Coastal Time

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Busan is a brief 1 hour bus ride from Gyoengji. It’s the second largest city in Korea and was its capital during the Korean War after the North invaded and quickly occupied Seoul. It sits on hills overlooking the Sea of Japan, has an efficient metro system and is a major port.

It’s rainy season here in Asia. I’d been lucky to date. On arrival in Busan it was raining fairly continuously. With only 2 days in town before I had to head back to Seoul and fly on to Shanghai, I couldn’t let a little rain slow me down.

I headed for the one starred sight in Lonely Planet, Gamcheon Culture Village. It had been a slum clinging to steep hills above the city. Artists and students partnered with the community to refurbish it with an art theme. It’s now a tourist attraction, but a neighborhood too. It’s called the “Machu Picchu of Korea”. That’s a stretch, but the steep, narrow walkways and multi-colored homes balanced with small shops and cafes make it an attractive place to spend some time. Probably even more attractive on a sunny day.

From there, it was to the largest fish market in Korea, Jagalchi. The place is both a wholesale and retail market. I was too late to see the morning wholesale action. The market was quiet on my arrival. But it is enormous and stocks an enormous variety of fish and shellfish. You can choose something fresh and they’ll take it upstairs to one of the many restaurants to have it prepared to your liking. Traveling alone, this was difficult to do, since most of the fish were too big for just me. Instead, I went upstairs to one of the many restaurant stalls to grab dinner. I followed every the advice of Lonely Planet and several online blogs and ended up at Jackie’s. The chef is well known in Korea, since he had a cooking show on Korean TV. There I ordered the recommended sashimi plate. Still too much for one, but great and fresh.

Being in Jagalchi and other places, I was reminded of a difference between Korea and China. Korean markets are so much neater and cleaner than in China.

The weather changed totally my second day in Busan. It was sunny and clear. I was tempted to head to the beach and just relax, but felt compelled to see the city. To be most efficient, I hopped on the hop on, hop off tour bus for a full, efficient overview.

There are plenty of museums in town. I didn’t stop at any of them. Instead, being a beautiful day, I chose to stop at outdoor sights. The first stop was Haemaji Park which overlooks a number of small islands. It’s possible to hike for many miles on well laid out paths from here along the coast. The stop includes a public Skywalk over the water looking out to the small islands.

On the way to my first beach stop, Gwangalli Beach, we passed the only UN Memorial Cemetery in the world. Over 2300 soldiers from 11 countries who lost their lives in the Korean War are buried there. It’s a large area with a museum and sculpture garden as well as cemetery.

Dadaepo is a small, clean beach, empty when I was there since it was a weekday. A nice place to hang for awhile.

Next stop, Busan Cinema Center. A new complex built for the annual film festival and other events. It’s a great building with the largest cantilevered roof in the world. Nearby is an enormous new mall that features the largest Korean Baths in the country. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to check it out.

Instead, it was onto the largest city beach, Haeundae, that is the best known beach in Korea. Summer weekends it is said to be absolutely wall-to-wall sunbathers...not really sunbathers since Koreans don’t really like to tan. Instead, they enjoy the beach under the probably safer umbrellas that likely jam the beach.

There was a lot more to explore than I had time for. It was back to the center of town and my hotel in Seomyeon for an early morning fast train back to Incheon for the flight to Shanghai.

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