South Korea · Gyeongsangnam-do
Where to Stay in Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do
Tongyeong is a port city of 192 islands in Gyeongsangnam-do, named for the naval command post Admiral Yi Sun-sin kept near Hansan Island.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Tongyeong
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
The harbour decides most stays. Rooms near the Tongyeong waterfront put the crossings within walking distance, which matters in a city of 192 islands where a good part of what people come for needs a boat before it needs a road. Islands are the alternative.
Mireuk Island, Hansando and Yokji Island are the larger pieces of a municipality that also counts the Goseong Peninsula, and a bed on any of them swaps the harbour's convenience for a longer crossing at each end of the day. Yokjido has its own draw. The Maemil Chestnut Forest on Yokjido Island is the one wooded entry among the city's named sites, and a night out there is the difference between seeing it and reading about it on a timetable.
Chungmu is the older half. Chungmu city and Tongyeong county were reunited in 1995, and the two halves still read differently, one built up around the port and the other spread over eleven dong, six myeon and a single eup. Tongyeong Public Stadium and the Ottchil Art Museum both favour a base in the built-up part, and you want the harbour if the days are meant to include more than one island.
About Tongyeong
The harbour is the point.
What is Tongyeong known for?
A coastal city spread across 192 islands keeps its working life on the water, and Tongyeong has been a port long enough for the name itself to mean command post. Admiral Yi Sun-sin is the reason. The city was formerly called Chungmu after his posthumous name, and Tongjeyeong carries the same command, while the Ottchil Art Museum, Tongyeong Chakyangmyo and 도솔암 answer for everything that is not naval.
What are the main landmarks in Tongyeong?
Seven entries are recorded. Tongjeyeong heads them, and 도솔암 with its 통영 도솔암 고봉화상선요 makes the second pairing on the list. The Ottchil Art Museum and Tongyeong Chakyangmyo follow, the Maemil Chestnut Forest on Yokjido Island carries the only stretch of woodland named here, and Tongyeong Public Stadium closes the list.
What is the history of Tongyeong?
The name is a naval one. Tongyeong means command post, and it refers to the principal base Admiral Yi Sun-sin kept on nearby Hansan Island, which makes the city's identity a matter of the sea before anything built on land. Chungmu came from the same man.
The city was formerly known as Chungmu, after the posthumous name given to the admiral, and Tongjeyeong stands among the city's named sites. Chungmu city and Tongyeong county were reunited in 1995, which created the municipality as it stands and put a port and its rural townships under one name again. Islands did the rest.
Goseong Peninsula, Hansando, Mireuk Island and Yokji Island make up the body of the city with the other islets, and a place assembled from 192 islands has a history of crossings rather than of roads. Religion left its own marks. 도솔암 and the 통영 도솔암 고봉화상선요 associated with it belong to that older layer, and Tongyeong Chakyangmyo keeps a further piece of it. Modern additions are few.
The Ottchil Art Museum and Tongyeong Public Stadium are the recent entries, while the municipality itself is divided into one eup, six myeon and eleven dong across roughly 238 square kilometres.
Where is Tongyeong?
Water outnumbers land here. The city is put together from 192 islands, with Goseong Peninsula, Hansando, Mireuk Island and Yokji Island the largest of the pieces and a scatter of islets making up the rest. Roughly 238 square kilometres in all.
That total sits inside Gyeongsangnam-do on a subtropical coast, and the harbour that gives Tongyeong its shape faces the same water the islands are strung across.
What is the climate of Tongyeong?
In Tongyeong the sea makes the rules. A subtropical coast broken into 192 islands has no interior to speak of, so conditions over Mireuk Island, Hansando and the Tongyeong harbour front move together rather than separately. Crossings feel it first.
A boat to Yokji Island is the part of a day here most exposed to weather, and the Ottchil Art Museum and Tongyeong Chakyangmyo are what a cancelled crossing leaves behind.
How do you get to Tongyeong?
Gyeongsangnam-do is the approach. Tongyeong sits on that province's coast, and arriving overland brings a visitor to the mainland part of the city rather than to any of the islands that carry its name. After that it is boats.
Hansando, Mireuk Island and Yokji Island are reached from the port, and the Maemil Chestnut Forest on Yokjido Island marks the far end of that chain, with Tongjeyeong, the Ottchil Art Museum and Tongyeong Public Stadium among the sites spread over roughly 238 square kilometres.
Good for
More cities in Gyeongsangnam-do
Updated August 2026