Yeongdong Rainbow Healing Tourist Site was developed to revitalize the tourism industry in the Yeongdong area. It features diverse facilities including the Fruit Country Theme Park, Yeongdong Wine Tunnel, and Complex Culture and Arts Center, providing healing travel for residents and tourists. The Fruit Country Theme Park, opened in April 2017, is themed around five types of fruits produced in Yeongdong (grapes, apples, pears, peaches, plums). It offers various attractions and experiences such as five fruit orchards, the Rainbow Botanical Garden planted with 213 subtropical plant species totaling 13,000 plants, and Banana Country for banana experiences. The Yeongdong Wine Tunnel is a 420m-long tunnel with facilities to rest while exploring the history of wine, a space exhibiting and selling local farm wines, as well as a wine tasting room, experience center, restaurant, and cultural performance hall, making it a new landmark of Yeongdong. The Complex Culture and Arts Center is a multi-purpose cultural space equipped with a large auditorium, exhibition halls, and a multi-purpose hall, providing a pleasant environment for a high-quality cultural life and a space to communicate with residents. Additionally, there is a Healing Center themed on Yeongdong’s natural elements—light, water, wind, and stone—offering healing experience spaces for body and mind relief. It includes a healing forest garden, healing foot spa, children’s healing museum, meditation pond, and healing garden, allowing visitors to escape the daily urban life and momentarily become one with nature.
Opened on January 1, 2022, as a healing space for the whole nation, Rainbow Botanical Garden is located to the right of Fruit Country Theme Park. With a building area of 1,663㎡, it is a subtropical greenhouse housing 213 species and 11,328 plants, open for year-round viewing. The temperature inside is maintained at a constant 16℃ using geothermal heat drawn from deep underground, rising up to 25℃ at midday to provide an environment suitable for tropical fruit growth. Visitors can closely observe the growth process of subtropical fruits, which are usually difficult to access, making it an excellent educational site for both adults and children. The garden consists of four main zones: the Secret Garden, Water Garden, Big Tree Zone, and Tropical Fruit Zone. Passing through the secret passage at the entrance leads to the Water Garden, which offers views of the Tropical Fruit Zone and the entire garden. The Big Tree Zone features large tropical plants. The Water Garden has 16 species including Copper Orchid and features a refreshing Water Wall where visitors can rest. Beautiful flowers bloom around, adding to the sights. At the highest point above the Water Wall hill is the garden. Upon reaching the Big Tree Zone, the towering palm trees evoke the atmosphere of a botanical garden in Jeju Island. Visitors can see tropical plants rarely found in Korea such as the Washington palm, Bird of Paradise flower, and Benjamin rubber tree. The Tropical Fruit Zone, with a baobab tree on the left, is accessible by crossing an arch tunnel and climbing a sloped hill road, where tropical fruits can be viewed on both sides.
Yeongdong Hyanggyo is an educational institution established in the Yeongdong area during the reign of King Seonjo of Joseon (1567–1608) to enshrine the spirit tablets of distinguished Confucian scholars and to provide education and guidance in Confucianism to local residents. It was destroyed during the Japanese invasions of 1592–1598 and rebuilt inside the old walled town in 1660 (1st year of King Hyeonjong). In 1676 (2nd year of King Sukjong), it moved to Gugyo-dong, and in 1754 (30th year of King Yeongjo), it was relocated to its present site. The layout features the lecture hall Myeongnyundang with six rooms for Confucian education at the front, flanked by the east and west dormitories for students. A central gate, Naesammun, stands in the middle, with Daeseongjeon (the Confucian shrine) and East and West Councils located behind it. The Daeseongjeon enshrines spirit tablets of Confucius and Confucian scholars from China and Korea. During the Joseon period, the institution received land, books, and slaves from the state, with one instructor teaching up to thirty students. After the Gabo Reform, the educational functions ceased, but rites such as Seokjeon in spring and autumn and offerings on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month continue. Only a few printed texts remain in the collection, and the hyanggyo's operations are managed by one principal and several officers. Yeongdong Hyanggyo was designated a Chungcheongbuk-do Tangible Cultural Property in 1980.
Yeongdong Gyudang Old House was built in the late 19th century and occupies a quite spacious site. The inner quarters are in a 'ㄱ' shape and the outer quarters surround it broadly to form an overall 'ㅁ' shape; when viewed from the roadside behind the house, the adjoining wall extends long. The inner living spaces are well-preserved, but the outer living spaces—external areas—have been significantly altered, making the original overall form unclear. The construction dates recorded on the tiles are Eulyu third month (1885) and Byeongsul third month (1886), suggesting a late 19th-century building. The 'ㄱ' shaped inner quarters follow a southern style layout with kitchen, main room, wooden-floor hall, and side room in sequence, and separate small study, main hall, and reception room arranged without a distinct sarangchae (men's quarters). The roof ridge ends are notably raised, a common technique in southern folk houses. Notably, the toilet to the east of the side room is a formally built single-room sod roof with a square roof, making it a very beautiful building.
