Heyri Artvalley is located in Paju, where clean air and a pleasant environment greets visitors. The name “Heyri” comes from the traditional farming song of Paju province, as Paju is famous for its cultivation of rice and beans. In 1997, Heyri was originally designed to be linked to Paju Publishing Town but as many artists moved in, it developed into an art valley. It became an artistic complex that contains creation, exhibition, performance, education, sales, and international exchange and so on. In accordance with its name “Art Valley”, everything inside this valley is artistic and creative, drawing lots of people to come. This place is very big and will take long time to go through; therefore you probably need to choose what you want to do before you start touring.

 

 

[How to get to Heyri]

Driving to Heyri is not difficult, but it is better to take public transportation on weekends or holidays because the parking lot is usually full.

 

-Driving;

Take Ilsan Ja-yu-ro à Take Ilsan “Isan-Po” IC, and then to “Sung-Dong” IC à Follow “Heyri Art Valley” milestone afterwards.

It approximately takes about 30 minutes after you enter Ja-yu-ro.

 

-Public Transportation;

If you are coming from Seoul, go to Hap-Jung Station and take the 200 bus and get off at “Heyri ArtValley; Gate 1” bus stop. If you are starting from Ilsan, take the 2200 bus, and get off at “Heyri ArtValley; Gate 1” bus stop.

It takes about one hour and a half.

 

Heyri ArtValley is a large place and you can hurt your feet if you walk around to tour. Therefore, Heyri is offering you several options like bicycle-tour, and electronic car-tour that enable you to tour Heyri more conveniently. After you get off at Gate 1, go to Gate 3 if you want these options.

 

[Electronic car-tour]

It costs you 8000 won and you get free ride for electronic car from 10:30 am to 7:00 pm. You can get discounts if you visit as a couple, or with your family.

[Bicycle-tour]

You can ride a tandem or solo bicycle. For tandem, It costs you 7000 won for an hour, as for the bicycle, it is 5000 won an hour. You can also get a one-day pass for 13000 won for a bicycle, and 20000 won for a tandem. They require your ID card, so take that with you. Working hours for Bicycle tour is also from 10:30 am to 7:00 pm.

 

After you rent your bicycle or your free pass for an electronic car, you can go to Gate number Five to start the tour.

 

 

[I LIKE DDALKI ]

This is the place where you can eat, or buy a work of art, books and other stuffs. You can also experience to make things like ceramics, art glass, or metal crafts.

-          Making ceramics.

From jiggering to painting whatever you want and to finally bake pottery, you can make your own ceramics. It takes one hour for the whole process excluding the kilning process and you can bring your own craft to your home. It costs you 20,000 won for the experiment and if you want your crafts shipped, you also need to pay for the postal service.

 

-          Cartoon Experience

If you want to watch cartoons made in the 1980s, or 1990s, you can visit “All of Sudden, the Comic Book Store”. This place is created by a bunch of comic book writers who remind the visitors of old days where they didn’t have to study through comic books. They wanted to show children nowadays what they watched in their childhood. Woodblock-printed book, a rare comic book from 1980s, graphic novels, auteurisme [KM1] comic books and so on are in this comic book store, you cannot buy them but you can read them for only 3,000 won. If you do not want to read comic book and just look around the store, they don’t charge you for admission.

 

If you are done looking around “I LIKE DDALKI”, then ride your bicycle back to Gate number 3, and on your way there, you’ll find the currency museum and the Hangeul Museum.

 

[Currency Museum]

If you want to look around the history of Korean and World’s currency, you can visit here. You can also find art works done in the currency all around the world, from the past to nowadays through 3,800 pieces of paper money. This museum is individually owned.

It closes every Monday, and opens at 11’o clock in the morning on weekends, and closes at 6’o clock in the afternoon. Admission fee is 3000 won.

 

 

[Hanguel Museum]

This is the museum built by Sandol-Communication. They have created this place to publicize Hanguel and its long history, and to let people know about excellence of Hanguel. This is the very first culture center using Hanguel as its main alphabet. It takes approximately two to three hours to look around the whole building.

 

Basement Floor; Museum (3000 won)

There’s a museum explaining the history of Hanguel. It helps people to realize the importance of Hanguel, and to know better about Kim Jin Pyung, who have devoted hard to creating the Hanguel font, and how people have worked hard to develop similar fonts.

 

First Floor;

You can purchase various products like stamps, money clips, and even neckties utilizing Hangeul.

 

Second Floor;

If you want to make your own glass crafts, stained glass, T-shirts and write letter using typing casting machine, you can visit this floor.

 

This museum doesn’t open on Mondays and the rest of the days it opens from 10:00am to 6:00pm. Call 1688-1411 for more information.

 

If you are done viewing these museums, you can visit “InSqure” which is located near Gate number one.

 

[InSquare]

 

In this place, you can visit the famous Cow-Parade museum and you can also purchase the collections. Over 80 pieces of Cow-parade collections are shown. From Monday to Saturday it opens at 11:00 am and closes at 9:00 pm. On Sunday it opens from 11:30 am to 8:00 pm. Also, there are cafés and restaurants in InSqure that you can drop by.

 

You’ll find lots of restaurants on your way, or even inside the buildings. There are a variety of dishes that you can choose from. Also, you can stay in the guest house if you want to look around for more than a one day.

 

[Tarzan & Jane]

This place is known as the place where YB, the famous Korean rock band’s lead singer lives. Up to twelve people can stay in this guest house, and the accommodation fee can differ from 300,000 to 350,000 won per night. You can work out with weight machine inside, swim in the private swimming pool and barbeque outside. If you go to the second floor, you can have a nice rest in the bed and prepare for upcoming tour for the next day. You must make a reservation before you go. Call 031-943-3604 for more information.

 

 

Before you start planning for Heyri tour, it is better for you to plan what you want to see, since it is a large culture complex. You can go there for a museum and an exhibition, or you can just look around the village itself and eat, enjoying beautiful nature.