Descendants of the Sun Filming Locations: Paju, Taebaek, Jeongseon

Paju — Camp Greaves is a former US base inside the Civilian Control Line, 2 km from the southern limit of the DMZ. Entry requires an advance application to the military and an ID check.

Southern Gangwon — the Taebaek site and Samtan Art Mine in Jeongseon are close enough to do in one day. They are in the opposite direction from Paju, so do not plan them as one trip.

If you are a fan retracing scenes, Tongri Tantan Park in Taebaek is the centre of the trip. The sets are not the originals, but the Medi Cube, the emergency room and the Zakynthos hall stand again, and the collapsed building where the workers are rescued and a bootlace is tied has been recreated, so it is the easiest place to picture the drama.

If you have not seen the drama, or are passing through southern Gangwon, put Samtan Art Mine on its own on the list. It uses the shafts, the boot-washing room and the shower hall of a colliery that opened in 1964 and closed in 2001 as exhibition space, so it is a destination for seeing what a coal mine was, drama or no drama.

If former military sites and the area inside the Civilian Control Line interest you, Camp Greaves is the one. KTO writes that the maintenance shop where the fight scene was filmed survives along with the officers' quarters, the barracks and the gymnasium. It is the only one of the three that needs an advance military application, though, so it is only for people prepared to go through that.

Paju and southern Gangwon are separate trips. Camp Greaves sits inside the Civilian Control Line, so give it its own day around the date you are cleared for, and pair Taebaek and Jeongseon on a different day.

On the Taebaek–Jeongseon day, seeing the rebuilt sets in Taebaek first and then moving on to the surviving space at Samtan Art Mine lets you compare "what was rebuilt" with "what was left" in that order. If you only have time for one, choose by whether you have watched the drama: Taebaek for fans, Jeongseon for everyone else.

Finding the Taebaek site — KTO's article, passing on Taebaek City's directions, puts the earthquake-scene site at 112 Tonggol-gil and the old open-set area by Dongbaeksan Station, and advises that the coal-dust mud there is slippery, so on overcast days you should go up from the Dongbaeksan Station side. That article was written before the site became Tongri Tantan Park, so follow the park's own signs at the entrance first.

The Korea Tourism Organization material this article cites gives no opening hours or charges for any of the three. What differs is how you get in, so check that first.

Camp Greaves — entry means an advance application to the military and an ID check. The application process and the dates it offers are, in effect, your visiting hours.

The Taebaek site — now run as Tongri Tantan Park, which KTO says also offers walking routes through media art and AR experiences alongside the drama sets. Check the park's official information for opening days and times.

Samtan Art Mine — no military procedure, but check its opening hours and closing days in its official information before you go.

If your Camp Greaves application does not come through, there is nothing on this list to replace it. Cut the trip down to the Taebaek–Jeongseon day; nothing else here stands in for the base scenes.

On a wet or overcast day, keep Taebaek short and watch your footing on the slippery ground KTO warns about, and give more time to Samtan Art Mine, where the colliery's own shower hall and boot-washing room are the exhibition spaces.

In winter, Taebaek and Jeongseon are mountain country and the roads can deteriorate. Check conditions before you set out, and settle for one of the two if they are poor.

If one of the Gangwon pair is closed on your day, the other can fill it. The rebuilt sets in Taebaek and the real space in Jeongseon do not replace each other, but both are places from Descendants of the Sun.