Sungkyunkwan Scandal|Mungyeong Saejae Open Set — The Capital Folded Into a Mountain Pass

Mungyeong City lists Sungkyunkwan Scandal among the dramas shot on this lot. The pass above it is real. The palace is not.

KBS first built a Goryeo set here in 2000, behind the first gate of Mungyeong Saejae, because Juheulsan looked enough like Songak to pass for a capital. In 2008 the city tore that version down and rebuilt a Joseon Hanyang on seventy thousand square metres: a scaled Gwanghwamun, palace halls, yangban houses, a dirt market street. The open set is still a working stage. Taejo Wang Geon started here. Kingdom came later. Sungkyunkwan Scandal used the same tiled ranks for the city the four scholars kept slipping out of.

Adult admission is two thousand won. The provincial park trails start at the same gates. Walk the dirt road that stands in for a capital street and the mountain does the rest of the framing. No soundstage ceiling. Just the pass the old Seoul-to-Busan road once had to climb.

Photo: Choi2451, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons