Taejongdae Park and Songdo Beach

Having taken the day off, Monday was a perfect chance to do some more sightseeing in Busan. The weather was warm and clear and the crowds were at work.

The first stop of the day was to see the cliffs of Taejongdae Park but to get there I would need to take a solo trip on the bus for my first time in Korea. I researched as much as I could, then boarded the bus for Taejongdae. I followed the route with the GSPs on my phone and was reasonably confident that I boarded the correct bus. At the end of the trip, I got a little confused about where I was and didn't realize we were at the last stop. I thought I had at least another stop to go. The bus driver yelled something, which I assume was "last stop" or "get off the bus". I dashed off the bus and forgot to tap my bus card. But I made it to Taejongdae Park; a somewhat successful first ride on the bus.

I arrived at the park at 9am and saw that there was a fun, little trolley that takes the tourists around the park. I decided to walk instead and climbed the hills and the steps throughout the day. Taejongdae Park is a little natural oasis on the edge of the sea in an urban megacity.

Taejongdae is famous for the views of the sea and its impressive rock and cliff formations. Looking out to sea, I am always amazed at what a parking lot of ships there is around Busan.

Continuing on the circular route around Taejongdae, I came across an observatory. The building was closed due to the coronavirus, but great views were still plentiful outside.

The next stop on the path was the cliffs of Taejongdae and the famous lighthouse. I took some photos of the lighthouse, but it was also closed due to coronavirus. No matter, the highlight of the day was the cliffs. I spent a lot of time there just marvelling at the sea, the sounds, and the passing ships.

There is a rock in the shape of a person standing alone on the cliff. Legend says that a woman stood there waiting on the cliff for her husband to return after he was taken by invaders. She waited and waited but eventually turned into stone when he did not return.

Once I finished the loop at Taejongdae, it was time to travel to Songdo Beach. I was confused at the bus depot. Instead of finding the bus and boarding, all buses exited the depot and stopped at a single stop around the corner. When your bus approaches, hop on. I boarded Bus 30 bound for Songdo Beach remembering to tap on and, after nearly missing my stop, tap off this time.

Songdo Beach is very peculiar-looking. It has a cluttered view in my opinion. The sea is a parking lot for ocean liners, and closer to shore there are sea sculptures of whales and dolphins. There is a cable car strung across the horizon, and a skywalk off to one side. Still, it was nice to be at the beach in warm weather. I took some pictures and made my way over to stroll on the skywalk and then up the cable car.

The cable car lifts passengers across the bay and up onto the hill overlooking the ocean. There are two options for the cable car - standard car and a clear bottom. I opted to have a pleasant rather than terrifying ride, so I chose the standard cable car, costing 15,000₩ for a round-trip. Even though there was a queue for the cable car, the staff ensured that each party had their own car, which was nice. I rode up alone, giving me enough space to take a few selfies,

The mountain provided some beautiful views and several short hiking trails. Already exhausted, I did a short walk that featured unwanted stairs and a clear view of the sea. I emerged from the trail into a small dinosaur park. There were mechanical tyrannosauruses, stegosauruses, and many others, complete with sound effects 'Rawr!"

I took the cable car down to the beach and used my phone's GPS to find the nearest bus stop. After some fretting and lining up on the wrong side of the road, I found the bus headed for home. The GPS wasn't working properly at that point. I thought the journey would be about 90 minutes on the bus. But after about 30 minutes I saw that we were passing a subway stop, so I got off and boarded the train. I got home even quicker, so it pays to learn the subway system and the names of the stops as soon as possible. It was a stressful experience navigating the bus on my own for the first time, but I was successful and I have now seen many of the tourist highlights of Busan.