Travel to the Wonderland: South Korea Trip Day 4 Part 1

Summary of places we visited on Day 4: Jagalchi Fish Market, Gukje Market, BIFF Square, Gamcheon Cultural Village, Yongdusan Park

Busan is located in the southeastern coast of the Korean Peninsular, and is 1 of the largest fishing base in Korea. Everyday, seafood freshly caught from the seas will be sent to Busan, and then distributed for domestic or overseas usage. Our first stop this morning is to Jagalchi Fish Market, the largest seafood market in South Korea.

Jagalchi Fish Market

Address: 52 Jagalchihaean-ro, Nampo-dong, Jung-gu, Busan

Take Metro Line 1 to Jagalchi, Exit 10 (first right turn)

There are 2 areas which you can explore - the outdoor market and the indoor market. We visited the outdoor market first before making our way to the indoor market

Drying seafood on the roof of the store

Indoor market

The indoor market has 7 levels, but we only explore the first (live seafood market) and second (restaurant and dried seafood market). We intended to purchase some seafood from the 1st level, then bring it up to 1 of the restaurants at the 2nd level and ask them to cook for us at a certain cost. However, we were quite over-whelmed by the number of stalls and ranges of seafood, and couldn't make up our minds on which seafood we should purchase and the quantity to purchase. As such, we went up to the 2nd level empty handed to take a look at the restaurants before making our mind. As we passed by the restaurants, many stall owners started to introduce their menu to us, and we manage to walk 1 full round before being won over by the owner from Jacky's seafood, who promises to reduce the share & price of each dish by half so that we could try a wider variety of seafood. We also do not need to go through the hassle of buying any of the seafood from the first floor as they purchase from the fish market daily in bulk. We ordered a seafood stew and sashimi, and as I mentioned that I wanted to try live octopus arm (san-nakji), the restaurant deliberately set aside some arms from the octopus meant for the seafood stew and season it before serving to us so that we could try the dish at no additional cost.

Yellowtail sashimi - we were told that it was the best season to try this

Delicious Seafood Stew which is full of fresh seafood

After tasting seafood fresh from the sea, we made our way to Gukje Market & BIFF Square to explore the area before heading to the metro station to take the train for our trip to Gamcheon Cultural Village.

Gamcheon Cultural Village gained its nickname as "Santorini of Busan", "Lego Village" and "Machu Picchu of Busan" over the years due to the pastel colored houses that dotted the hilly village. We visited this tourist hotspot right after our visit to Jagalchi area as its nearest metro stop is just a stop away. As we walk out of Toseong Station, there were signs pointing us to the direction where we could take a bus to the village.

Gamcheon Cultural Village

Address: 203 Gamnae 2(I)-ro, Gamcheon-dong, Saha-gu, Busan,South Korea

Take Metro Line 1to Toseong Station, Exit 6, walk to Pusan National University Hospital, take bus 2 or 2-2 to Gamcheon Elementary School

In order to make the visit more meaningful, we bought a map from the Tourist Information Center, located at the entrance of the village. The map provided some recommended routes to see the highlights of the village, which we would have missed out if we wander around aimlessly. We also had some fun collecting stamps at certain areas in exchange for postcards.

If you prefer not to purchase the map, you can follow the directions provided by the fish signs to roam around this colorful village filled with murals and interesting art pieces.