A day in Haeundae

Haeundae is the Busan most visitors picture before they arrive — a long crescent of pale sand under a wall of high-rises — and it can be skimmed in an hour or given a whole day. The day is the better idea. The beach is only the front of it; behind and around are a wooded headland, an old coastal railway turned into a slow scenic train, a hill road made for sunsets, and a run of towers that only comes alive after dark, and all of it hangs off a single stop on subway Line 2.

What follows runs from morning to night, in the order the light suits it. The food is left to the full local list rather than any one name — Haeundae has its own traditional market a few streets back from the sand, and the places listed on this site were walked in person by Korea Post staff who work the neighbourhood.

Morning — the beach and Dongbaek Island

Start early, before the parasols go up, when the sand is still firm and the light comes low off the water. Haeundae’s beach is a clean arc of about a kilometre and a half, and the walk to its western end brings you to Dongbaek Island — no longer really an island, but a rounded green headland the shore path loops right around.

The loop is shaded and easy, maybe forty minutes at a wander, past the Nurimaru APEC House out on its point and the low camellia wood that gives the island its name. From the far side the view opens across the bay to the long white line of the Gwangan Bridge, at its best in the morning haze before the day sharpens.

Midday — the coastal train and, if it rains, the aquarium

At the beach’s eastern end, in Mipo, the old coastal railway has been turned into the Blueline Park — a small, slow train that runs right along the water’s edge to Cheongsapo and on to Songjeong. It is the best seat in the city for the sea, and worth the separate ticket; the paired Sky Capsule, a line of bright little cabins on a raised rail beside it, covers the first stretch higher and slower for more.

Break the ride at Cheongsapo if you can — a working fishing hamlet where a red lighthouse and a white one face each other across the mouth of the harbour — then pick the train up again for Songjeong, a gentler beach where the surfers gather. If the weather closes in, the aquarium sits under the sand at the western end of Haeundae, a dry hour or two without leaving the strip.

Evening — Dalmaji hill and Marine City

Late in the day, climb Dalmaji-gil, the wooded road that winds up the headland above the eastern end of the beach. It was named for moon-watching, but the point of it is the view — a long look back over the whole bay as the sun drops behind the city and the water turns to metal.

Come down the far side into Marine City, the cluster of tall towers on the western edge of the beach. Its waterfront promenade is the place to end the day: the buildings and the Gwangan Bridge light up over the black water, and it is an unhurried spot for dinner or a late coffee.

Getting there

Haeundae is the eastern end of subway Line 2, about forty minutes from Seomyeon and easy to reach from anywhere in the city on a single rechargeable card. The station exits leave you a few minutes’ walk from the sand, and from there the market, the beach train and Marine City are close enough to keep the whole day on foot.