The filming set of "Descendants of the Sun" has been scheduled for restoration and turned into a major tourist spot. This idea was backed by the local government of Gangwon Province, Korea's Tourism Organization and President Park Geun Hye, however the rebuilding is not proceeding until now due to problems with the budget.
The Taekbaek Hanbo coal mine has become a tourist spot after "Descendants of the Sun" ended in April. As the number of people visiting the location grows, the local government saw an opportunity to boost tourism so the officials made plans to restore the now ‘bare' fictional region of Urk.
According to Korea Times, the set was torn down when the "DOTS" filming was completed in November 2015. It was said that prior to the idea of restoring the place, the government originally wanted to cover the abandoned coal mine with trees through reforestation.
Therefore, aside from the budget issues, it appears that the reforestation project is another hindrance the restoration efforts of the tourism officials. The planting of trees on the same spot will start sometime next year and if this will push through, the rebuilding will have to be postponed.
With regards to the budget, the local office of Taebaek made a request from KTO to allocate KRW2 billion for the project. The amount was initially allotted for the improvement of the expanse of the defunct coal mine.
Unfortunately, the budget request was turned down with the KTO claiming that the location is very far and hard to access from Seoul. The organization added that the popularity of the drama may also decline soon, thus the profitability of the Uruk tourist attraction is uncertain.
With this unexpected turned of events, it seems that the site will not be ready by June as projected. "Plans regarding the set of "Descendants of the Sun" are still being discussed. They plan to recreate the set until the end of this month and have it fully restored by the end of June," Soompi quoted the spokesperson of Taebaek's tourism office as saying on April 6.
No one knows if the film set will still be restored but fans of "DOTS" are hoping that the plans will still push through. It was reported that from May 5 to 8 alone, some 1,300 tourists visited the place to personally see the location where Yoo Si Jin and Kang Mo Yeon fell in love.
See the nice surroundings of Taekbaek coal mine as shown in this scene of "DOTS"