Pocheon Art Valley & Pyeongyang Kalbi ribs! 포천아트밸리 평양갈비

Pocheon Art Valley (포천아트밸리) is park, museum and sculpture gallery set in interesting surroundings north of Seoul. Romana and I took a SOCAR for the day, spent s few hours at the park then had a meal of pork ribs or kalbi.

For this trip, we rented a a Kia Ray; cheap and small and suitable for a reasonably short distance. We only made one stop on the way for breakfast.

I think we drove for about an hour and the traffic wasn’t too bad. Fortunately we left early enough that by the time we got there, there was plenty of parking space. It was filling up quick though so glad I made the effort to leave early! The grounds looked nice and leafy but also very landscaped. Perhaps this used to be an old quarry? There are interesting sculptures dotted around and a short monorail to the top of the hill. We decided to hike up the small trail though.

After going up the hill, we got a coffee and had a seat outside for a short while. Below the coffee shop were some more sculptures and garden areas.

Next, we wondered down to the cliff faces. There was a stage set into bottom of one of the cliffs and a body of water. It looked pretty spectacular. I think is was a picture of this that piqued my interest in coming here.

After wondering around, we went up a tall spiral staircase to the top of the cliffs where there were more gardens and a trail leading to the other side of the cliffs. We saw a few other sculptures and more views of the cliffs across from where we were before. There was also a space museum which explained the formation of the universe and the planets, but we didn’t stay long in there since we wanted to enjoy the nice weather.

We were getting hungry so decided to leave after a couple of hours. I think this place is probably good for a short stay, maybe half a day max. However, there were probably other things going on in other buildings that we missed, so best check out their website.

We found a place that sold Pyeonyang (North Korean) kalbi. I don’t know what that is exactly and it wasn’t that cheap so we ordered regular kalbi. Anyway, it was good! It’s a shame I had to drive!