A history of music, a market with an internationally influenced range of goods, and an artificial lake landscape reveal different sides of Pyeongtaek-Si. When planning your trip, you can focus on cultural highlights or consider walks and water-based recreation. These places and themes offer different ways to explore the city and its administrative area.
Music History and Traditional Culture
The Korean Modern Music Hall at the Pyeongtaekho Tourist Complex combines a museum, library and archive devoted to modern Korean music. Its collections include music from the Japanese colonial period, including works by supporters of colonial rule, as well as music from the independence movement. They also cover music education, music from North Korea and Japan, and modern pop music. The range spans historical and social themes as well as more recent musical developments.
For planning your visit, note that the Korean Modern Music Hall is closed on Mondays, public holidays, and the day before and the day of Seollal and Chuseok. Check opening hours before your trip. The Korea Soriter Arts Center includes a library for traditional Korean music and an outdoor stage. The center also comprises Ji Young-hee Hall, the Pyeongtaek Nongak Village outdoor stage, and the Eoullim-dong and Dodeurim-dong buildings.
At Pyeongtaekho Art Park, the Ji Young-hee Gugak Center and Haegum Bench commemorate Ji Young-hee (1909–1980). As a holder of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage designation, she helped popularize traditional Korean music and spread it internationally. You can view sculptures in the Art Park while taking a walk. Another cultural site is Simboksa Temple in Deokmok-ri, Hyeondeok-myeon. It is believed to have been founded in the late Silla or early Goryeo period. Daejeokgwangjeon houses a Vairocana Buddha statue in the style of the late Silla and early Goryeo periods, designated Treasure No. 565.
Market History and Food Culture
Pyeongtaek Central Market was established in 1958. After a nearby US military base was set up, merchants and customers came together to trade agricultural produce directly. Today, the market has restaurants and general stores offering products from Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Japan and other countries. The specific offerings at individual shops may change.
Budaejjigae, handmade burgers and Chicago-style pizza are associated with the market as well-known specialties. Budaejjigae originated during wartime, using food from US bases in Korea. The dish’s history and the market’s international offerings today are two distinct facets of Pyeongtaek-Si’s food culture; not all the dishes mentioned originated there.
Pyeongtaekho and Walks
Pyeongtaekho is an artificial lake covering an area of 24 km². It was created in 1973 by building a 2.5-kilometer-long seawall at the mouth of the Anseongcheon River. The Pyeongtaekho Tourist Complex has event venues, facilities for water sports and other water-based recreation, as well as walking paths. If you would like to focus your visit more on outdoor activities, you’ll find several different options there; the paths and water activities are not part of a set program.
Pyeongtaekho Art Park offers another opportunity to view art outdoors while taking a walk. Depending on your interests, you can focus on cultural sites, market history or the lake landscape shaped by the seawall. The city itself also brings together Korean culture and US military culture; this connection is linked to Camp Humphreys, the US military base stationed in Pyeongtaek. During your stay, you can choose among music and cultural themes, food culture and the waterside landscape, without implying a particular order or a shared route.
Discover more destinations: Gwangmyeong, Osan, Incheon, Hwaseong, Goyang, Yongin, Yangju-Si, Gapyeong-Gun
For the main travel overview: Gyeonggi-Do.
