A Busan native's guide to what to see, do and eat in film capital of South Korea
WITH PHOTO GALLERY: Fish cakes, photography, soju, strolling on the beach or a history walk - there's plenty to do in Busan whether you're there for its international film festival or not
If you arrive in the port city of Busan a few days before its annual film festival kicks off, you can find yourself pretty much alone down on Haeundae beach – no mean feat considering at the height of summer an estimated 100,000 people take up every grain of sand, every single day, along just 1.6 kilometres of foreshore here.
The massive posters erected along Haeundaehaebyeon-ro herald some of the around 300 films which will screen in the 10 days of BIFF, an event which annually attracts an international line-up – names such as Quentin Tarantino, Aishwarya Rai and Zhang Ziyi – while also championing the cause of independent Asian cinema.
In the two decades since the festival launched, the city has fully embraced the event. It spent an estimated US$150 million on the Busan Cinema Centre that opened in 2011 and hosts BIFF’s major events. BIFF has at the same time become a celebration of the city and its attractions, too, with places such as Haeundae hosting their share of meet-and-greets between stars and their fans, as well as nightly K-pop and rock concerts. Festival guests can be seen walking around town – in between screenings, of course.
Busan built itself from the ruins of the 1950-53 Korean war, welcoming refugees from all over the peninsula and then establishing itself as South Korea’s largest port. Lee Yong-kwan, who has been with the festival since its inception, explains Busan’s unique history.
“Busan came to cultivate a very peculiar and rich culture mixed by Busan locals and refugees from other parts of Korea,” said Lee, who shares the role of festival co-director with filmmaker Kang Soo-yeon. “In the city’s old districts, you can encounter many traditional cultures, whereas a new district like Haeundae has developed into one of the most advanced, sophisticated residential areas in Korea. In this respect, Busan is a city where the legacy of war and state-of-the-art culture co-exist.”
Lights
Dine outside under the lights in one of Busan’s pojangmacha – basically tented restaurants or street stalls – found at Haeundae as well as in the Nampo-dong and Seomyeon districts. They serve up the city’s specialities, which, given its port and its massive fishing fleet, revolve around the gifts of the ocean. Favoured dishes include ojingeo muchim (squid salad) or the local variety of eomuk (fish cake). “Busan fish cake is famous throughout Korea for its unique taste and health advantages. Eaten with a fish soup it is especially good as the weather gets colder,” says Lee.
Camera
For those who fancy themselves behind the lens, Busan has over the past five years undergone significant beautification, showing what can really be done when it comes to “urban renewal”. Gamcheon-dong – traditionally one of the poorest places in Busan – was once under threat of development, but the local government stepped in and helped villagers renovate their unique hillside dwellings, which date back to the arrival of members of the Taegeukdo religion during and after the Korean war. Busan artists were encouraged to work with locals on the outsides of their buildings and along the village’s winding alleys, and now the village is a living, breathing work of art, dotted with galleries and cafes.
The idea, Lee says, was to remodel the poor areas, leaving them as they were rather than destroying them. “By doing so, they have sought to improve the residential, traffic, and welfare environments and to revive what once was a dying community,” he says.
In the city’s Choryang-dong, the tale of the millions of refugees who flocked to Busan is told in the Ibagu-gil – or 168 Steps – historical path which runs for 1.5km and is lined with markers and storyboards.
After a long walk, Lee suggests doing what visitors to Busan have been doing since the 1600s: visiting the hot springs at either Haeundae or Dongnae, both of which are famed for the recuperative properties of their steaming waters.
Action!
While Busan boasts some of the most impressive shopping malls in Asia – its sprawling Shinsegae Centum City Department Store lays claim to being the largest shopping complex in the world – there are three distinctly local markets that give life to the more traditional tastes, sights and sounds of Korea.
There’s action to be found every day at the Jagalchi seafood market, home each October to the Jagalchi Festival which celebrates the city’s fishing fleet through fireworks, parades, concerts and games. Jagalchi is largest of its kind in Korea and a place surrounded by Pojangmacha stalls that will cook what you buy fresh off the boat, from king crabs to the popular local flounder.
Lee also suggests a visit to the Gukje and Bupyeong markets, which come stocked with every household item imaginable and serve Korean street-food delicacies such as the country’s signature bibimbap (mixed rice).
“These are places where you can see and feel the authentic Korea,” says Lee.
