A heritage trail after dark

Cheongju’s old city center is set to become an evening destination for a 22-day cultural festival built around light, sound and local history. The city and the Cheongju Cultural Industry Promotion Foundation will open the National Heritage Media Art event on October 3, under the theme “Opening Cheongju’s Treasures with Light.” It will run through October 24.

From 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. during the festival, visitors can follow a route through heritage sites and public spaces, including the plaza at the Yongdusa Temple Site Iron Flagpole, Jungang Park and Seongan-gil, a central shopping street. The event presents the experience as a digital journey: rather than viewing historic places only in daylight, visitors encounter them through nighttime installations and audio storytelling.

The festival brings together nine treasures of Cheongju in a shared route through the city’s historic center.

The iron flagpole marks the start

The journey begins at the Yongdusa Temple Site Iron Flagpole, one of the old city’s best-known landmarks. A light-based installation will place the flagpole at the center of a voyage led by a sailing ship. The ship represents Juseong, an old name for the area that means “a town shaped like a boat.”

The idea also connects the event to local children: students from Juseong Elementary School, which still uses the historic name, drew the sailing ship featured in the installation. That detail links a contemporary community to the place’s past, making the artwork more than a display projected onto a historic structure.

Media art combines digital images, lighting and sound with a physical setting. In practical terms, a historic building or landmark becomes part of the artwork itself, much like a stage set that changes as visitors move through it. Here, the iron flagpole serves as the visual anchor for the opening part of the route.

Stories in Jungang Park

The next part of the journey leads to Jungang Park, where visitors can encounter stories connected with Mangseon Pavilion and the Apgak tree, a natural monument. Mangseon Pavilion is associated with the city’s past as a place for education and public life, while the tree offers a connection to the natural heritage that has endured alongside the built environment.

Together, these stops show how a city’s history is held in different forms: in structures people built, in trees that survived across generations, and in the stories communities tell about both. The festival uses light and sound to invite visitors to pause at these places and look at them from a fresh perspective.

Listen as well as look

Sound is central to the experience, not simply background music. Organizers describe a spatial-audio walk—sound arranged to seem as if it comes from different places around the listener—linking the iron flagpole, Mangseon Pavilion, the Apgak tree and Seongan-gil. It is designed to help visitors experience the old center as a connected route rather than as a series of separate stops.

Visitors can also scan QR codes at heritage locations to hear explanations about the sites. A QR code is a square pattern that a phone camera can read; in this case, it provides a convenient way to access audio information while standing at the place being described. That format can make local history easier to explore at one’s own pace, without requiring a guide to be present at every stop.

  • Light installations bring attention to historic sites after sunset.
  • Audio storytelling adds another layer to the walk through the old center.
  • QR-code guides let visitors listen to information on their phones.
  • Pop-up artworks will appear in Seongan-gil shops and vacant storefronts.

Bringing art into everyday streets

Some of the event’s works will use existing businesses and empty shops along Seongan-gil. Turning vacant storefronts into temporary exhibition spaces can bring visitors into streets they might otherwise pass through, while placing art close to the everyday life of the neighborhood. The organizers say visitors can expect surprise installations as they explore.

The program will also include performances and hands-on activities during the festival. Those additions give visitors options beyond walking from one landmark to another: they can stop to watch a performance, take part in an activity or spend time with an installation. The specific schedule and details of each activity are not described in the announcement.

A different way to encounter local heritage

Historic sites are often experienced as places to visit briefly, read a sign and move on. A route that combines illumination, sound and phone-based explanations offers another approach: it can encourage people to spend longer at each stop and notice how landmarks relate to the streets around them. For families, students and first-time visitors, audio explanations and visual storytelling may also make unfamiliar history easier to follow.

The event’s wider value will depend on how well the installations connect with the places they use and how visitors respond to the experience. But its format points to a growing way of presenting heritage: technology is used not to replace historic sites, but to provide new ways to interpret them. In Cheongju, the goal is to turn an evening walk through the old center into an encounter with nine local treasures—seen, heard and explored along the way.

Festival details

  • Event: National Heritage Media Art, “Opening Cheongju’s Treasures with Light”
  • Dates: October 3–24, 2026
  • Hours: 7 p.m.–10 p.m.
  • Main areas: Yongdusa Temple Site Iron Flagpole plaza, Jungang Park and Seongan-gil
  • Featured elements: Light and sound installations, heritage audio guides, pop-up artworks, performances and activities