4. Places

During the trip, we have visited several places including Gwangan Seaside Resort mentioned earlier. The first place we visited was Shinsegae Centum City close to Haeundae. Next, we've visited Jagalchi Market located in Nampo City.

JAGALCHI MARKET:

The first thing that caught my attention was these dead fish. It smell pretty bad and we were surprised to know that many people visit this market called “Jagalchi Market” to take a look at this arrangement of dead fish and to buy them. Also, we've seen a lot of foreigners who traveled all the way through Busan to take a walk in the market, which is somehow surprising. This market was full of Ajuma’s shouting, trying to sell their products. We were fascinated by this situation.

However, there were also illegal stuffs like whale meat. This shop was run by a Japanese dude, and was not so popular… Although a hunting of whale meat is illegal, the whale meat tasted good.

This is shark meat. This shop was also run by a Japanese trader. We wanted to taste how shark would taste like, but Edward's mom strongly disagreed with the illegal act. :(

This spectacular view was a way to dry stingray and Cuttle fish. We wanted to have a bite, but there were not for sale.

HAEUNDAE:

Haeundae is a district that attracts thousands of Korean tourist and foreigners because Haeundae beach is consider as a Korea's best beach.Also, Haeundae is one of the most popular spots in Busan to view the first sunrise of the year on January 1.

Centum City

Centum city is one of the main places to visit in Busan. It is famous for Busan Cinema Center(BCC) and Shinsegae Department Store.

Photo Credits to: Dynamic Busan

Busan Cinema Center

            

Photo Credits to: The Chosunilbo

Cinema center in Busan is where one of the most popular film festivals in Asia is hold. It mainly consists 3 buildings which are called Cine mountain, Biff hill, and Double cone. The roof of this building is well known for being the largest building in the world.It has the sculpture of woman turing to seaglles, which represents the movie and Busan.

Shinsegae Department Store

Shinsegae Department Store in Haeundae is the world biggest Department Store. In the building they have food court that has all kinds of food.

Photo Credits to: Jamerican Queen Abroad

Another main thing is Spaland. Spaland is one of the biggest spa place and very well known for its comfort. It is a place where many travelers visit to heal their body and mind. It is like a 찜질방(Jjimjilbang) where you can rest.

Haeundae Beach

Photo Credits to: Korean Herald

Haeundae beach is located at the southeast end of the city. Along the coastline, there is a beach called, Seogwipo, which is one of the most famous beaches in South Korea. The beach is located at the downtown of Busan. The beach is busy every year around by the festivals and the visitors from in and out from the country. 

Dongbaek Island

Photo Credits to: BSTour

Dongbaek Island is located at the south end of the beach. It offers a wonderful view of the sea and its coastline is is famous for fishing. 

3. Busan During Korean War

Korean War

Tensions have been high on the Korean Peninsula for weeks, because the new North Korea leader Kim Jung-Eun had ordered his missile units to be ready to strike the United States and South Korea. Soon after North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons test, the United States and South Korea began conducting high profile joint military drills, and many of the politician predict that North Korean missile crisis can cause the another Korean War. The American politician argued that North Korea would not have the power of lever of consequence but dangerous situation devolving into open warfare is a possibility that is closed now.

Korean War began as a civil war between North and South Korea, but the conflict soon became international when, under U.S. leadership, the United Nations joined to support South Korea and the People’s Republic of China entered to aid North Korea. The war left Korea divided and brought the Cold War to Asia, and the war has not actually or officially ended and South and North Korea are in truce under the guidance of the United Nations.

After North Korea capture the Teajun with the Chinese forces, North Korean forces began surrounding the Busan Perimeter from all sides in an attempt to envelop it. The Battle of Busan Perimeter was fought in August and September 1950 between United Nations Command forces combined with South Korean forces and the forces of North Korea. The Busan Perimeter was the area in extreme southeast Korea which was defined by the furthest advance of the North Korean troops during the Korean War They advanced on UN positions, repeatedly pushing back US and South Korean forces. The west, US forces were pushed back repeatedly before finally halting the North Korean advance.

Busan was a important place because by the that time U.S military landed reinforcements the South Koreans and the initial U.S units had been pushed to the area around Busan, and the Busan Perimeter served primarily as an airhead for resupply and reinforcement until the Inchon landing, and counterattack against the North. Busan also known as the defensive perimeter along the Naktong Bulge, and president Syngman Rhee establish a temporary government to avoid from North Korean force.

Today Busan is a bustling, prosperous city, home of the fifth largest port in the world; and the Gyeongbu Expressway is scheduled to become part of the Asian Highway, a planned network of routes connecting Korea with Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey.

 

2. Food

Edward at your service, ladies and gents. 

For 2 days 1 night, we took a trip to Busan using KTX and took 3 hours of non-stop riding.

Therefore, we took a photo as a proof for the first step! :D

MAIN DISH:

We've been asking a lot of friends from Busan for the best food before taking a trip, and they all recommended the mysterious food called Pork Soup. 

So we decided to ride a train from Busan Station and headed to Gwanganli.

In search for the best Pork Soup, we've found interesting about this train. For those who live in Seoul should remember of the old days without T-Money or CashBee, if you know what the photo shown below is about.

Memorable, isn't it? :)

In search for the best Pork Soup, we have arrived at this restaurant.

So this is called Pork Soup, the food that sells only in Busan. It's similar to Seolleongtang, but the meat is more chewy and it creates the magnificent and unforgettable taste when combining Saeujeot sauce. The cost is also cheap, so we were able to earn such a fabulous food easily. (How wonderful!) Pork Soup is derived when the Koreans had lack of food due to Korean War. Interesting thing is that Pork Soup is also derived from Seolleongtang because the Koreans used the ingredient as pig bones instead of cow bones to create the soup during 6.25 War. I strongly recommend this when you visit Busan for the first time.

Taking a short break, we took a walk with cool breeze over the Gwangan Seaside Resort. It has been awhile since we've visited beach, though it was sad that there are no parasols with people wearing swimming suits, taking a sunbath. (It's too cold & too late to open.)

It is nice to see some seagulls sitting on the rock as well.

Along the Gwangan Seaside Resort, there are a lot of seafood markets, so choosing one of the bests wasn't really easy.  While buying seafood, we've been informed that people can feel the deep taste of seafood if we eat what we've bought under the lighthouse located in this seaside. However, it was hard for us to bring the entire seafood to there because first: it was too far, and second: we were hungry again, and third: we were lazy. So we decided to eat them in the restaurant located upstairs.

Although we didn't observe the view under the lighthouse, it still is worthy watching across the sea through the windows.

First, we ordered Sannakji that is dressed with Sesame Oil. This living food wiggles when dipping into Cho-Gochujang, Korean spicy sauce.  

Then, we finished our second meal with these fish meat called Sliced Raw Fish. There are various types of Sliced Raw Fish, and these are the two of them.

Enjoying our meal inside of the building, watching over the sea is a good idea. However, the best way to enjoy our meal is not eating inside of the building, but outside around the coast, watching and hearing the waves of the sea slapping the wall. We strongly recommend you to do our way shown below:

1. Go to any famous restaurant for shellfish around the coast. We prefer you to sit any spots closest to the sea for better view.

2. Wait for the main dish while warming up with some Shrimps, ...

... and Cold Seaweed Soup. You can put it on the grill plate if you prefer hot one.

3. Get ready to cook our main, important, and best dish of all time. This main highlight of all main dishes is called Jogae Gui. (Jogae Gui means a mixture of shellfishes cooked on the grill inside of the plate. It mainly includes scallop, pen shell, and .)

 We found this interesting because the way this place cooked was different than any place I've visited. The staff covered the shell of pen shell on Jogae Gui in order to make the hot air cycling inside the plate.

 4. Wait for few minutes until the butter and cheese is melted. This is the result after few minutes of cooking.


From here, it's your option. It is not necessary to follow the steps from now on.

5. Put the chilly sauce into the plate of Jogae Gui.

6. Buy additional food you like to eat. For me, I bought this food called Spicy Seafood Noodles. Similar to Ramen, the appearance is reddish, but the taste is more salty. Plus, obviously, there is more seafood in this noodles. :D

Therefore, Cold/Hot Seaweed Soup + (Spicy) Jogae Gui + Spicy Seafood Noodles = AWESOME + RECOMMENDATION

We've also ate Jang-uh Gui, but unfortunately, my camera died because of out of battery. :(

DESSERT:
We only talked about the main dish, but how about some dessert?

If you think of Busan, the cheapest and the most common dessert will be Fish Cake.

Image from http://yawara.egloos.com/3488348

You all might know about this food, so I'm going to skip the description.

Next dessert is called Hotteok with Seed Fillings. This food become famous after Lee Seung Gi advertised and commented about this dessert in TV program called "2 days and 1 night." The special thing about this food is instead of putting honey-sugar fillings, they put well-being seeds inside the Hotteok. The sugar is covered rather on the surface.

Seung Gi Lee from TV Program "2 Days and 1 Night"

That's it for now, and thank you for visiting! Hope you find it useful!

Edward Suh, 10A

1. General Information

Name: Busan
Country: Korea
Districts: 15 Districts + 1 County
Population: 3,586,079/50,912,264 (3/50 of Total Population in Korea)
Dimension: 765.94 km^2 (296.28 in^2)

About Busan

Busan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul.

It has Korea's largest beach,
 Haeundae and longest river,
 Nakdong River.

It is the largest port city in
 South Korea and the world's
 5th busiest ports.

Busan hosted the 2002 Asian Game and APEC 2005 Korea. Also one of the host cities for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Busan is also a center for international conventions in Korea.

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