| Page Views: 4,436 Last Visit to Busan: 2004 | Busan: Korea's Second City by Intrepidduck - last update: Dec 3, 2006 |
Pusan - Busan | Admiral Yi Sun-shin and Busan Tower |
"Where is it" you may ask, that's what the travel agent in Melbourne said when he was about to proceed with my flight booking. "Where is it" I said just a couple of weeks before when I was given the details of a job offer here. I had bought a map of Korea and all I could find was Pusan, located in the SE corner of the peninsular.
So where is it? Busan was called Pusan up until recent and had reverted to it's correct spelling like many location all across South Korea.
Busan is a sprawling city of 4 million inhabitants and the second largest city in Korea. It is also the third largest port in Asia after Osaka / Kobe and Hong Kong. Much of the industry the Busan area is shipping and fish processing - they can be found in the many multileveled fish factories. The Jagalchi fish markets in Nampo-dong is where one will find every thing fishy around here.
Inspite of it's size and fish related industries Busan offers great hiking and beaches. While they are nothing to compare with Australia's wild beaches, they are much loved and appreciated by the high rise apartment dwelling locals. Haeundae is the Bondi of Korea - concrete and crowds!
To quote Bruce Chatwin "What Am I Doing Here?" The reasons why I came here are of the following. Well like eight hundred other foreign English speakers I came to Busan to teach English working in a "hagwon", a kindergarten / elementary school. Thus Busan was my "home" away from home in 2003 / 04 and was an interesting experience working towards improving Korea's English language needs. |
> Add to your Custom Travel Guide [What's This?]
| Pros: | "Not over run by tourists, good Korean food, great hiking." | | Cons: | "A bit of a cultural backwater" | | In A Nutshell: | "Interesting place to be now and a city on the verge of great changes" |
Intrepidduck's Busan Travel Tips
 Comments for Intrepidduck about Busan | | | | |
Pixiekatten Sat May 26, 2007 10:00 UTC
Thanks for sharing, your tips will come in handy on my trip in June! :)) | iwys Fri Nov 5, 2004 20:19 UTC
Very helpful info. Thank you. I'm going to Busan soon. | MissyWQ Sat Aug 14, 2004 02:34 UTC
Wonderful info. | Groverdean Sun Aug 1, 2004 13:59 UTC
Sean great pages. You sell Busan well. I have thought about visting South Korea. Keep up the good work...Cheers DEAN |
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