Gyeongju Practical Travel Guide: KTX from Seoul/Busan, Hwangnidan-gil, Hanoks & Night Palaces

Gyeongju’s table blends royal abundance with viral street snacks: right outside Daereungwon’s stone walls, traditional **Ssambap** restaurants cover your entire wooden table with 15+ seasonal side dishes and fresh leafy greens for wrapping smoky bulgogi or braised mackerel (`~16,000–20,000 KRW` per person, minimum 2 orders). Local beef lovers swear by **Gyeongju Hanwoo Yukhoe & Hanwoo Mulhoe**—marbled Korean raw beef julienned with crisp Asian pear inside an icy sweet-spicy broth—while **Gyori Gimbap** wraps thin egg-omelet strips around savory rice.

Strolling down **Hwangnidan-gil**, grab a piping-hot stretchy mozzarella **10-Won Bread** (stamped like the 1966 ten-won coin featuring Bulguksa’s Dabotap Pagoda!) and rest your feet in a pine-courtyard Hanok roastery café. Buying red-bean **Hwangnam Bread** (`Hwangnambbang`, baked here since 1939) as a gift? Skip street knockoffs and visit the official **Choi Yeong-hwa Bakery flagship** near Daereungwon—boxes come out warm from the oven all day.

First, clear up an outdated blog myth: the old downtown train station closed permanently in late 2021, and the high-speed KTX station outside town (formerly called *Singyeongju*) was officially renamed **Gyeongju Station**! Right outside the KTX arrival hall, frequent express city buses **50, 51, 60, and 61** drop you at Gyeongju Bus Terminal / Hwangnidan-gil in ~20 minutes (`tap T-money or WOWPASS`), while bus **700** heads straight to Bomun Lake and Bulguksa.

Once in town, two golden circular routes—**Bus 10 and Bus 11**—connect Downtown → Daereungwon → Wolji Pond → Gyeongju National Museum → Bomun Lake → **Bulguksa Temple** in opposite clockwise/counter-clockwise loops (just check which direction goes shorter on Naver Map!). From Bulguksa’s parking lot, catch **Mountain Shuttle Bus 12** departing on the hour up winding Mount Toham curves to **Seokguram Grotto** so you skip a steep hike.