Busan: Downtown Beaches & APEC House

"Dynamic Busan"
May 25 - 26, 2012.

When you mention about Busan, the first thing people would think of are the beaches: Haeundae beach overseeing high-rise buildings & 5-star hotels, a very famous beach for foreigners and locals, Gwangalli beach in front of Gwangalli bridge, the longest bridge in Korea (6.5kilometer), Songjeong beach where you could catch the sun rising each day, and Songdo/Dadaepo beach where the sun sets every night. Yes, it's all about beaches! It would all depend on your interests.

For us, due to time constraints, we only walked through the entire shorelines of Haeundae beach and Gwangalli beach but we can safely say that we visited both beaches.

HAEUNDAE BEACH
Our first encounter with the beach was around midnight when we decided to see the beach at night.  Surprisingly, hundreds of people are still on the beach swimming, jamming with music, drinking with ice-cold beer on an 18ºc cool breeze, chatting with friends or simply sitting down looking at the calm ocean with lights coming only from the ships dock miles away. By the way, the other side of the beach, as I mentioned, are 24/7 office buildings, restaurants, establishments and hotels.  Travel Tip: There are a lot of hostels, guest houses, 5-star hotels and even jjimjilbang / sauna within the area so accommodation is not  a problem within the vicinity. Just google it and you will find numerous blogs talking about it.

Haeundae Beach at night

And that's the shoreline!

Korean's jamming by the beach

The 24/7 office buildings and establishments

From our Couchsurfing Host to Haeundae beach (looking forward to post about this soon) is just roughly 20minute walk along the busy streets of Haeundae-gu area.  And while walking, we happened to pass by a railway track that is wide open (ofcourse they put barricades when trains are coming).  And so I grab the chance taking a photo lying down on tracks where I would only see on movies. It was a great experience! It's still scary though thinking what if the train would suddenly come.  And Koreans, walking and driving stared at me wondering what I'm doing in the railway tracks - Is that guy sleeping there? Take note, it was past midnight already. HAHA! And I'm not kidding, here's the proof:

Sleeping at the railway tracks

Now, during the day! I'm sure it's better than the night view. LOL! The view was simply breathtaking! I keep on repeating this here, white sand beach on one side and skyscrapers on the other.  Thousands of people, locals and foreigners, flock in this beach every year to celebrate the biggest summer festival in Korea.  You can check out the events here: Sea Festivals.

Haeundae Beach I

Haeundae Beach II

Haeundae Beach III

Haeundae Beach IV 

Haeundae Beach V

Now, wonder what's the sand mountains are for? They were preparing for the Haeundae Sand Festival held last June 1 - 4, 2012.  Unfortunately, when we went there on the last week of May so we were not able to see the full blown sand painting.  This is just a glimpse of what we saw. It's not yet fully landscaped when we visited.

Pororo Sand Painting

VIP in Haeundae Beach. LOL!

NURIMARU APEC 2005

Next stop was Nurimaru APEC House, the venue of the Asia Pacific Economic Conference 2005 where high officials from Asia Pacific countries attended the event. And yes, you can just walk going to the APEC House. It's not difficult. There's a pathway. And the view is very nice! One should not miss this walk. You can already save some bucks for the taxi ride, add up to the beautiful scenery and cool breeze. Unfortunately, many people don't know about this and would commute going there. Travel Tip: A must-visit! From Haeundae beach, I think walking is the best option going to Nurimaru. It won't be a waste of time because of the seaside view.  

Walkway to Nurimaru APEC House I

Walkway to Nurimaru APEC House II

And this is the beautiful scenery:

Look at the view

From the Stones I

From the Stones II

Now, we arrived in the Nurimaru APEC House, we immediately took some photos overviewing the event area as well as the famous Gwangalli bridge (Though, it's not so clear in this photo).  And since we were excited to see the place, we went directly to the function halls. Yes, you can also go inside the conference rooms, get some memorable poses and buy some souvenirs from the APEC House.

Nurimaru 2005 APEC House

Nurimaru 2005 APEC House

Main Conference Hall, APEC House

Asia Pacific Economic Convention 2005, Busan, South Korea

After touring the interior of the Nurimaru House, we stroll around the vicinity. And yes, it was also awesome. What would you expect? World leaders from Asia Pacific region came to this place.

View from the APEC House I

View from the APEC House II

And we continued walking. You can go around the area to see some spectacular, well-maintained vicinity. Travel Trip: You can also take the alternative route, go to Nurimaru House first then walk to Haeundae beach. We just went to Haeundae beach.  Of course, it's beaches when you talk about Busan.

Skyscrapers near APEC House I

Skyscrapers near APEC House II

GWANGALLI BEACH

When you talked about Gwangalli beach, you will not miss out the Gwangalli bridge because it can be seen from the beach. Whether you just stroll on the shoreline, swim in the beach, or play some water sports.  Yes, Gwangalli beach is famous for water sports like Jet Skiing, Kayaking, etc.  Travel Tip: Go to Gwangalli beach late in the afternoon enough to get a good sunlight for day photos and just wait 'til the night and catch the illuminated Gwangalli bridge. 

Gwangalli Beach

Gwangalli Beach & Gwangalli Bridge

Going back, I'm talking based on my experience there.  We made the right decision to go late in the afternoon, but unfortunately, we were not able to see bragging rights of the bridge at night.  We were deceived by the map that the UN Memorial Cemetery is just walking distance from this place.  But definitely not! We walked for more than 30minutes already and we didn't even get to see even some signs to the place.  Travel Tip: Don't try to walk to the UN Memorial Cemetery from the Gwangalli beach as what you can see from the Busan Tourist Map. It's really far!

6.5 kilometer Gwangalli Bridge, longest bridge in Korea

People in Gwangwalli Beach

Of course, we also pass by Gwangalli bridge and that's by car. You cannot go and walk in that bridge where cars run as fast as 100km/hr.  But still, it was worth the ride. The bridge is so nice and this time, overseeing the Gwangalli beach.  Also, you can see the yachts in formation in the yacht club docking area and the ferris wheel in one of the small theme parks in Busan.  And get a chance to see to unique apartment lined up with different colors. Travel Tip: You can take a taxi just to pass by the bridge or if you ride the Busan City Tour, it will also pass by the bridge.  And you could have a better view if there tour bus has viewing deck on the 2nd floor. You can also save some penny from taxi.

The Gwnagalli Beach and Theme Park from Gwangalli Bridge

Yachts from Gwangalli Bridge

Apartments from Gwangalli Bridge

The Port (not from the Gwangalli bridge - I actually forgot where. hehe)

And these are the musts in Busan.  It's all free in these places (except maybe for the ride crossing the Gwangalli bridge). But the beaches and the tour around Nurimaru House are all free. Just spend for some snacks and drinks while walking. It's good to have some while trekking the shoreline.  Just make sure, you won't loiter around :)

Have fun in Busan beaches and it's vicinity!