Besides just being a beautiful island worth visiting, Wando Island has now become an increasingly popular place for fans of the Korean drama Emperor of the Sea to visit as well due to the use of the island as the setting for the drama.

The drama’s main character Jang Bogo is a real life historical figure from Wando who rose from a peasant background to become a junior general in the Chinese Tang Army and return to Wando to combat pirates and establish a Korean trading conglomerate in northeast Asia before he was assassinated. You can watch a short trailer for the series here.

The drama highly fictionalizes the Jang Bogo legend by adding many characters that never existed including a love interest. The drama if you haven’t seen it is actually pretty good by Korean drama standards and much better than the Winter Sonata. The action scenes are quite good if you like the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon type of fight scenes and the storyline is quite engaging and complex though it does get a bit repetitive the last few episodes.

The acting is mostly good with the notable exception of the main character. The actor Choi Soo-jong who played Jang Bogo was just too old and unbelievable to play the role. I’m not saying he is a bad actor I just think he was miscast. Despite the weak casting of the main character there remains a number of engaging and well acted characters throughout the series. Chae Si-ra who played Madam Jami the Yangban villian in the drama was acted perfectly along with Jang Bogo’s other nemesis Yeom-jang played by Song Il-guk who ultimately kills Jang Bogo. There are plenty of other interesting characters in the drama as well.

The scenic locations used to shoot the series are quite stunning. Most of the series was shot on Wando Island which I found impressive that they actually shot the series on the actual island Jang Bogo called home. Other spectacular scenery from the series was shot in the deserts of northern China.

Most of the series takes place on the southern coast of the island at the movie set for the port village of Cheonghae that Jang grew up at as a child in the drama:

Fans of the series will easily recognize these village streets from the drama:

Adjacent to the village is the set for the Cheonghaejin military garrison that Jang Bogo constructs after his return from China:

This is another iconic scene from the drama of Jang Bogo’s office:

Next to the Cheonghaejin military base is another location that fans will instantly recognize:

These rocky cliffs were used in the drama as the setting for multiple battles against various pirate factions located on the numerous small Korean islands. It was a bit funny to see that the actual scene for these island battles against the pirates was actually literally right in front of the Cheonghaejin military base:

Another interesting thing to find out was that the location for the port of Yangzhou in China used during the movie is actually a set constructed near the Cheonghae Village:

Also I found it a bit of a shame that the numerous beautifully constructed naval boats used in the drama were left to rot at the movie set and not maintained with some of them washed up on the beach:

The other prominently used set on Wando Island is not supposed to be Wando Island at all but Yangzhou, China. In the series Yangzhou is the city that Jang Bogo first began to learn about business and that Shilla slaves were being sold at. The set for the movie is located in a valley deep in the islands interior:

The set is actually quite large and makes an impressive sight with the towering peak hovering over the set:

The real Yangzhou is supposed to have canals and the Korean set designers made sure that this set on Wando has canals complete with gondola boats as well:

The markets stalls in the city were also stocked with goods and trinkets giving further authenticity and atmosphere to the set:

The most famous building on the set would be without a doubt Lady Jung-hwa’s hotel who’s interior is still furnished:

Most of the other buildings at the set are empty such as the building used for the Sul Pyong Trading Company that Jang Bogo gets his first start in business at:

Another building of interest for Jang Bogo fans would be the headquarters for Jang Bogo’s rival Yi Do-hyung merchant company:

Something fans of the series will find funny if they visit this set is that these two buildings are located literally right next door to each other. Throughout the series these two merchant companies send spies to watch and sabotage the other’s business which when visiting the set you would find easy to do since they are next door neighbors.

Fans of this series will definitely find many more of the buildings from the series interesting to see in person but also visitors not familiar with the series may just find the beautiful scenery surrounding the sets enough to make a visit worthwhile. Visiting both sets is a nice day trip by visiting one in the morning and then the other after lunch. So if you made the time available to go all the way down to Wando Island you might as well check these two sites out.

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