The Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong is a luxurious blast from the past

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The Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong is a luxurious blast from the past

Published: 13 Sep. 2024, 06:11 Updated: 13 Sep. 2024, 16:19

LEE JIAN
lee.jian@joongang.co.kr

A private hanok (traditional Korean house) where guests can stay overnight at the Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong [LEE JIAN]

Andong, NORTH GYEONGSANG – There are over 2,700 traditional Korean-style hanok hotels today, but Rakkojae became the first of its kind to be officially registered with the government back in 2003.

Next month, it plans to open its biggest high-end property in Andong, North Gyeongsang. Dubbed the Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong, its president Ahn Young-hwan describes it as “the masterpiece of my lifetime.”

The lobby of the Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong [LEE JIAN]

“Every tree in the gardens and giwa [hanok’s clay roof tiles] on the roofs have gone through my eyes and touch,” he told the local press during a tour of the new hotel on Aug. 29. “Including planning and construction, the entire process of opening this hotel has taken about 15 years.”

Spanning over 4 acres, the Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong boasts an impressive scale. Some two dozen hanok and pavilions have been constructed, closely following the traditional form from the ancient Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Certain adjustments have been made for the comfort of guests, however, like indoor bathrooms and built-in heating and air conditioning.

Its 20 rooms are situated in separate hanok houses, with prices ranging from around 300,000 won ($224) to 800,000 won per night.

Inside a room at the Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong [LEE JIAN]

Thousands of pieces of bona fide ancient Korean art from Ahn’s personal collection dot the hotel grounds. Guests have access to a jjimjilbang (Korean traditional sauna), outdoor foot baths and a red clay trail around the grounds for barefoot walking. A traditional Korean breakfast is served in the lobby.

Breakfast at the Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong [LEE JIAN]

Andong is about 2.5 hours by high-speed train from Seoul and it is hard to get around the city without a taxi. But this remoteness is what makes it an attractive tourist spot for some, according to Ahn.

“When I think of Andong, I think of scattered precious jewels that have yet to be woven into one coherent piece,” he said. “Andong may not be such a well-recognized tourist destination and traveling around here may be inconvenient, but everything is untouched and so much of the past is so well preserved.”

Often called “the most Korean city in Korea,” Andong is home to a slew of Unesco-listed places and cultures. Just about a five-minute walk from the hotel is the Unesco World Heritage-designated Hahoe Folk Village. A roughly 10-minute car ride brings visitors to Byeongsan Seowon, a 1575 neo-Confucian academy that is also a Unesco World Heritage, and the Buyongdae Observatory with a stunning view of the Nakdong River.

A view of the Andong from the hotel compound [LEE JIAN]

Ancient art is scattered around the hotel compound and rooms. [LEE JIAN]

Its tourist numbers show that Andong is a niche travel spot, particularly popular with western Europeans. Of the 531,213 tourists to Andong per city data, “some 40 percent are foreigners and 60 percent of those foreigners come from France,” said Rakkojae CEO Michael Ahn. “They prefer to travel to places that most people don’t go, or that are undiscovered, and they mostly come by themselves without a travel agency.”

Andong is also poised to welcome a new four-star global hotel chain, Stanford Hotel. It is set to open sometime this year.

“When I first began this project, every one said 'don’t make it in Andong' because they were worried that no one would come here, but over the years, the city has grown into a place with travel demand, and now I think many more people see the potential in Andong as a tourist city,” President Ahn Young-hwan said.

Rakkojae's President Ahn Young-hwan, left, and CEO Michael Ahn at the Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong [LEE JIAN]

He graduated as a computer science major in the United States, and initially worked as a computer engineer. Upon returning to Korea, he encountered a rundown hanok that was to be demolished in which he “saw beauty in the wooden structures of the old hanok.”

Ahn opened the first Rakkojae hotel in Bukchon, a tourist hot spot known for its large hanok cluster, and subsequently a hanok annex in the form of choga (a thatched-roof house) in Andong, as well as a cultural lounge in Bukchon. Some 90 percent of Rakkojae Seoul Bukchon’s guests are from overseas.

The jjimjilbang, otherwise known as a traditional Korean sauna, at the Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong [LEE JIAN]

For the newest venture, Ahn said he spent his entire 50s and part of his 60s aiming to get it exactly perfect. The first step to that was building it “the right way.”

“Hanok that are constructed for stays these days often use a lot of concrete, but we used all wood per the traditional method,” he said.

Simple though it sounds, it was a difficult, time-consuming process because there weren’t enough professional carpenters who were capable of constructing hanok, and even fewer willing to work in Andong. So Ahn resorted to establishing a school for aspiring carpenters in the city, and with its students and graduates, completed the project.

A room at the Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong with a bathtub [LEE JIAN]

Ahn also wanted to use the Andong landscape to the fullest.

“The epitome of hanok is chagyeong, and here we could recreate that just like the people of the Joseon Dynasty would have enjoyed,” he said.

Chagyeong, which directly translates to “borrowed scenery,” is one of the defining characteristics of hanok and Korean gardens. Rakkojae Andong's hanok are carefully designed so that through every window and porch, visitors get a picturesque view of the mountains and the sky, as if it were in a framed painting.

The view from a pavilion at the Rakkojae Hanok Hotel in Andong [LEE JIAN]

“Korea may not have been able to build artificial mountains or waterfalls like China or Japan, but we lowered our walls and built around our nature so that the mountains and rivers afar all felt like ours,” said Ahn.

He continued, “I thought very long and hard about the edge that Korean traditional culture has compared to those of China and Japan. It doesn’t have China’s towering scale or Japan’s detailed touch, but when it comes to the feeling, I think we can win.”

What Ahn is referring to is pungryu, a unique Korean term for “appreciating landscapes' intertwining aesthetic enjoyment with spiritual and philosophical pursuits [...] revealed as not just a practice but a sophisticated cultural expression that has shaped the Korean understanding of nature and beauty,” according to Jung Hae-Joon, assistant professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Keimyung University.

“So it is a culture that offers more to feel than to see,” said Ahn.

Spending a night in a hanok, having tea on the pavilion, looking at the stars above a quiet countryside and enjoying chagyeong; “it is what makes us so rich as a culture.”

Rakkojae Hotel in Andong is in its soft opening. Parts of the hotel, including rooms for overnight stays, can be made through its official website.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]