop therefore stays Reported, deliberately, even though the property as a whole now has two filming sources behind it.

For a non-guest visit, the Welchon article points to Café Dubhe and the Flicker bookstore on the Soyang grounds (the bookstore takes reservations until the day before). Xinmedia’s description adds a little colour to the café area — modern building forms set against traditional hanok views, a pool at the entrance, stone paths and old pine trees — but that is a description of the grounds, not a filming claim, and it is kept separate from one here. Jazz performances and book concerts are sometimes held at Soyang Gotaek, according to the Welchon article, though no dates were verified for this guide, so treat that as an occasional possibility rather than a programme you can plan around.

One request from the Welchon coverage is worth repeating: people live in these lanes — around 50 households — so enjoy the alleys, and avoid photographing inside residents’ fences.

Walking the village and planning your visit

A 2025 travel-press feature suggests a natural walking order: start at Awon at the top of the village and walk downhill past other hanok stays to Soyang Gotaek. Treat that as a route suggestion, not as a filming fact — it is useful because the two stops are close together and the walk itself shows the village’s mix of relocated, new and renovated hanok. The binding constraint on a day trip is Awon’s day-visitor window, 12:00 to 16:00, so plan the downhill walk around it rather than assuming either house can be entered at any hour. The houses themselves are guest accommodation and people’s homes; the lanes are public, but interiors are not day-visitor space.

Beyond the two filming stops, the Welchon article mentions other things to do in the village itself: a guided forest walk in the Soyang cultural-ecological forest, which needs advance booking, and a tea-ceremony programme at a village address on Odo-gil. Those are village activities, not filming stops, and they are mentioned here only as background — check current arrangements before counting on either.

Getting here needs a little planning, because there is no KTX station in Soyang-myeon and no KTX service to either stop. Jeonju is the rail hub: KTX services reach Jeonju station from the Seoul and Yongsan direction on the Jeolla line, with some itineraries routing via Iksan, according to Xinmedia’s transport section. Journey time and price vary depending on the train and route, so check Korail before travel at https://www.letskorail.com/ebizcom/cs/guide/guide/guide11.do. From Jeonju, Xinmedia puts the road trip to the village at roughly 30–40 minutes by car or taxi, and recommends Jeonju city as the overnight base with daytime trips to Wanju — which matches this guide’s own base line. Local bus details for the village remain unverified: no bus number, stop name or frequency was verified against a qualifying official source for this guide, so none is published here.

How we checked

Awon’s filming link is now stated by three independent sources — the Korea Tourism Organization’s Welchon feature, Preview magazine’s May 2026 location roundup, and Xinmedia’s October 2026 Wanju guide, with the latter two agreeing on Awon’s role as Prince Ian’s private residence — so it is graded Confirmed. Soyang Gotaek’s Yeoiru has the Welchon feature alone behind its house-level filming claim; a fan post naming Soyang as the prince’s residence was read but, as a fan source, does not count toward any grade, so that stop stays Reported. Xinmedia’s property-level mention of Soyang Gotaek was also read and deliberately not used to upgrade Yeoiru, because it names no house and assigns no role. The drama’s broadcast facts (MBC, 12 episodes, April–May 2026, IU and Byeon Woo-seok) were checked against broadcaster-era coverage and reference pages before publication — this is a completed drama, not a pre-release page. Addresses and opening details come only from the sources listed; no coordinates are printed for these stops. Two points remain unverified and are left open rather than resolved by guesswork: local bus details for the village, and the spelling of Yeoiru’s Korean name — the Welchon article spells the house 여일루, while this guide keeps the existing Yeoiru spelling until the property’s official site or a second qualifying source confirms it.

Also on this site

• The same drama’s Gyeongju locations are in the companion guide Perfect Crown in Gyeongju.
• Jeonju, the rail hub and overnight base for this trip, has its own guide: Twenty-five Twenty-one in Jeonju.
• IU’s other cross-country drama locations are collected in When Life Gives You Tangerines across Korea.

Sources

The stop cards above show each stop’s claim sources. This guide also relies on:

1. CinePlay — Perfect Crown premiere coverage — MBC premiere on 10 April 2026, Disney+ streaming, leads IU and Byeon Woo-seok
2. 21세기 대군부인 — Chinese Wikipedia — broadcast period, episode count and cast, cross-checked against the coverage above
3. Xinmedia (20 October 2026, updated 21 October 2026) — Wanju and Jeonju travel guide — Awon as Prince Ian’s private residence; Soyang Gotaek named as a filming location without a house name or role; Jeonju as rail hub and overnight base, with the road leg to the village at roughly 30–40 minutes
4. VisitKorea (English) — Awon Museum and Hotel listing — Awon’s address, inquiries phone and parking
5. VisitKorea (English, Hallyu) — Awon Museum and Hotel feature — Awon day-visitor window 12:00–16:00, admission charged, gallery and exhibitions
6. VisitKorea — Oseong Hanok Village, Korea Tourism 100 listing (Korean) — village’s Korea Tourism 100 selection in 2025–2026
7. Travel Sketch (2025) — Wanju wellness feature — Awon at the top of the village with a downhill walk to Soyang Gotaek; Awon day-visitor window; Soyang café and bookstore

Full source list (10)

1. Korea Tourism Organization / Welchon — Wanju Oseong Hanok Village feature (Korean) — village filming connection; Awon as background for past-and-present scenes; Yeoiru as the protagonist’s house; café and bookstore open to non-guests
2. Preview (11 May 2026) — Perfect Crown filming locations — Awon as Prince Ian’s residence; scenes filmed inside; Awon’s address
3. Preview (11 May 2026) — Awon visitor guide — public entry hours and admission
4. Soyang Gotaek official site — the stay’s houses, including Yeoiru
5. CinePlay — Perfect Crown premiere coverage
6. Xinmedia (20 October 2026, updated 21 October 2026) — Wanju and Jeonju travel guide — Awon as Prince Ian’s private residence; Soyang Gotaek as a filming location (no house name, no role); Jeonju transport and base
7. VisitKorea (English) — Awon Museum and Hotel listing — Awon’s address, inquiries phone and parking
8. VisitKorea (English, Hallyu) — Awon Museum and Hotel feature — Awon day-visitor window, admission, gallery and exhibitions
9. VisitKorea — Oseong Hanok Village, Korea Tourism 100 listing (Korean) — Korea Tourism 100 selection
10. Travel Sketch (2025) — Wanju wellness feature — downhill walking order from Awon to Soyang Gotaek; village context