Paju & the DMZ: The Closest You Can Get to North Korea, and Where to Eat After

Paju is the last city before the border. An hour northwest of Seoul, the Gyeongui railway line stops, the Imjin River runs across the landscape, and beyond it is the Demilitarized Zone. For most visitors this is the single most affecting day trip in Korea — and it is entirely doable without a tour bus if you plan it.

The border

• Imjingak. A park and memorial complex on the southern bank, and the furthest point civilians can reach without clearance. It holds the Freedom Bridge, over which 12,773 prisoners of war returned in 1953; a steam locomotive shot to pieces during the war and left as it was found; and the Mangbaedan altar, where people displaced from the North bow toward their hometowns at Lunar New Year. It's free and open to anyone.
• Pyeonghwa Nuri Park, the wide grass field beside it, with thousands of coloured pinwheels on the hillside.
• The DMZ Peace Gondola. A cable car that crosses the Imjin River into the Civilian Control Zone, landing at an observation area on the far bank. You need your passport.
• The Third Infiltration Tunnel and Dora Observatory. Deeper into the Civilian Control Zone, reachable only on a registered shuttle or tour from Imjingak. Bring your passport; there are no exceptions.

The rest of Paju

Paju is not only the border. It's also one of the more culturally ambitious cities in Gyeonggi:

• Paju Book City. A purpose-built publishing town of modernist concrete buildings housing most of Korea's publishing industry, with bookshops, cafés, and a genuinely strange, quiet architectural atmosphere.
• Heyri Art Valley. An artists' village of galleries, studios, and small museums, with a strict building code that makes the whole place look like one project.
• Provence Village. A pastel-coloured shopping and restaurant complex that is exactly as it sounds, and very popular with Korean families.

What to eat

Paju is a farming and river county, and its food reflects that:

• Hanwoo beef. Paju raises it and sells it cheaply. The butcher-shop restaurants here — buy the meat at the counter, grill it at your table — are among the best-value beef meals within an hour of Seoul.
• Jangdankong beans. The Jangdan area is famous nationally for its soybeans, which means very good doenjang, tofu, and cheonggukjang.
• Freshwater maeuntang. Spicy river-fish stew, often with hand-torn noodles (kalgeori), served at the restaurants along the Imjin. This is the classic border-county meal.
• Eel. The Imjin River restaurants grill it over charcoal.
• Country baekban. Set meals built around vegetables grown nearby.

Practical tips

• Getting there: Gyeongui-Jungang line to Munsan Station, then a short bus or taxi to Imjingak. By car it's about an hour from central Seoul.
• Bring your passport. Anything beyond Imjingak requires it, every time, no exceptions.
• DMZ tours can be cancelled at short notice for military reasons. Don't build your last day in Korea around one.
• Photography is restricted in parts of the Civilian Control Zone. Follow the signage exactly.
• Book City and Heyri are 20 minutes from Imjingak and make the second half of the day.

Each restaurant below has a video on its EatHub page, which is genuinely useful out here where the best places are roadside rooms with gravel car parks.