Busan is a paradise for walking travelers. When you walk out of a subway station, you can easily find a tourist spot nearby. As you move and walk around like a baby frog, you will come across all essential elements to see, eat, and enjoy in your trip. If you want to walk through a crowded street, take subway line 1 and head to Jung-gu (Jungang Station, Nampo Station or Jagalchi Station). No matter where you get off, an attractive tourist destination in Busan will wait for you.

Gamcheon Culture Village is a “Lego Village” in Korea.
It has a deep relationship with the Korean War. Because refugees from all over the country flocked to Busan to escape the war. Among them were Jo Cheol-je, the founder of Taegeukdo, a new religion in the 1950s, and its believers. They couldn’t find another place to settle down, so they formed a collective residence on Oknyeobong Hill. They cultivated the hillside and built terraced houses with a slab roof. The houses were constructed so that the front ones don’t block the view of the behind ones, and all alleys were connected for a flow. This is how Gamcheon Culture Village was born.

After a long time has passed, the appearance of this hillside slum is the same. It only became more colorful as the roofs were painting in blue and pink. In order to preserve the characteristics of the village, local artists and villagers conducted a “village art project.” After the project, the colorful houses lined up on the slope and maze-like narrow alleys became elements reminiscent of the good old days, rather than inconvenience. The old, shabby houses look no longer hideous. Rather, they speak to travelers, like old antiques. The village that embraces them has become a museum displaying valuable treasures, showing the unique scenery of Gamcheon. Travelers lose track of time, having fun of finding hidden treasures while walking through one of the most beautiful villages in the country. Gamcheon Culture Village, which preserves the history of Busan as it is, is the best destination for a walk.

Finding treasure at Bosu-dong Book Street
If you come down the hil from Gamcheon Culture Village to Bupyeong Kkangtong Market and Gukje Market, you will find a large sign that reads “Bosu-dong Book Street.” From the Bosu-dong Book Street Museum located on the roadside, go about 30 meters into the alley and you will find tens of bookstores lined up. Bookstores of different sizes, with books stacked up like mountains, will look lovely.

Each bookstore handles different kinds of books. Some only buy and sell children's books and reference books while others are specialized in Christian books or Buddhist books. Still others deal with novels, essays or comic books. They are not well organized like stores that sell new books, so it would take time and effort to find the book you want. Finding a book in piles would be like finding a treasure. Asking the owner might be a shortcut, but it would be better to have fun finding a book yourself, at least here in Bosu-dong. Because you may unexpectedly find a precious book looking through the piles smelling bibliosmia and spending a leisurely time with books.

Bosu-dong Book Street was first formed when Son Jeong-rin and his wife, refugees from North Korea during the Korean War, started a stall welling various used books under the eaves of a wooden building at the entrance to Bosu-dong Sageori. They mainly sold old magazines discarded from the US military base and books collected from junk dealers. Right after the war, people were severely poor and it was difficult to get a book even if they wanted to study with it. They were grateful if they could buy a used book instead. Under these circumstances, with the increase in the demand and supply of used books, the number of stalls greatly augmented. In the 1960s and 1970s, more than 70 stores were in operation, which became a tourist attraction in Busan.

Beautiful forest trail in Yongdusan Park
Take the direction from Bosu-dong Book Street to Jagalchi Market and you will go through Gwangbok-dong Fashion Street, the street of youth. After passing Jokbal Street and walking down the street where fashion accessory stores are concentrated, you will see an escalator going up to Yongdusan Park.

Yongdusan Park is a great place to appreciate the sea, mountains, and cityscape of Busan. In the middle of the part stands the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-shin, surrounded by lots of flowers and trees. A perfect place to drop by to spend some leisurely time. On the top of the park stands the 120-meter Busan Tower. If you go up to the observatory of Busan Tower, you can see Busan Port and surrounding areas at a glance. The observatory is currently closed due to COVID-19.

Yongdusan Mountain is famous for keeping Korea’s highs and lows in history. In the late Joseon period, it had Choryang Waegwan (1678-1876). Waegwan is a place where diplomacy and trade took place between Joseon and Japan. It was a residential area for more than 500 Japanese from Tsushima Island. After Korea’s opening of the port in 1876, there was established a settlement for Japanese officials. During the Japanese colonial period, the place became the center of the colonial Busanbu and the base of the anti-Japanese independence movement. During the Korean War, refugees gathered and built shacks to live in.

Merchants’ solicitation in Jagalchi Market
The walking tour that starts in the mountains ends by the sea. After coming down from Yongdusan Park, you will find Jagalchi Market just a short distance away. Some merchants are cleaning fishing gear while others are selling dried fish. If you walk from the roadside towards the sea, a line of stalls stretch in front of you with salty smell. They sell all kinds of seafood, you can hear the dialect of women merchants of Busan from everywhere. Some phrases may be difficult to understand, but you will like the lively atmosphere. You can find every seafood on the stalls that are filled with salty smell from the port. The stalls are mainly selling fish in season. The market is always crowded and noisy with people choosing, haggling, and watching.

The name of the market “Jagalchi” originates from the gravel field (jagalbat in Korean) that stretched all the way to the Chungmu-dong Rotery. It was first called “Jagalcheo,” which means it has lots of gravels on the ground, and later renamed Jagalchi. Its original location was on the southeast coast of Yongmisan Mountain, the current location of Busan City Hall, and around Nampo-dong Dried Fish Market. After the South Port was reclaimed in the 1930s, it was moved to its present location. The market began to grow after the opening of Busan Port in 1889, when Japanese established Busan Fisheries Company nearby to protect their local fishermen. As the commercial facilities became concentrated in the district under Japanese’s control, the merchants of Jagalchi Market began to seek modernization. In 1922, the building for Busan Fisheries Cooperative was built in Nampo-dong, and it became their base.Later, small shopkeepers who sold the catch of small fishing boats sailing out to the South Port gathered around the consignment store of Busan Fisheries Cooperative, forming the present-day Jagalchi Market.

The seafood in season now are cutlassfish and sea squirt. Highly tempting, thick silver cutlassfish will make you lick your lips. Sea squirts also show off its vivid red color. The alley that sells eels and other fish are filled with savory smell. Jagalchi Market handles over 300 kinds of seafoods, including fish and shellfish caught nearby, as well as marine products shipped from far away.

If you want to have raw fish as you came to the seaside, go to the modern building with two underground floors and seven above ground that was renovated in August 2006 in Jagalchi Market. As a matter of fact, Jagalchi Market was the name of the center located in the market. Now, people call not only the center but also all surrounding stores and stalls Jagalchi Market. In the center, there are stores selling living fish, abalone, fresh fish and small fish on the first floor while the stores on the second floor handle dried fish. You may pick living fish at a store, take it to a raw fish restaurant, and enjoy it just after paying for seasoning and stew.