Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1|Page TLW:Busan
24 25 December2011
2|Page TLW:Busan
ITINERARY TABLE
3|Page TLW:Busan
Day Time Activity
Day 1 Morning Go to Busan from Seoul
Noon Arrive in Busan
Gwangalli Beach
Check into Hello Guesthouse
Afternoon Taejongdae
Evening Busan International Film Festival (BIFF/PIFF)
Jagalchi Market
Christmas Party @ Guesthouse
Day 2 Morning Checkout from Hello Guesthouse
Haeundae Beach
Seomyeon
Afternoon Yongdusan
Going back to Seoul
4|Page TLW:Busan
Annyeong Haseyo!
5|Page TLW:Busan
Going There
Every year there are many interesting benefits offered for tourists
from Visit Korea Committee http://visitkoreacommittee.com/en/
(VKC). In 2010-2012 for example there were free shuttle buses going
between Seoul-Busan and Seoul-Jeonju specially for overseas visitors
and foreign residents every day except Monday.The bus to Busan
was departed from Seoul at 8AM, and the bus back to Seoul was
departed from Busan at 4PM. It took about 6 hours to go by bus
from Seoul to Busan and the other way around. The maximum
capacity accepted for Busan shuttle bus was 25 seats only. If
application for the same date exceeded limit, it was going to be
assigned by drawing a lottery and the winners would be announced
10 days before the trip.
I tried to apply 2 tickets of this free shuttle bus to Busan for me and
my friend on 24th December and going back to Seoul on 25th
December, but I did not win the seats. Busan was a quite famous
place to visit and my traveling time was in holiday season, so there
were many applicants so it was more difficult to get the free seats.
Public buses Seoul-Busan-Seoul cost about 40,000 won (2 ways). If I
got the free seats, I would not care about the long 6 hours journey.
But if I had to pay, I would prefer something faster (but not too
expensive either).
6|Page TLW:Busan
airlines therefore cheaper than Korean Air. Budget airfare from Seoul
to Busan could cost between 30,000 and 70,000 won, depends on
booking and flying time. Since my trip to Busan was in peak season
(Christmas), the fare was quite expensive.
Looking for other alternatives, at that time I found there was another
great deal from VKC for foreigners: 30% off for using KTX (Korea Train
Express), South Korea's high-speed rail system. Maybe not as fast as
Japans Shinkansen, but I thought I should try that fastest train in
Korea while I was in Korea.One way of KTX from Seoul to Busan was
55,500 won and took about 3 hours. Discount 30% = 38,900 won. Two
ways cost would be 77,800 won.We decided to take this option
considering our limited time traveling to Busan.
Busan Station
7|Page TLW:Busan
Going Around
Since Busan is a large city just like Seoul, it has good public
transportation as well. Four lines of metro/subway called Humetro
are integrated and connecting all districts in Busan. There is also very
affordable City Tour Bus called Buti that can take us to main tourist
places. I was planning to take Buti on the first day and metro on the
second day for going around.
Buti has 2 Loop Tours, Haeundaeu Tour and Taejongdae Tour, which
is a hop-on hop-off bus service. The Loop Tour ticket can be
purchased on the day on the bus itself and can be used for both
routes all day from 9.30am to 5pm.
8|Page TLW:Busan
Night View (1x/day). One Theme Tour ticket can only be used for one
Theme Tour service and must be reserved in advanced.
All the buses run every day except Monday, started from Busan
Station bus stop, across Arirang Hotel. Some of them are double
decker buses and the rest are open top buses, and provide audio
guide service for each spot along the way.
9|Page TLW:Busan
Gwangalli Beach
From this beach, which has very fine sands,we can look
towardsGwanganBridge (a.k.a Diamond Bridge) and small mountains.
It was so windy and cold, nobody swimming of course. The
government had set a swimming period for visitors which was from
July to September only. However, many people still come here in
10 | P a g e TLW:Busan
other months, especially in October for Busan International
Fireworks Festival, and to enjoy the view in general.
The beach stretched about 1,4kms. It was very clean and and fresh,
because no smoking allowed there. Because it is a touristy place,
there are Tourism Information Center, a lot of shops, hotels and
restaurants around here.
11 | P a g e TLW:Busan
In this area I also saw map of a Busan Footpath, a trail that gives
many nice sights of Busan for the walkers, such as Gwangan Bridge,
Haeundae Beach, ports and islands around Busan. The route lays for
23 KMs (approximately 8 hours walks) from Gwangalli Beach to
Jaseongdae Park with half coastal trail (beside the sea), and half
mountain trail (hiking). Hmmm it was interesting and I might do it if I
stayed in Busan for quite sometimes, but not during this short visit
and too cold weather like this.
We took the next Buti at 12pm from Haeundae Beach back to Busan
Station without alighting at any stop. We did not think those stops
were interesting butwe did enjoy sightseeing while sitting in the bus
though, especially when we passed by Gwangan Bridge.It was quite
traffic jam, so we arrived at Busan Station around 1.30pm. We directly
went around the area to find some foods to eat. We had lunch in a
Kalguksu restaurant (noodle soup). It was really warming our body
inside.
12 | P a g e TLW:Busan
Taejeongdae
There was no admission fee, but the small train called Danubi that
could take us around the place cost 1500 won / person and rand
every 20-30 minutes. Other than Danubi Train, visitors also can walk
around this area by foot.We saw Danubi queue was VERY long, could
take an hour just for waiting. Since Buti only operated until 5pm, we
13 | P a g e TLW:Busan
planned to catch the bus from Taejeongdae around 4pm. That meant
we had only about one hour to go around this resort park. So we
decided to walk instead, rather than waiting Danubi too long.
After few minutes walking, we just realized the path was quite
inclined. We were easily out of breath and often making stops haha
did not expect it would be a little hiking in the winter.
14 | P a g e TLW:Busan
Then we continued walking for another 400meters and found
Gumyeongsa Temple, a really serene place. In the end we only could
walk further for almost 1km before going back to the main gate.
Around the bus stop, there are many foods and games stalls. While
waiting for our Buti to come, we played some childrengames like
throwing big needled to balloons to get a doll haha.
Here I saw again another Busan Footpath, a whole coastal trail from
Taejeongdae to Songdo Beach passing by Namhang Bridge. The
route stretches for about 17km/8hrs. What I like about Korea is how
they determines to provide facilities for their people to live a healthy
lifestyle. There a lot of hiking and coastal trails like this, and makes
their limited resources become interesting to see and visit.
15 | P a g e TLW:Busan
Busan International Film Festival Square
Our last Buti ride for the day took us from Taejongdae to Busan
International Film Festival (BIFF) Square, and arrived there around
6pm. Some people writes Busan as Pusan, so you can find some texts
as PIFF instead of BIFF, do not confuse, they are all the same.The first
theatre in Busan was built in this area, so the street became a famous
landmark to celebrate film industry especially Asian movies. Every
year in October Busan held BIFF that the grand opening usually takes
place in this square. Meanwhile in the other months, this place is
crowded with tourists, fashion shops, fortune tellers and street food
stalls. We really did not know which foods to eat, there were a lot
and all looked tempting in that below zero degrees.
16 | P a g e TLW:Busan
On the street we can see also some
hand prints of famous actresses
and actors. It is like Avenue of Stars
in Hong Kong. However, I did not
find any familiar names there
whichwere mostly Korean
celebrities. I could not take any
good picture of the handprints
because people feet kept passing
by on that Christmas Eve.
17 | P a g e TLW:Busan
Jagalchi Market
Just near BIFF Square, there is what they claim as the world famous
fish market called Jagalchi withJagal means gravel. People said this
place is used to be surrounded by gravel. Located in the seaside road
on the edge of Nampo port, Jagalchi Market is opened from 5am to
10pm every day except the first and third Tuesday of the month.
The building has 7 floors with mostly selling fresh live seafood on the
first floor, including eel, abalone, crab, squid and octopus. Visitors
can choose their own live fish and eat there, or buy dried fish to take
home. Have you seen Koreans eating live octopus with some sauces
in TV shows? Yeah, you can try it here, but not for me, thanks.
Honestly fish market is not my kind of thing. I love eating fish but I
rarely buy raw fresh fish in the fish market even in my own country.
So I really did not know how to purchase fish, moreover in Korea
where I could not speak the language very well. We only walked
around the first floor of Jagalchi Market without buying anything. We
were also quite stuffed with foods we ate while in BIFF Square.
18 | P a g e TLW:Busan
Eels
19 | P a g e TLW:Busan
Hello Guesthouse
Humetro Lines
21 | P a g e TLW:Busan
Standard 8 Bed Female Dorm
When we woke up the next day, the lounge area was quite empty. I
guess many guests were partying up late night. We took shower and
had small breakfast that they provided for free: some breads and
coffee. Then we checked-out and brought our stuff along to explore
other places in Busan.
22 | P a g e TLW:Busan
Haeundae Beach
23 | P a g e TLW:Busan
Seomyeon
The main feature of this park is Busan Tower. This is a 118 m high
white tower where the deck on top of the building had panoramic
view of Busan city.The entrance fee was 4000 Won per person. The
view up there was so stunning! The picture on the cover of this
ebook was taken from the top of Busan Tower.
25 | P a g e TLW:Busan
On the lower deck there is also a Love Locks area, just like Seoul
Tower.Here many couples and friends usually put a lock there and
throw away the key hoping their love and friendships will last forever.
26 | P a g e TLW:Busan
Going Back
That was the end of our short weekend getaway to Busan city. Surely
2 days was not enough to cover all places. See you next time, Busan!
27 | P a g e TLW:Busan