Dr. Scott relaxes with the Gods

Dr. Scott
Aug 17, 2020
4 min read

For a change of pace, I went to the coastline of Busan for some beautiful nature pictures.

Background and travel

July 4th, 2020.

A new international worker joined the Center of Genomic Integrity as a post-doctoral researcher. For my blogs and website, I will call him Dr. Mexico. After two weeks of forced quarantine due to COVID19, he was extremely interested in visiting anywhere outside of UNIST campus. After learning his interests and particularly picky appetite, I decided that the easiest day trip would be to a true tourist site or attraction. This ended being the Taejongdae Resort Park of the Yeongdo peninsula.

In short, Taejongdae Resort Park is a stretch of scenic coastline and bluffs along Southern Busan. The "resort park" consists of a 5 km (roughly 3 miles) paved road along the coastline with four or five observation centers. In-between this road is a dense pine forest containing over 200 different trees and shrugs, several nature trails, and two Buddhist temples (Taejongsa and Gumyeongsa).

Taejongdae was named after the 29th king of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC-AD 935), King Taejong Mu-Yeol (604-661). Supposedly, this was King Taejong's favorite location to practice archery. In the present, Taejongdae is one giant tourist site for tourists and instagrammers to get pictures on coastal bluffs and pebble beaches.

There are only two ways to reach Yeongdo peninsula and Taejongdae, driving by car or taking a bus. Fortunately, bus line 101 has a stop right next to Busan Station and the last stop is at the entrance of Taejongdae. Unfortunately, the bus trip is about 40 minutes and I really hate traveling by bus.

Taewom Jagalmadang (Pebble Beach)

At the entrance of Taejongdae there is one road splitting off in two directions. Since Taejongdae is basically a 5 km circle, you can take either path and see the same sites. Also at the entrance is a large pavilion where you can purchase tickets for the Danubi train, a motorized vehicle that will drop you off at the four/five most popular observation/picture sites. Dr. Mexico and I decided that this was intended for the elderly and very young, so we continued walking in.a counter-clockwise direction.

Within five minutes of walking, we noticed a small path leading to the Taewom Jagalmadang or the Pebble Beach. On certain days, you can board small cruisers that lazily travel to the nearby Orukdo islands. On the day we visited, there was nobody at the ticket offices, but the trails to the beach were still open. Along the eastern shore of the pebble beach were divers that would capture live octopus and crustaceans for a small fee. To the western shores were coastal paths that yielded some of my favorite photos shown below.

Yeongdo lighthouse

The next site we visited was a small Buddhist temple called Gumyeongsa. This temple was not a tourist site and not really worth describing further. Please check out the main website for any additional information.

The next site worth discussing was the Yeongdo lighthouse, which is literally a lighthouse for ships coming into the harbor. There was construction preventing us from seeing the very top of the lighthouse, but we were still able to explore the base and attached observation deck. We also got to see a red/blue monument that is shown on every website/blog about Taejongdae.

Under the Yeongdo lighthouse is a rock called the Sinseon Rock. According to legend, the gods and goddesses protecting Korea came down here to relax. Also on this rock is a figure called the Mangbuseok, which represents the spot where a women waited everyday for her husband to return after being captured and brought to Japan. Unfortunately, I don't think I actually could see this monument from our location.

Further along the eastern shoreline of the lighthouse is another pebble beach. After descending many steep and narrow steps, we came to an outdoor restaurant. We were told that it's specialty was extremely fresh seafood, particularly live octopus and albalone. For the first time in Korea, I chickened out on a food challenge and instead took pictures of the shoreline. If I every return, I will try their most popular dish.

Our final stop on the Taejongdae trail was the Buddhist temple Taejongsa. To be short, this place was absolutely awful for traditional temple photos. There were more souvenir stands than prayer halls and each hall had framed pictures for sale. This temple was by far the most crowded. However, the landscaping on the grounds was absolutely immaculate. Every centimeter of every trail had perfectly manicured hydrangea bushes and rose patches. As before, please check out the main website for more pictures of this temple.

The future

Taejondae Resort Park, and all the sites within, is the definition of a shoulder shrug. The coastline was beautiful and every stop had something unique to photograph. However, the history was nothing special and the larger crowds are always a negative for me. My recommendation is this place is a great visit for residents of Korea but not worth a stop for visitors to Korea.

Check out more pictures on the main pages of the website. Follow ag4abroad on Instagram, Steller, and Flickr for updates.