Discover South Korea's lesser-known past with a history tour through Busan

With buzzing markets, ancient fortresses, hilltop villages and a Korean War legacy, Busan’s multi-layered past can be best discovered through one of several tours.

Stroll through Bokcheon Ancient Tombs Park on a historical walking tour in Busan.

Photograph by Busan Tourism Organisation
By Chris Tharp
Published 26 Feb 2023, 07:00 GMT

As a country with a richly political history, a visit to Busan is not complete without a guided tour. With so many must-visit monuments, museums and memorial parks, a heritage tour through Busan helps travellers discover more about the fascinating remnants and relics of the city's past. Here, we delve into the historical tours on offer in South Korea's second city.

For history buffs, the Dongnae Walking Tour explores some of Busan’s oldest sites while also illuminating its past. Now a sprawling residential district, Dongnae was once a walled citadel and battle location during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. Today, the neighbourhood is home to scores of historic spots, all of which are best discovered on foot. 

This tour begins with a stroll through the green and serene environs of Bokcheon Ancient Tombs Park, which hosts over 40 burial mounds dating back to the Gaya confederacy (AD 532-42). After Bokcheon, you’ll head along the rebuilt walls of the Dongnae Eupseong Fortress, where your guide will highlight the heart-rending details of the battle that took place there in the early days of the Imjin War. After checking out a miniature model of the walled town at the Dongnae Eupseong History Hall, you’ll make stops at the colourfully reconstructed Dongnae-bu Magistrate’s Office and Hyanggyo Local Confucian School, before finally entering the hallowed grounds of Chungnyeolsa Shrine. This picturesque complex brings the area’s sobering history into sharp focus and is the ideal place to pay your respects to those daring Korean fighters who resisted foreign aggression over 400 years ago.           

Take a walking tour through Bokcheon Ancient Tombs Park and discover burial mounds dating back to the Gaya confederacy (AD 532-42).

Photograph by Busan Tourism Organisation

Busan’s original harbour district oozes history, and the Nampo-dong Tour uncovers the neighbourhood's storied past by delving into the three street markets that make up its core. It all begins with Jagalchi Market, the 600-year-old fish market that defines Busan. A stroll down its frenzied concourse is more than just an assault on the senses, it’s also a portal into yesteryear. Next up is Gukje Market, which blossomed into a gargantuan foreign goods exchange during the Korean War, when Busan was flooded with both refugees and products from abroad, as documented in the hit 2014 film Ode to My Father. The final stop is neighbouring Bupyeong Kkangtong Market, where, over anecdotes from your guide, you can graze on street food favourites such as tteokbokki, eomuk (fish cake), guksu (noodles) and bindaetteok (mung bean pancake).

Explore Busan's incredible past while you eat traditional street food on a guided tour through Bupyeong Kkangtong Market.

Photograph by Busan Tourism Organisation

Just a stone’s throw from Nampo-dong is one of Busan’s newer and most recognisable landmarks: the Gamcheon Cultural Village Tour lets visitors soak up the splendours of this hamlet while also providing historical context to complement the community’s multihued charm. Originally settled by war refugees, this hillside warren of narrow alleys and vibrantly painted tiny homes has become one of the city’s most popular destinations, and with good reason: the views alone are worth the trip, and the cluster of galleries, cafes, and splashy murals will surely set your heart aloft. It’s the history, however, that binds it all together, and the tour guide will describe the details of just how this village came to be — how hardship, along with a shared interest in shamanism — helped to create the community that now occupies the most famous mountainside in the city.

While the origins of the Gamcheon Cultural Village are reminders of the impact that the Korean War (1950-1953) had on locals, the UN Memorial Cemetery Tour drives home the courage and sacrifice made by so many in the international community. The only site of its kind in the world, the cemetery honours the UN soldiers and aid workers from 21 countries who were killed in action during the Korean War. Originally holding 11,000 graves, most of the fallen have since been repatriated to their native lands. That said, 2,1300 remain, including 886 from the UK.

The UN Memorial Cemetery Tour in Busan is the only site of its kind in the world which honours those killed in action during the Korean War. 

Photograph by Busan Tourism Organisation

Experiencing the UN Memorial Cemetery through a guided tour helps give a backstory and purpose to all of those names on the headstones and memorial walls. The tour guide will possess deep knowledge of the contributions that each of the participating nations brought to the conflict. Moreover, once you leave the cemetery and step back into the thriving, frenetic city of Busan, you’ll understand the price paid by many around the world to help make South Korea the free and prosperous nation it is today. 

Three must-visit museums in Busan

Busan Museum: Situated next to the UN Memorial Cemetery, the Busan Museum is the city’s premier collection of artefacts, home to over 45,000 locally-gathered pieces. 

Bokcheon Museum: Acting as a companion piece to Dongnae’s Bokcheon Ancient Tomb Park, Bokcheon Museum houses armour, weapons, clothing, tools and pottery, all unearthed from the adjacent burial mounds. 

Provisional Capital Memorial Hall: Busan was the nation’s provisional capital during the Korean War, with Provisional Capital Memorial Hall acting as President Syngman’s Rhee’s personal residence. Today, it serves as a reminder of that turbulent time, with mementos, as well as a photo gallery documenting those dark days of conflict. 

Take a tour through narrow alleys and vibrantly painted tiny homes in Gamcheon Cultural Village.

Photograph by Busan Tourism Organisation

Plan your trip

Korean Air and Asiana Airlines both offer daily nonstop flights from Heathrow to Seoul’s Incheon Airport. From Incheon Airport, it’s just an hour flight south to Busan. You can also reach Busan via train. The KTX Express Train takes 2.5 hours from Seoul to Busan.

For more information, visit visitbusan.net/en

 

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