Source: https://heyseorak.com/spots/abai-village
Last-Updated: 2026-06-17

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# Abai Village (아바이마을)

Category: village | Type: see, learn | Area: abai | Price range: budget
Address: 122-1 Cheongho-ro, Sokcho-si, Gangwon-do
Phone: +82-33-633-3171
Hours: Mon–Sun Open 24 hr (A lived-in neighborhood rather than a gated attraction. Restaurants, ferry operations, and individual shops keep their own hours.)
English menu available: Yes

## Trust and freshness
- Verification: research / 2026-05-02
- Menu freshness: updated 2026-05-02T15:28:58.628+00:00

Abai Village is Sokcho's most important living modern-history neighborhood: a sandbar settlement shaped by Korean War refugees from North Korea, especially Hamgyeong-do. For international travelers, it is not only a food stop for sundae and stuffed squid, but a compact place to understand displacement, divided-family memory, dialect, murals, ferry crossings, and how refugee life became part of Sokcho's identity.

Pro tip: Visit respectfully: people still live here. The best first route is to cross by the hand-pulled Gaetbae ferry, walk the mural alleys and memorial points slowly, then eat Hamgyeong-style food only after you understand why the village exists.

## Story

### How it started
Abai Village formed as a settlement of Korean War refugees from North Korea, especially people from Hamgyeong-do Province. Local memory frames the early village as a temporary home that became permanent: families expected to return north, but instead built clustered hometown communities on the sandy Cheongho-dong ground despite difficult housing and water conditions.

### Signature
The name 'Abai' comes from Hamgyeong-do dialect and refers to an older man, like a grandfather. That makes the village name itself a cultural artifact: it carries the speech of displaced people from the northeast of the peninsula into present-day Sokcho.

### Finding the place
The village works best as a route, not a single pin. Pair Abai Village with the Gaetbae ferry, Art Platform Gaetbae, the displaced-people memorial points, and one North Korean-style food stop. The Sokcho City Museum's Displaced People Folk Village helps explain the original houses that no longer survive here in full form.

### Seasonal notes
Weekends can feel food-tour heavy around the restaurant lane. Early morning or late afternoon is better for reading murals, taking photos without blocking residents, and walking toward Cheongho Beach.

### For international visitors
This is one of Sokcho's clearest explanations of Korea's division outside a DMZ tour. The story is human-scale: families crossed south, built temporary homes, waited to return, and created a new neighborhood when return became impossible.