Why visit Busan in South Korea? The freshest seafood, scenery and beaches city has it all, says
By Lee Hae-rin
Home to maritime delicacies and a rising star in speciality coffee, the southeastern coastal city of Busan is one of South Korea’s five regional tourism hubs designated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for 2020 to 2025.
The city is three hours from Seoul by bullet train and has many charms to entice foreign travellers and their taste buds, according to Lee Do-yeon, a Busan-based travel guide with 10 years of experience.
“Busan is the best city to understand the quintessence of Korean sentiment … why we Koreans are so quick-tempered, saying ppali-ppali [“hurry up”] all the time and why we eat what we eat and love it so much – you can understand that by understanding Busan and its wartime history,” Lee says.
Busan remained the only city that North Korea never captured throughout the 1950-53 Korean war. It became a haven for war refugees from across the country while serving as the provisional capital.
The port city became a cultural melting pot after seeing further explosive population growth during an industrialisation period from the 1960s to the 1980s.
People settled on the slopes of the mountains that take up 70 per cent of the city’s geography. With limited resources, they became quick-tempered but learned how to live together and how to develop a rich and diverse culinary heritage, Lee explains.
“If you’re in Busan, there’s no way you leave the city without having some good seafood,” Lee says, leading the way through Busan’s Jagalchi fish market.
The market was formed after the country’s independence from the Japanese colonial occupation in 1945. Its name represents the gravel field that the market was built upon at the time.
With a natural marine environment and healthy supply of fresh ingredients through its port, the city’s seafood dishes – based on regional specialities – are renowned for their freshness.
Agu, or monkfish, for example, is normally cooked and served from frozen in all other parts of Korea, but in Busan the fish has always been cooked fresh, offering a chewy and moist texture.
“Next to the famous Jagalchi Market is Yeongdo Bridge, the country’s first and only drawbridge initially designed to open electrically to enable ships to move around the port. It had a tramway that carried Japanese colonial settlers in 1934,” Lee says.
“Today, the bridge connects the mainland to one of Busan’s trendiest neighbourhoods on Yeongdo Island, renowned for its thriving local coffee scene.”
The district formed in the early 2000s along the shipbuilding repair street where bereaved widows of dead sailors were hired to remove barnacles from the hulls of the ships in the past, Lee says.
The street, now centred around the 2019 World Barista Champion Jeon Joo-yeon’s Momos Coffee, features several independent roasters and high-quality coffee shops.
Because of its unique location, visitors may enjoy the representative Busan scenery, featuring a beautiful blue ocean with ports, ships and mountainous villages in the background while sipping a good cup of coffee.
The centre of Busan’s latest lifestyle and tourism trend has moved from Haeundae to the Gwangalli beach area, Lee says, explaining that the drone light shows held year-round every Saturday could have spurred the commercial growth of the district.
Millac the Market, a culture complex that opened in July 2022, features casual dining, a premium craft beer pub, pop art exhibitions and flagship stores of trendy brands.
According to the city government, Busan saw over 482,000 foreign travellers last year, which is a 216 per cent jump from 2021’s 152,000.
The figure is still lower than pre-pandemic levels which once surpassed 2.7 million, but the city expects its tourism industry to make a full recovery soon at the current pace.
Last month, Michelin announced a plan to extend its guide to the city’s restaurants..
Michelin Guide Seoul and Busan 2024 will be released as a single volume in February, and Michelin’s anonymous inspectors from 20 countries are on the ground working in Busan.“Although Michelin Guide centres around fine dining and high-quality restaurants, Busan offers a wide range of exceptional restaurants where foreign travellers can enjoy authentic local food at reasonable prices, which we hope could be listed under Bib Gourmand,” Son Tae-wook, Busan’s tourism promotion division director, says.ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kuaqyxKyrsqSVZLOwu8Nmm6uhnqB8or7TopqlnV9of3OElmpqaK%2BYrnq3tdKiq2aapaiur3nSqKytoF2gvLOxwGadq52jnbK0wIysnJqen6Sxbr%2FCnqWeqqlirq%2BwjJucmpuYmsBur8itsGagkah6qsCMmqOlZaOWxrR506isq6Gjog%3D%3D