Abai Village

Character

Abai Village began as a temporary settlement built by people who expected to leave. Refugees from Hamgyong-do gathered on undeveloped sand at Cheongho-dong during the Korean War, close to the sea and the northern route home they hoped would reopen

People from the same northern hometowns clustered together. Sokcho’s own history names groups from Sinpo, Jeongpyeong, Hongwon, Dancheon, Sinchang and other Hamgyong communities. Those local labels reproduced pieces of a lost geography inside a new city

The gaetbae ferry came from the same practical problem. The settlement sat across a narrow harbor channel from central Sokcho, so residents created a simple cable ferry to reach town. The boat still crosses by hand: passengers pull hooks along a steel cable for roughly 60 metres

The experience

Much of the original refugee settlement has disappeared. Scattered old wooden houses and narrow lanes remain among restaurants, cafes and later construction; Sokcho City Museum holds reconstructed examples of early refugee houses

Food preserves another part of the migration history. Hamheung-style naengmyeon, abai sundae and stuffed squid became local signatures as displaced families adapted northern recipes to life on the South Korean coast

The gaetbae still performs the job it was built for: crossing the harbor channel. The hand-pulled boat covers roughly 60 metres between the village and the downtown market side, even as the crossing has become a visitor attraction

History

The settlement formed during the Korean War, with official tourism accounts dating its beginnings to refugees arriving from Hamgyong-do around 1950–51. Cheongho-dong was largely uninhabited sandy ground. Refugees built makeshift shelters there believing division would be temporary and that proximity to the coast would help them return north

Return did not come. Families reinforced temporary shelters, worked in fishing and manual labor, and organized the area around people from the same northern towns. The Hamgyong dialect word abai, used for an older man, became the neighborhood’s public name

The ferry developed as local infrastructure for crossing the harbor channel to central Sokcho. Decades later, television changed its audience: the drama Autumn in My Heart brought national and international visitors, and the ferry, food alleys and refugee history became part of Sokcho’s tourism economy

Redevelopment and rebuilding removed much of the early refugee-settlement fabric. Residents’ family memory, Hamgyong food traditions, hometown names and the gaetbae now carry much of the visible history. Early building fabric survives only in fragments

Before you go

The village streets are ordinary public urban space. The gaetbae has its own hours, one-way fare and weather-related operating changes. Its downtown landing sits beside Sokcho Tourist & Fishery Market