Descendants of the Sun Day Trip to Paju: 1 Spot (1 Confirmed)

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Descendants of the Sun (태양의 후예) aired on KBS2 from February to April 2016, in 16 episodes. Captain Yoo Si-jin (Song Joong-ki), a special forces officer, falls for surgeon Kang Mo-yeon (Song Hye-kyo) at Uruk, a fictional war-torn country where his unit is keeping the peace. Master Sergeant Seo Dae-young (Jin Goo) is his friend and right hand. It streams on Netflix in some regions.

Plan it as a day trip from Seoul: Imjingak, the park on the south bank of the Imjin River, is the gateway, and the gondola carries you across the river to the base.

Uruk was filmed in two places in Korea. The army camp is Camp Greaves in Paju, on this page. The field hospital and the earthquake scenes were filmed on a set at a former coal mine in Taebaek, in Gangwon (our Taebaek guide). Camp Greaves is named by Gyeonggi Province and by several newspapers, so it is confirmed.

The leads have other guides here: Song Joong-ki in Vincenzo, Song Hye-kyo in The Glory and Kim Ji-won in Queen of Tears.

Paju: Camp Greaves

Camp Greaves housed U.S. Army troops for about 50 years after the Korean War armistice. After the troops left in 2004, Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization turned it into a youth hostel and a place to learn about the division of Korea, which opened to the public in 2013. Built in 1953, it housed the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division’s 506th Regiment; U.S. personnel withdrew in August 2004 and the land was returned to South Korea in August 2007. It reopened on 14 December 2013 as the DMZ Experience Center, including a youth hostel in a converted officers’ quarters building with room for about 240. Visitors now see preserved 1950s–1990s military buildings — barracks, officers’ quarters, gymnasium, ammunition store, repair shop — repurposed as exhibition spaces, plus artworks from the DMZ Peace Platform cultural project. It is the only U.S. base returned inside the Civilian Control Line.

Access today. The current way in is the Imjingak Peace Gondola, which crosses into the zone without a tour package; ID is checked, so carry a physical passport. An older rule — visits only in groups of 30 or more booked two weeks ahead — no longer applies and must not be presented as current. The Third Tunnel and the Joint Security Area, by contrast, remain tour-only, so do not assume they pair with a gondola trip. Camp Greaves’ own opening days and hours conflict across sources, so the check-before-you-go line stands: confirm on the official Camp Greaves site and the gondola site on the day. The drama made it famous in 2016, and foreign fans have kept coming since, according to press reports.

Old military buildings on the base, such as the ammunition store and officers’ quarters, now hold exhibitions, according to press reports. In August 2026 a visitor center called The Greaves opened in a converted warehouse, styled as a 1950s American movie theater, according to Gyeonggi Province.

Inside the base, one building has its own story: Greaves Gallery, a former bowling alley for U.S. forces, was remodeled to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War ceasefire and now shows the story of the armistice signing and of Korean student soldiers. Paju City has managed the 2,760-square-metre gallery since 2022, and more than 490,000 people visited it via the Imjingak Peace Gondola in 2023. The gondola ride across the Imjin River is 850 metres long.

The base itself keeps changing. Its buildings date from 1950 to 1990, and the province’s remodeling keeps their original facades while updating the interiors. In August 2024 Gyeonggi Province announced it would widen the publicly accessible area from 2 percent to about a third of the camp — 39,000 of its 118,395 square metres — across 10 exhibition buildings, including the ammunition depot, which was slated to become a multimedia and installation gallery, while the orderly room and staff sergeant dormitory were to show materials on the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission and one building was to be restored as a post-armistice officers’ office.

Camp Greaves was home to the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Division’s 506th Infantry Regiment for about 50 years after the July 1953 armistice, with American soldiers stationed here until August 2004, when the last occupants deployed to Iraq; the land returned to the Korean government in 2007.

Before you go. The base is inside the Civilian Control Zone, a restricted strip south of the DMZ. The simplest way in is the Imjingak Peace Gondola, which crosses the Imjin River from Imjingak. ID is checked on the way in, so foreign visitors should bring their passport. Camp Greaves runs guided tours only (5 times daily, 09:30–16:50; closed Mondays, January 1, Seollal and Chuseok, per VisitKorea). We could not confirm ticket prices from an official page, so check the gondola site and the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization’s Camp Greaves page before you set off. Organized DMZ tours from Seoul also stop here. How we grade a stop as confirmed is explained in our method.

Also nearby (not filming locations)

• Imjingak: the park on the south bank of the Imjin River where the gondola starts, with memorials to the Korean War and the division of Korea. It is not a filming location of the drama.

• Odusan Unification Observatory: on Mt. Odu where the Han and Imjin rivers meet, about 2 km from North Korea. Opened in September 1992, it has observation decks and telescopes looking across to the North, and exhibition rooms on division history. No tour or security screening is required to visit. It is not a filming location of the drama.

• Third Infiltration Tunnel: discovered in 1978, about 1,635 m long, built as an invasion route. Tour-only from Imjingak; ID is required, helmets are provided, and photography is banned inside. It is not a filming location of the drama.

• Dora Observatory: on Mt. Dora, the northernmost observatory on the western front, with views over the DMZ toward Gaeseong. It is not a filming location of the drama.

• Dorasan Station: the northernmost station on the Gyeongui Line, built as the future inter-Korean rail link station, and a standard stop on the Third Tunnel tour course. It is not a filming location of the drama.

• Heyri Art Village: a Paju cultural enclave whose visitor program has combined Camp Greaves tours with the village. It is not a DMZ site and not a filming location of the drama.

Getting to Paju

Take the Gyeongui-Jungang Line from Seoul to Munsan Station, then a short local bus or taxi ride to Imjingak; by car it is about 1.5 hours from downtown Seoul via Jayuro, with parking at Imjingak. From Imjingak, the gondola takes you across the river to Camp Greaves. No official timetable or fare range was verified for the Munsan leg or the gondola, so check Korail and Naver Map on the day, and look up the day’s schedule before you set off, as the route and times can change.

Sources

All sources for this guide

Accessed Oct 28, 2026 (Asia/Seoul).

1. Gyeonggi Province news — Camp Greaves, Descendants of the Sun filming location (Apr 25, 2016)

2. Segye Ilbo — Camp Greaves becomes a DMZ tourism hub (Apr 3, 2016)

3. Seoul Shinmun — Where was Descendants of the Sun filmed? (Mar 22, 2016)

4. The Korea Herald — Fans of Descendants of the Sun camp at ex-military base

5. VisitKorea — Enjoy a Gondola Ride over the DMZ

6. Joongboo Ilbo — Camp Greaves popular with film and drama shoots

7. Newspim — Gyeonggi Province opens The Greaves at Camp Greaves (Aug 2, 2026)

8. Gyeonggi Tourism Organization — Camp Greaves

9. Imjingak Peace Gondola — official site

10. Netflix — Descendants of the Sun

11. Korail — https://www.letskorail.com/ebizcom/cs/guide/guide/guide11.do

12. VisitKorea — Paju Imjingak Peace Gondola (DMZ Peace Gondola)

13. Korea JoongAng Daily — Historic former U.S. base near DMZ to become stronghold of culture and learning (Aug 22, 2024)

14. VisitKorea — Camp Greaves DMZ Experience Center

15. United Nations / Gyeonggi Province — Camp Greaves project documents (history, 2013 reopening)

16. Korea JoongAng Daily — DMZ art and Camp Greaves regeneration (Aug 15, 2018)

17. Kangnam Times — Camp Greaves history and return

18. The Soul of Seoul — How to visit the DMZ from Seoul (gondola route, ID checks)

19. Atlas Obscura — Odusan Unification Observatory

20. OnTrip — Third Infiltration Tunnel guide