Busan South Korea September 2011 - 62 photos - 404 views

Busan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul. The city is located on the southeasternmost tip of the Korean peninsula and is known for its beaches, hot springs, and nature reserves. There're lots of shopping opportunity in Busan with three major shopping district - Gukje Market, Gwangbok-dong Market, and Nampo-dong Market connected to each other. They are very much similar to Namdaemun Market and MyeongDong shopping district in Seoul. Various shops geared towards young shoppers with many global & local brand name stores and underground stores. Prices are good and the quality are excellent.  
 
Next, we went to the nearby ancient city - Gyeongju. It is the former capital of the kingdom of Silla, which ruled most of Korea in the 7th to the 9th century. The city undertakes a lot of effort to preserve that heritage and it retains a small-city feel and is fairly easy to get around. We visited the Unesco World Heritage Site of Bulguksa Templte (불국사, "Temple of the Buddha Land"). Although much-restored, it is an important example of Silla architecture and is home to no less than seven Korean national treasures. The temple was originally founded in 535 by King Pob-hung, for the use of his queen to pray for the welfare of the kingdom. Bulguksa was burned to the ground during the 1592 Hideyoshi Toyotomi invasion. It was partially reconstructed during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) and fully restored under President Park Chung-hee (1961-1979). Bulguksa Temple was added to the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1995.  
 
We also visited the Nurimaru APEC House, which was the site of the APEC Summit Talks in November 2005. Built in a modern style, Nurimaru features the traditional Korean “arbor” style for its overall shape and roof to represent the curves of Dongbaek Island. The summit’s meeting room, where the ceiling has been constructed with the same motif from Seokgulam’s ceiling, highlights Korea’s creative traditional culture in visual form through interior design. We then went to the wonderful Haeundae Beach (해운대해수욕장) in Haeundae-gu, which is located at the southeast end of the city of Busan. Along the 12 km of coastline, there were lots of people playing in the beach, building sand castle or walking along the broadwalk. Koreans are very meticulous about covering up their skin, many of them actually bring umbrella, or wear some kind of face mask to protect their skin. I was really happy with our hotel as we were just a block off the beach and we were surrounded by great restaurants and places to relax and hang out. That night we had a nice dinner at a Korean restaurant across the street from the beach, a good end to a good day.