Wednesday 15 April 2020

Pocheon Art Valley (포천아트밸리)


Pocheon Art Valley was the shooting places of  "Running Man", "Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo", "The Legend of Blue Sea", and "A Korean Odyssey"

The scenery was so magnificent and surreal on screen.

Therefore, I put it under my "to-visit" bucket list. However, it's not easy to travel there because of limitations in transport.

Great that I found contact dooretourkorea@gmail.com from Herb Island. They provide a shuttle bus from Seoul to Herb Island.  He suggested taking the shuttle bus in the morning, then take the public bus from Herb Island to Pocheon Art Valley and go to Herb Island and back to Seoul at night.

9:30am Seoul City Hall Station (exit 9) | 10:15am The bus driver 
dropped us off at the entrance to Herb Island.

 We were extremely lost and unsure of where to take the bus. So we went to
 Restaurant to ask for assistance and the staff were kind enough to draw us a map to the bus stop.

 
 Boarded bus 57-1 at 11:14am and reached Pocheon City Bus Stop at 11:37am.

 
 
We went to the convenient store to buy Gimbap and Bungeoppang (Fish-shaped Waffle)
to fill our hungry stomach while waiting for the bus.

 After checking Google Maps and Naver, we discovered that 
there was still a long time until the next bus would arrive.

Therefore, we headed to this cafe to relax and drink tea. We went back to the bus stop because the owner of Sunflower Cafe told us that the bus was coming soon according to Naver. 

 
Schedule for Bus 73 which I snap from the bus.

 Admission Fee: KRW 5,000 / person.

Monorail KRW 4,500 / person for round trip.
It was drizzling when we reached, so we went to the Astronomical Science Museum.
There's a planetarium inside, you can learn about our solar system, earth, planets, 
meteoroids, stars and many more. We spent about half an hour there...

Pocheon Art Valley (포천아트밸리) was a former granite quarry.


 It's Korea's 1st environmental restoration project led by the city of Pocheon.
It transformed this quarry into a space for arts and culture. 

 
Various Stone installations can be seen at the park.
 
 It's a popular culture and art complex loved by local residents, 
with various programs including special exhibitions, 
as well as weekend and special performances. 

Too bad, we didn't see any live performances at the lakeside stage although we heard music being played. Maybe it was halted because of the rain.


 The unbelievably pretty emerald green lake! 
We quickly climbed down the staircase to this platform where the dramas had been filmed!


This is the iconic and tranquil Cheonjoho Lake (천주호) which was formed when
spring water and rainwater gathered in the pit during the time of quarrying 
with the deepest part being up to 25m.

 
Calm your tired mind with the soothing sounds from the waterfall.

We climbed up to see the view from the top.

The air was fresh and cool because of the weather, and the surroundings were really nice!

How much granite has this quarry produced? 

Cheonghwadae, National Assembly Building, Supreme Court, Incheon International Airport as well as restoration for Cheonggyecheon and Gwanghwamun using granite mined from Pocheon.

 How long this quarry can continue to supply?

Pocheon Art Valley (포천아트밸리)
Add: 234 Artvalley-ro, Sinbuk-myeon, 
Pocheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea