I always expected to like Busan more than Seoul, and in many ways I did. It has a very different feel to Seoul and is much prettier than Seoul.
Why go?
It ticks my two main city preference boxes: sea and mountains.
The fish market (dried fish, shell fish, fresh fish and more).
It has a nice buzz.
If you like port cities, Busan has a staggeringly massive port right by the centre of town.
If you like the sun and warmth, Busan is further south than Seoul and is quite a bit warmer, giving it something of a holiday feel. There is, after all, a proper beach there. It is also a particularly colourful city.
Is it worth going out of your way to visit?
Yes. When I first arrived, on a lovely warm, sunny day, I announced I would rather have flown into Busan, stayed there four days instead of Seoul and maybe not gone to Seoul. But then I started appreciating Seoul more and seeing that they are two very, very different cities with very different vibes.
Would I go again? Probably.
We spent almost 12 hours in Busan and I didn’t wish we could have stayed longer on that trip, but if we had had another day, I’d have liked to go high into the mountains to see Busan in all its glory and out to sea. The temple carved in rock also appeals hugely. And I think it’d be a fun place to go out at night time.
Jagalchi Fish Market
The fish market is amazing, though not in the way Tokyo’s former fish market, Tsukiji, was amazing. Tsukiji was a much more interesting market to me. However, what really amazed me about Jagalchi market is that there are so many different market areas: dry fish (fascinating!); live fish; shell fish and fishmonger type stalls. Then there are different areas depending on how you want to eat your fish: raw; grilled; soup and many more.
I was slightly disappointed by the main fish market building as the fish looked really unhappy all crammed into very small overflowing tanks. It is, however, brightly coloured or, as my mum observed when she saw my photos, it looks like a colourful branch of Lakeland (particularly when plastic was more prevalent).
The large area of dried fish stalls/shops is really interesting. We saw dried frogs and sting rays along with silvery (to me unidentifiable) slivers of baby fish. There are also more kinds of seaweed than you can imagine possible. Then you see boxes and boxes of the stuff, I assume to be sold wholesale. It does smell quite, erm, rich, but it’s ok for a while, though I imagine it is almost overpowering in the hot, humid summers.
You kind of have to eat fish while you’re there (assuming you eat fish, of course). We spent about an hour faffing and wandering round wondering where to eat and what kind of fish to eat. For non-speakers of Korean, it’s a little daunting. I guess that’s why there were as many tour groups of foreigners as there were (we saw loads of non-Koreans in Busan, more than in Seoul even, though most of them were around the fish market in tour groups).
We eventually decided we wanted raw fish but didn’t feel confident about the tradition of choosing and having killed a fish from a tank, which would then be taken to a restaurant area upstairs for you to have raw fish, with soup from the rest of the fish.
It was all a bit stressful as we really couldn’t understand the menu, it didn’t seem that you could just order a few bits of raw fish, etc. In the end, we went with the one bloke who could speak good English. From having walked around, we established that prices were generally the same, it didn’t seem that you could just get a small dish of raw fish (I expect that was just us not understanding the menus) and that portions were massive.
I would advise that you make a decision about whether you want raw fish, grilled fish or other. You can at least then focus your attention better on what area of which market to go for.
We had a feast for 40,000 won (£25.65) between us. There was far too much food, so much so that we left before our fish soup was prepared and brought over. I expect that seemed rude but we explained to our cheery waiter that we had a train to catch (which was true). The whole meal took a long time so it’s not one to rush. We got the kind of fish of the day, kind of thing, which didn’t really work for me as I’m not that keen on the texture of raw fish and there are only a few types of fish that I like the taste and texture of. It was obviously fresh but, as with most raw fish, it didn’t excite me.
Also, unless you pay a lot more, the fish you eat there is farmed rather than wild. Our waiter told us that only a really discerning palate would notice the difference.
We had two grilled mackerel with our side dishes. They were delicious and I wished I’d gone for grilled fish at one of the outdoor grill “restaurants”.
I do not like tours but, to an extent, I can see it might have been useful and interesting to have had a short guided walk and/or explanation of how to order and what to order at different eating areas.
It is busy, lively, a little bit fishy but not too bad, colourful and exciting.
Busan
We walked from the train station (huge station area but plenty of tourist information) to the Lotte Department store. Lotte is just a big, expensive department store.
However, you can get a lift to the 13th floor (all free) and there is a roof terrace with spectacular views. There is a cafe and toilets up there too. We lay in the sun on the terrace for a while, which was lovely.
The main market area, Gukje, not far up from the fish market, is a good place for shopping – mainly clothes, accessories, kitchen shops, bedding shops, etc. There are lots of interesting-looking cafes.
We then walked along a largely newly pedestrianised area, which felt a little Australian, near the Millennium Statue. There were trendier, branded shops there, and also lots of interesting-looking bars and cafes.
Opposite the train station is China Town (a bit disappointing in that it was quiet when we were there and there were more clothing and gadget/phone/electronics shops than food shops and restaurants) and beyond that is a really odd area largely populated by Russian men and Filipina women, which I believe was once called Texas Street. The clients may have changed from US soldiers to Russian sailors (just a guess), but the service providers are still largely Filipinas. It is the red light district, which we hadn’t known before we went there, though the Russian and Filipina element had us both wondering. It is seedy, not scary, but really grubby. We walked down the main road of restaurants and bars (possibly not ones we’d have ever wanted to go into or even felt welcome in) on our way back to the station at about 7pm when it was starting to get a bit more lively. A Filipina girl in a very short skirt came running up the street and through a doorway. My friend was horrified as she had it confirmed to her the girl wasn’t wearing underwear and was clearly running as she was late for work.
We weren’t there at all long but we did see some cool stuff. I think you could spend a fair bit of time there, but, like I said, we saw what we’d really wanted to see within realistic confines of a one-day visit and didn’t feel we missed out by not staying longer (bearing in mind a two-week window of exploration). However, looking at the guide book, there seem to be lots of other interesting things to do. I had two friends who lived in Busan and they both loved the city. It’s a shame neither of them were still there as I expect we’d have spent more time there and seen some really interesting things, from the UN Cemetery and both Beomeo-sa (according to my guide book, Busan’s best sight) and Seokbul-sa (a temple carved in a rock, which sounds v cool to me) to the beaches.