1 Nampo-dong? No, the Yongdusan Park!
It is well known that
Nampo-dong(Gwangbok-dong) is one of the uncountable attractions of Busan. When
you talk about ‘Busan’ at the front of people from other areas that have
fantasy on Busan, ‘Nampo-dong’ is a place that is never dropped out. Haeundae,
Seomyeon and Deokcheon are known as the main streets of Busan along with
Nampo-dong, but Nampo-dong is definitely deep in history. There are stores and
alleys with various stories lined up from the days of my mother, or even
before. These days Nampo-dong is a matchless downtown of Busan with traditional
stores and modern shops existing together, being a main street of much
individuality. There are so many stories to tell and places to introduce on
Nampo-dong, but today I will resolutely omit the others and introduce the ‘Yongdusan
Park.’ Why? Because among people who introduce Nampo-dong, there are those who
say ‘just take a glance’ regarding the place as a part of a tourist attraction,
and that seemed to be a pity. Well the expression ‘taking a glance’ is actually
not wrong, but I think ‘just’ doesn’t seem to fit here. There is a value to put
time into and look around carefully. The ‘Yongdusan Park’ is a ‘something’ that
doesn’t exist in other main streets of Busan.
If you come out the entrance number 1 of the
Nampo-dong subway station and walk straight passing the PIFF Square (photo 2,
right side in the photo) you can see the entrance(photo 3) to the Yongdusan
Park. If you are taking the bus, you can take one heading for Nampo-dong, but
it is okay to get off at stations called the ‘Baeksan Memorial Hall’ or the ‘International
Market.’ The way to Nampo-dong isn’t that difficult but don’t worry even if you
don’t have sense of direction. The Nampo-dong street is full of spectacles so
you don’t have any loss even if you walk a little more finding your way. (I
have a plan to introduce the Nampo-dong street and the alleys sometime in the
future.) If you have trouble even then, there is the ‘BY GUESS’ shop on the
right and the ‘STAFF’ shop on the left to the escalator of the entrance of the
park, so you can refer to those.
Before you arrive at the park using the
escalator, there is a temple (right on the photo) and cafes (left on the photo)
in the middle. There is a place to experience pottery hand-painting, and also
an accordion institute. Straight across you can also see a banner that says a Wangmandu(big
dumpling) eatery will open soon. Pretty interesting combinations.
Passing here you have to take an escalator
once more to go up, and there are sports facilities and an art gallery in the
middle. I wanted to watch the exhibition, but unfortunately it was closed that
day.
Finally arrived at the Yongdusan Park. You
have passed through pretty many things, but thanks to the escalator, you can’t
feel any tiredness and there wasn’t any delay in time. The first scenery that
comes into your view is the wide park and stairs, and the Busan Tower showing
way across. If you turn your head to the right there are cute looking houses,
and you can have various experiences such as making cups, fans and key-chains.
It takes quite some time to take a look at the Yongdusan Park including the
Busan Tower, so if you want to experience these it’s better to visit with some
extra time.
The Yongdusan Park is a tourist attraction
supervised by the city of Busan, but it is a place where the residents of
Nampo-dong and citizens of Busan visit a lot fit to the name as a park. It is
because the wide and clean park is ideally perfect for taking a walk. It is
quite common to see the elders gathered in small groups to play chess or have a
chat with each other at the park. It is perfect for an outing that doesn’t need
big preparations for families or even for lovers.
Especially, sometimes there are performances
performed on the small outdoor stage, and I have watched the ‘Dongraeyaryu(a
Korean traditional dance)’ a few years ago here. An actual traditional art
group puts on a performance that is pretty hard to see at other places. I
remember being totally overwhelmed at their aura succeeding the tradition with
their whole bodies. Other than this there are various traditional performances
performed by free under the title of ‘Our Tune and Our Madang(episode)’ on this
stage. These are occasional performances so if you wish to watch them you
should check the performance schedule on their website before you go there.
Personally, I recommend this very much. I’m sure that it is an excellent
performance that isn’t easy to see anywhere.
On the website, there are various events held
at the Yongdusan Park introduced, including the schedule of outdoor
performances, lantern festival, concert and the Korean Delegation event, so if
you refer to the website, it will be a much valuable trip. (Yongdusan Park
Website: http://yongdusanpark.bisco.or.kr) The vast square where doves and
children run about peacefully might be an endlessly cruel place for singles.
Since there are hundreds of locks with massages and stories of love helplessly
locked on the steel fence. Of course you can’t miss the photo zone for couples.
But, don’t be too sad. Who knows if you will meet your love of destiny here?
Nobody knows. So take a good look at your surroundings. If there is a person of
the opposite sex with the same mind appreciating this scenery alone? Hey, what
are you doing just standing straight? (Laugh)
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