The Punch Bowl: Beauty from Scars

Punch Bowl-ro is a road in Haean-myeon, Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do—a remote valley tucked just south of the DMZ. Few places in Korea carry such a layered history of violence, ecology, and unexpected peace.

The name originated during the Korean War. In 1951, a UN war correspondent looked down from a reconnaissance aircraft at an oval basin ringed by mountains over 1,100 meters high—Gajiilbong, Daesan, and others—and remarked that the terrain resembled a punch bowl (a large bowl used for serving festive drinks at parties). The nickname spread through military dispatches and stuck permanently. The Korean administrative name is Haean Basin (해안분지), but "Punch Bowl" is far better known internationally.

From September to October 1951, the basin was the site of the Battle of Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge—brutal, attritional fights for hilltop positions that resulted in tens of thousands of casualties on both sides. The ridgelines changed hands repeatedly in exchanges measured in yards rather than miles. The battles achieved little strategic movement but illustrated the grinding horror of the war's middle phase.

After the armistice in 1953, the basin was sealed as a military zone for decades. This enforced isolation had an unintended consequence: the area became one of Korea's most pristine natural habitats. Korean goral (a mountain goat species), Asiatic black bears, and numerous rare plant species flourished undisturbed. When limited civilian access was finally permitted in the late 1990s, visitors discovered a landscape of extraordinary beauty—autumn silver grass fields sweeping across the valley floor, winter snowscapes of startling clarity.

The Korean administrative name 'Haean' (亥安) carries its own folk legend: the character 亥 means "pig," and 安 means "peace." According to local tradition, the village was once plagued by snakes, and a passing monk advised residents to raise pigs—natural predators of snakes—to restore safety. The snakes disappeared, and the name endured. War zone, wildlife sanctuary, folk legend: Punch Bowl-ro holds them all.