Overview
The refugees expected to return within weeks; the village of shacks they built became permanent when the border closed, and abai is a northern dialect word for an older man. The food is northern: ojingeo sundae, squid stuffed with noodles and vegetables, and hamheung naengmyeon with sweet potato starch noodles. The ferry, the gaetbae, is a flat barge pulled across sixty metres of water by passengers hauling on a cable — the last of its kind in Korea.
Highlights
Pull the ferry yourself; that is what the hooks along the rail are for, and the fare is a few hundred won. Eat ojingeo sundae in the market lane rather than at the tourist restaurants on the waterfront. The village was the setting of a 2000s television drama, which is why it is signposted and why some of the murals exist.