[HiKorea Hostel(Guesthouse) in Haeundae, Busan] A must to see for even the Busan people, ‘Yongdusan Park and the Busan Tower’_2

A Magnificent Sight 69m Above the Sea Level, the Busan ower

 Since you are at the Yongdusan Park, you cannot miss the Busan Tower. The Yongdusan Park is free to enter, but to go up the Busan Tower you must by a ticket. The observatory is \4,000 and the World Instruments Museum is \2,500 based on adults. The whole coupon that you can use to watch both the observatory and the World Instruments Museum is \5,000. I bought the whole coupon. The museum is located on the 2^nd and 3^rd floor, and on the 1^st floor there is the souvenir shop and a café that sells light refreshments. In the café there is the ‘Photo Exhibition on 100 Years of Modern Busan History’ as on the photo. If you climb up the stairs after taking a look at the exhibition and the souvenirs, there is the World Instruments Museum, and you can watch the folk instruments of world. The 1^st floor is only for watching, but there are instruments that you can experience personally, so try playing a piece together with your family, lovers and friends!

 Now it’s time to go up the Busan Tower. You have to take the elevator on the 1^st floor after coming out of the museum. Be aware, because there is an elevator on the 2^nd floor, but you can’t use it. There are two elevators on the 1^st floor, so if you can’t take a ride on one go to the opposite one. There will be a guiding employee in the front of the other elevator. Get in line, show the employee your ticket and get on the elevator. The Busan Tower is 120m tall and 69m above sea level, and you can see how many meters you have come up through the small monitor inside the elevator. I heard later on, but it is said that the shape of this observatory have been modeled after the baldachin on the roof of the Dabotap in Bulguksa, Gyeongju.

 If you get off following the guide of the employee, you can see a small café. It is one of the beauties of the Busan Tower to have a tea time looking down the view of Busan through the big windows, but for now, let’s take a look at the ‘real’ view going up one more floor. If you go up following the narrow stairs, there is the observatory as in the photo.

 You can see the different Busan from any directions in one sight due to the round structure of the observatory. If you want to look further you can use the charged telescope. We can’t say it is all of Busan that you can see, but you can see the whole Jung-gu of Busan. You may have expected, but the night view is a much more magnificent sight.

 Busan is not a city that was developed according to plans. So the tradition and the modern times exist together. If you get just slightly out of the urban that reflects the modern characteristics that change rapidly a dozen of times in just one day, you can find the business areas and villages that have kept their shapes naively for a long time.

If you take a look at the view you can find those characteristic figures of Busan easily. Especially Nampo-dong is a place where the modern times and traditions coexist the most compared to other places. If you use bad words, you can say it is a mishmash city, but I think this is the charm of Busan. A refined city that has been developed neatly according to plans is very nice, but somehow I feel there isn’t any humanity in it.

 A more interesting fact is that the lighthouse on the top of the Busan Tower is a ‘real lighthouse.’ The fact that the thing that stood straight on the top of the Busan Tower is pretty interesting itself, but it is the highest lighthouse in Korea(120m), and it does its duty guiding the ships crossing the south port and the north port starting from sunset to before sunrise. If you are curious about more information on the Busan Tower, please refer to the website (http://www.busantower.org). There are websites on the Yongdusan Park and the Busan Tower each.