Day 7: The Oryukdo Skywalk and Haeundae Beach

By Grace Lee

Today marks our first day in Busan! So many any of us have been looking forward to the scenic monuments that this city has to bring - and we were definitely not disappointed.

After an hour bus ride from our traditional Korean resort, we reached Oryukdo Skywalk. Oryukdo stands for 5 (오) to 6 (륙) islands (도) because the view from the top gives a bird’s eyes view of a few islands. The skywalk was constructed with the idea of “walking over the sky” in mind. T he transparent glass floor was the only thing separating us from the the cliff and the ocean, the short walkway easily weakens the hearts of those afraid of heights. To be honest, I wished the skywalk hovered over the water more because the thrill wasn’t as high as I expected.

The view of the clear water, majestic waves and beautiful islands made up for all my complaints!

We all looked a bit funny as we had to put on shoe covers to prevent our shoes from dirtying the glass.

We then went for lunch – silky tofu soup! Above the raw egg that we could crack into our soups, what intrigued all of us was actually being able to add brown tea to the bits of rice stuck at the bottom of our claypots and letting that sit till it forms a porridge. It was a dining experience that was hard to forget. With our bellies full and satisfied, we headed on to our next stop, Taejongdae.

At the lighthouse, the view of the blue ocean took our breath away. Taejongdae’s cliffs were a very popular suicide location, so the government actually built a statue of a mother embracing her two children: to remind suicidal individuals of their mothers’ love so as to try and help them turn their mind around.

There was also a station of a traditional game called “Tuho”. The objective is to throw the spear into the wooden canister. Caution: the game is a lot harder than you think!

Unwillingly, we left Taejongdae and went on down to the Busan International Film Festival – no, not to catch any movies just yet but to collect our cinephile passes. After registration, the group had free time to explore the world’s largest department store, Shinsegae, with 3.163 million square feet in one retail location! Think of Shinsegae as Busan’s Marina Bay Sands, sadly, this mall mostly had many higher-end goods and brands, like Gucci, Bvlgari, and Chanel. Cafes that I walked into sold a small slice of lemon pound cake for around SGD6.

By the end of all that walking, we were starving. But, before we got to dinner, we stopped by what is known as Korea’s “most beautiful and famous beach”, Haeundae Beach!

The sky was a pastel blue and pink, it felt like we were stepping into a beautiful painting.

Unwillingly, we left the beach and went for dinner at a Korean restaurant nearby. Most of us had a soup called “Gukbap”, which had a very generous amount of pork belly in the light, yet slightly rich broth. The Muslims had Mom’s Touch – a famous Western food outlet in Korea. “Crispy skin, moist and tender meat,” many of them remarked about the fried chicken as we gathered back together after our meals.

Cool weather, amazing scenery, great food and shopping opportunities – an enjoyable day indeed. It was, all in all, a really great start to our stay in Busan as we approached the highlight of our trip, the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF)!

"Haeundae beach during sunset was magnificent - we created many happy memories with our friends as we tread on the sand and took pictures of each other with the beautiful horizon to capture this moment forever in our hearts." – Yi Jia