Busan 釜山

Busan 釜山

1st visit 


Date: September 30, 2010
Cruise Ship: Diamond Princess


Busan (Officially Busan Metropolitan City), formerly spelled Pusan (Korean pronunciation: [pusan]) is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world. The city is located on the southeasternmost tip of the Korean peninsula and faces the Korea Strait.
Beomeosa was constructed in 678 during the reign of Silla king Munmu, by the monk Uisang. It became known as one of the ten great temples of the Hwaeom sect, although like most Korean temples it was later assimilated into the Jogye Order. At its largest, during the Goryeo dynasty, it was much larger than it is today - with over 360 rooms and more than a thousand monks in residence. The temple was burned to the ground in 1592 during the Japanese invasion. It was reconstructed in 1602, but was burned again by an accidental fire. In 1613 it was rebuilt again. The main hall (Daeungjeon) and the front gate (Iljumun) date to this reconstruction.
The mountain where Beomeosa is found is said to have huge rock at the summit where there is a golden well which never, ever dries up. The water of this well is believed to have very special magical properties as one day a golden fish came from heaven and has lived there ever since.
Beom (범;梵) = nirvana - eo (어;魚) = fish – sa (사;寺) = temple. Thus the name of the temple came to be ＂Heavenly Fish.＂ It is also claimed that the fish came from Nirvana, the Buddhist state of non-suffering. Therefore the temple also became known as ＂The temple where fish from Nirvana Play.＂
釜山廣域市（韓文：부산광역시），簡稱釜山，位於韓國東南部，原屬慶尚南道，是韓國南部最大的城市，也是韓國南部的大港口，貿易繁盛，現時有人口四百萬。由於釜山被高山包圍，形成了天然的屏障，使它成為了朝鮮半島唯一沒有被朝鮮民主主義人民共和國佔領過的城市。

Busan is a very friendly city. They provide free shuttle bus running between Internation Cruise Ship Terminal and Phoenix Hotel in Nanpudong. In PIFF (Pusan International Film Festival) area, you can see friendly volumteers who offer multilingual help to visitors. Shopping in Nanpudong is ineresting. There shops and shops on the ground and underground. The famous Jagalchi fish market, you can dine there, surely, you can buy fresh fish there.
We use the convenient subway to visit historical Beomeosa 梵魚寺. The subway ride was fun, especially for us who cannot read and speak any Korean. Subway stop has Korean, Japanese, English and Chinese. The Chinese name helps us a lot. In the temple, I do not have problem to read the Chinese name.
The city tourist bureau did a beautiful job for the visitors, they provided free multiple lingual maps, money exchange services, souvinor shops and cultural performance right at pier. No wonder, Busan is the most friendly city in Asia.

Subway station of Beomeosa temple

 Busan PIFF area

 With city tourist volunteer - Chinese speaking

 Fish market area

 Inside fish market, a good looking restaurant

 Traditional restaurant

 Friendly city with official sail off ceremony

2nd Visit

Date: February 29, 2012
Ship: Diamond Princess


My 2nd visit of Busan(Pusan) is by the same cruise ship - Diamond Princess. This time for this stop is very brief - 12:00 to 19:00. At 12:00 the ship just docked there, by the time when we are leaving the ship is about 13:00. We all have to be back by 18:00, so the total time in the city is about 5 hours.


Weather was cold. We took free shuttle bus to Nampudong 南浦洞. We visited Jagaichi Fish Market first. We did a more detail visit to this fish market. Then, we walked in PIFF (Pusan International Film Festival) area. At the end, we walked to the famous park with Busan Tower. The entire trip was not long, no time for us to do extensive visit, in the beginning we planned to have Hop-on and Hop-off bus trip, but we have to be back by 6 PM so we changed our plan.

 排长龙的小点

 韩国人玩象棋