Ojingeo sundae lunch in Abai Village
1 / 2Ojingeo sundae lunch in Abai VillagePhoto: by Junho Jung at Flickr from South Korea / CC BY-SA 3.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 2 photographs, every one credited.
Ojingeo sundae is squid stuffed with rice and vegetables and steamed, the refugees’ substitute when pork intestine was short. Abai sundae is the Hamgyeong original: intestine filled with glutinous rice, blood and vegetables. Both are on the city’s list of signature foods. Dancheon Sikdang in the village opens 08:30–19:00, last order 18:30, by a secondary listing; bring won.
- Short enough to be certain of: 1 hr 15 min door to door, so even a tender day works.
- Free to walk to visit — mural street on cheongho-ro always open; no admission anywhere in the village.
- On a 4–6h ashore call our verdict is "Yes, as the second half" — do the mountain or naksansa first and come back through the market, the ferry and the village to the ship.
- It is not only a photo stop: a sandbar settled in 1951 by people who expected to go home by spring.
Why Ojingeo sundae lunch in Abai Village is famous
A sandbar settled in 1951 by people who expected to go home by spring
Sundae is Korea’s blood sausage. The Hamgyeong refugees of Abai Village made theirs the northern way: pork intestine filled with glutinous rice, blood and vegetables. When intestine ran short they stuffed a squid instead, ojingeo sundae, steamed and sliced. Sokcho City lists both among its signature foods, with the charcoal-grilled fish of the Gaetbae quarter, Hamheung naengmyeon and sea-water tofu. Dancheon Sikdang, at 17 Abaimaeul-gil, is the name that comes up most; its hours, 08:30–19:00 with last orders at 18:30, come from a secondary listing. Sindasin, Narutbae Sikdang and Bukcheong Jeontong Abai Sundae are in the same lanes.
Nine minutes' walk from the gangway is a village founded by refugees who stopped at the first safe harbour south of home. Seventy-five years on, they are still waiting.
The village on the sandbar beside the terminal was founded in the Korean War by North Korean refugees from Hamgyeong. It still sells their food. Abai sundae is a pork sausage stuffed with glutinous rice and blood; squid sundae is the version invented when intestine ran short. It is the one sight in Sokcho that costs nothing and needs no transport.
The Gaetbae is the way out. Two cable-guided boats cross the 50 m channel to the town centre, and the passengers pull them with iron hooks. It takes five minutes and ₩500. It lands you a few minutes from the Sokcho Tourist & Fishery Market. The city's map puts the market 20 minutes from the ship by this route.
Under North Korean administration until the war
Hamgyeong families moor on the sandbar expecting to return home
Law of 21 October transfers seven recovered counties to the South Korean government
Sokcho township builds a cable ferry for Cheongho-dong; licence and second boat in 1961
The village is a 9-minute walk from the terminal on the city's own map, and the Gaetbae leads on to the market in another ten. Eat sundae early; the best-known kitchen closes at 19:00.
Three places, three different answers
The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.
In Abai Village, 17 Abaimaeul-gil, 9 min from the terminal. Abai sundae and squid sundae. 08:30–19:00, last order 18:30, no closing day — a secondary listing we could not confirm against an official page. Cash safest.
Open in Google MapsWhere locals goSindasin, Narutbae Sikdang, Bukcheong Jeontong Abai Sundae신다신 · 나룻배식당 · 북청전통아바이순대Three more Abai sundae houses in the village lanes. Hours not found; walk past and pick the one with a queue of Koreans.
Open in Google MapsThings worth knowing
- Carry 500-won coins or small notes. The city's map says the machine takes credit cards only; other guides say cash only. Nobody has confirmed a foreign card works.
- There is a step down onto the deck and the city notes a wide gap. Take a hand if you need one; the elderly are excused from pulling.
- The old lanes are mostly gone to waterworks. Head for the alleys south of the new channel, where the murals and the surviving shacks are.
- The village is residential. Keep voices down in the lanes and ask before photographing anyone's door.
- Abai아바이 — Hamgyeong dialect for an older man, a grandfather; the village is named for its first generation.
- Gaetbae갯배 — The engineless cable ferry across the harbour channel; passengers pull it with iron hooks. ₩500.
Ojingeo sundae lunch in Abai Village and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Where the 1 hr 15 min goes
Counted from the moment you step off the gangway. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.
9 minutes each way is the measured figure for on foot, 9 min, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 57 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Questions people send us
How far is Abai Village from the Sokcho cruise terminal?
About 582 m, a 9-minute walk, on course A of the city's own cruise walking map. The terminal stands on the same spit of land, beside Cheongho Beach.
How much is the Gaetbae ferry and when does it run?
₩500 one way for adults, ₩300 for primary-school children, paid at a ticket machine; Sokcho residents ride free. It runs every day, 05:00–23:00 from May to October and 05:30–22:30 from November to April, weather permitting, and carries 32 passengers.
Do I have to pull the Gaetbae myself?
Passengers haul the boat along a steel cable with iron hooks, and most do. The elderly and anyone who cannot are excused. The crossing takes about five minutes.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
2 hr 35 min for bothAbai Village and the Gaetbae ferry
The quarter built in 1950 by about 6,000 refugees from North Korea’s Hamgyeong Province, on the sandbar beside the terminal.
See the detail →
2 hr 55 min for bothSinheungsa and the Unification Buddha
The Jogye Order head temple just inside Seoraksan’s Sogongwon gate, rebuilt on this site in 1648.
See the detail →
2 hr 55 min for bothSokcho Tourist & Fishery Market and dakgangjeong
About 450 shops, with fish in the basement, dried squid and the chicken alley where dakgangjeong, sweet-chilli fried chicken, is sold by the box.
See the detail →