Korean Retrospective: Busan

ICCV 2021 seems like a million years ago.

Seeing people with masks in my photos doesn’t seem strange at all, and keeping one’s distance from others doesn’t seem as cold now as it did then. In a way, some aspects of Korean culture (such as food, snacks, and music) seem more natural now when I have plethora of Korean stores and amazing restaurants at my doorstep. Originally, I was intending to post a series of photographs as a journal of sorts, like I did for my “Mexico journals” but I somehow never got around to it. This feels as good of a time as any to continue posting the photographs from that trip, so here we go. First in line: Busan.

Night view from the Haeundae Beach in Busan

I chose Busan, as I’ve already written an article about it here. It is Korea’s second most populous city (after Seoul), and from what I’ve seen it seemed the most industrial. It is located on the Southeastern tip of the Korean Peninsula, and has served as one of the main fishing ports of South Korea. There are numerous attractions in and around Busan, and having only a few days we could only see a small fractions of it.

Upon arrival in later evening, we took to one of the main streets in search for some wonderful and greasy food.

Traveling to the South Korea for the first time. Last part of the trip was spent in a huge Busan - even though not the largest (8M people, give or take), it was the city that by far felt the biggest to me. We were touring the markets in search for street food.

Busan, being an enormous city that it is, has many faces. Most people that we’ve talked to see it as a more… industrial city. Devoid of the glamour of Seoul or tradition and nature of Jeonju. And at the first glance, one could be fooled into thinking that. Outskirts are relatively bare, but move away a bit, or creep into one of the amazing malls (I’m still convinced that there are more malls per person in Korea than anywhere else in the world) or peer into one of the market stalls and you’ll find either glamorous and/or cute side of it.

Street scenes in Busan

International vendors of Busan

There seems to be a mall just about everywhere in large cities of Korea, and Busan is no exception. This is somewhat exuberant Lotte Plaza in one of the bigger malls in Busan. I took the opportunity and went for a full-on traditional bath in the mall.

The amount of plush toys was overwhelming!

Market stalls in Busan

Move away (or up) for a bit though, and you’ll find the beautiful Gamcheon Culture Village or beautiful nature surrounding the temples. I will dedicate a separate blog post to temples in Korea, as they hold a special place in my heart and I long to get back to them. Here are some pictures of the nature surrounding Busan.

Most of the city is well connected with trains and subways, however the mountain parts and temples often have tourist buses. Riding in those was arguably the scariest experience of the trip.

Travelling to a high point of Busan can easily be done with a cable car, if you want to forgo a 90 min walk/hike.

Traveling to the South Korea for the first time. Last part of the trip was spent in a huge Busan - even though not the largest (8M people, give or take), it was the city that by far felt the biggest.

And of course being a port, Busan features beaches as well. We only visited Haeundae Beach on the north-eastern shore, but the beautiful light there allowed me to channel my inner Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Channeling my inner Hirushi Sugimoto at Haeundae beach in Busan.

Channeling my inner Hirushi Sugimoto at Haeundae beach in Busan.

Channeling my inner Hirushi Sugimoto at Haeundae beach in Busan.

However, Busan is arguably most famous for its Jagalchifish market - the largest covered fish market in the world. It has many floors (6 if I recall correctly), and the most amazing thing is the fact that it doesn’t at all smell like fish. I don’t know how to describe it, but upon entering the only smell I could pick up was sea water. It was almost eerie, yet fascinating to someone who has always remembered the smell of fish markets. The market itself is surrounded with little streets full of fish vendors that are re-selling the fish from the market in the more ingestible form.

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The cleanest fish market I have ever seen, and at the same time the only one that didn’t smell of fish.

Traveling to the South Korea for the first time. Last part of the trip was spent in a huge Busan - even though not the largest (8M people, give or take), it was the city that by far felt the biggest to me. Busan is the home of the largest fish market in the world. This was shot in front of the market, showing one of the many street vendors

Steaming pots of broth in the back of the street vendor store

Busan prides itself in one of the biggest fish markets in the world and in front of it and around it one can find plethora of fish vendors.