Busan, South Korea

 Busan is located at the Southeast tip of the Korean Peninsula., and is located at the foot of a mountain on a deep well sheltered bay at the mouth of the Naktong River, facing the Japanese islands of Tsushima across the Korean Strait. It was occupied by the Japanese from 1910-45 and developed into a modern port.

 It was overpopulated with refugees following the Korean War (1950-53) when it was the temporary capital of the Republic of Korea. At that time, it was almost completely devastated, and Korea was the second poorest country in the world, following India. Despite it's lack of natural resources south Korea has thrived in the last 70 years through hard work and determination. 

It is now the second largest city and the largest port in Korea. It has a very large new container port and distribution center. Industries include shipbuilding, automobiles, electronics, steel, ceramics, chemicals, and paper. It is clean, modern, and very people friendly. We were very impressed with Busan!

A view of our cruise ship and lovely cruise harbor port from the modern overpass.

Our first stop on our tour was to the Haedong Yonggungsa Buddhist Temple which has been in the same location since the 14th century.  Due to it's wooden construction, it has burned and been rebuilt several times during it's history. 

The temple is in a stunning location right on the water.

There are statues and images all over the grounds, but this one, the "Traffic Safety Prayer Pagoda" in the shape of a wheel made me laugh!

People write wishes on paper and tie them to the trees around the temple.



"Love, Happiness, Fortune, Fulfillment" 3/9/23

We then drove to the site of the APEC( Asia Pacific Economic Council)  meeting held in Korea in 2005. It is now used for events and meetings, but the original meeting room has been preserved.



The Round building is reached by a very nice seaside park and walkway lined with beautiful Camelia bushes that were all in bloom.


The view of the beach area from the seaside walk beside the APEC building.

We went to a really good Asian restaurant for a buffet lunch. It was Saturday and a family was having a large birthday party for their daughter.  The mother is dressed in a  lovely pink brocade traditional costume or hanbok, the long high waisted chima skirt and the short jeogori top that ties at the front.

After lunch we went to the large outdoor fish market.

All sorts of strange sea creatures were on display, and many live fish were swimming in buckets.

After the Korean war, many women were widows. Many started to work in the fish market to support their families, and the tradition has continued to this day.


Comments

  1. LindsayMarch 29, 2023 at 6:32 PM

    Adalea said "I bet it's really stinky in the fish market"

    ReplyDelete

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