Busan Fireworks Festival – Day 9 in South Korea

Welcoming the New Year with a new post. Hoping you had a very nice NY celebration yourself, and with or without any new year resolution, I hope this year, we exert more “-ER”s in what we do and aim to achieve, hardER, bettER, fastER and strongER!

This post is a continuation from our Busan tour with our Couchsurfing host and is also bit connected with New Year’s celebration as I will be featuring the fireworks display at the Busan Fireworks Festival 2012.

The fireworks show was originally planned to be held last October 27 but due to the heavy rain that day, it was postponed and re-scheduled the next day. The entire festival lasted for two days, the first day, Oct 26, featured a free concert with famous K-Pop artists - TVXQ and IU to name a few. The fireworks display is held at the Gwanggali Beach and has attracted not just Koreans, but lots of foreigners as well. Just like us, there were some tourists who visited Busan on the 26-28th to experience this festival and it also has been a tradition to the people of Busan ever since it started last 2005. The event is free for all – meaning no admission fee ;) More reasons to experience this famous festival.

Gwangan Bridge at dusk

A refreshing tour of Busan - Igidae Coastal Walk – Day 9 in South Korea

After the unfortunate turn of events yesterday, we woke up with a fresh start beginning with a very nice Korean meal from our host. I was very thankful that so far, we have stayed with very friendly and hospitable hosts and our host in Busan was especially nice as he has agreed to tour us to different places in Busan. The plan for the day was to go to Igidae Coast, UN Memorial Cemetery, Busan Cinema Center, Shinsegae and finally, go to Haeundae where the Busan Fireworks Festival will take place.

Igidae (이기대) Park is not really famous with tourist, maybe because going here would be quite tricky for first-timers as you would need to transfer trains/buses and walk before you reach the start of the trail. Igidae is one of Busan’s beautiful coastlines and is known for its spectacular views of Gwangan Bridge, Haeundae Beach, Baeksan and Jangsan Mountain, it’s not just a good place for a morning stroll, but you can also set up picnic here or fishing posts! It’s a good spot where you can take your family for a nice day out. The 5-kilometer coastal trail would be perfect for the sunny weather.

The panoramic view of Busan