Busan

Everything You Need to Know

Busan is South Korea's sun-and-salt counterweight to Seoul's landlocked intensity — a sprawling port city where forested mountains tumble into the sea, Buddhist temples perch on ocean cliffs, and the country's best seafood arrives on ice each dawn at Jagalchi Market. Korea's second city has a swagger all its own: rougher-edged, more laid-back, and fiercely proud of its distinct dialect, its beaches, and its fiery dwaeji gukbap pork soup.

The city's landscapes shift dramatically block by block. Haeundae Beach draws summer crowds to its crescent of golden sand flanked by glass-tower hotels, while just around the headland, the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple clings to seaside rocks where crashing waves spray mist onto prayer-bell visitors. Inland, the Gamcheon Culture Village — once a hillside war-refugee settlement — has reinvented itself as a pastel labyrinth of street art, tiny galleries, and rooftop cafés cascading down the slope like a Korean Santorini.

Busan's culinary identity centers on the ocean. Jagalchi Fish Market's second floor is a vast seafood restaurant where you choose your fish alive from the tanks below and it arrives at your table minutes later as sashimi. Milmyeon — cold wheat noodles in icy broth — is the city's summer obsession, while ssiat hotteok (seed-filled sweet pancakes) from BIFF Square's street carts have achieved near-religious status among locals.