Crossing Yeongdo Bridge

Namhang (South Port), densely packed with seafood-related businesses and ship repair companies, is separated from Bukhang (North Port) by Yeongdo Bridge as the boundary, and it is more than enough to make you feel the intense daily life of the people of Busan, a port city. It is home to Jagalchi Market and the dried seafood market, where refugees once caught and sold fish to make a living during the Korean War, and it is the place where Korea's shipbuilding industry first began. As a gathering point for coastal and offshore fishing vessels of all kinds and a hub port for maritime traffic, it has long played an important role at the national level, serving as Korea's largest fishing base among other things. In particular, Namhang is home to Korea's largest seafood wholesale market and over 64% of the nation's frozen-food processing companies, so many people in the surrounding area work in seafood-related trades. Namhang, spanning the areas of Seo-gu, Jung-gu, and Yeongdo-gu—together known as the old downtown—lets you see with your own eyes the many different industrial sites of Busan, and it is a place where the stories remain of people who have made their living from the sea for generations. It is also a 'living life experience site' where you can see the figures of our parents, who diligently worked to feed their children. Source: Busan Tourism Organization

Along the way

1. 1

   Yeongdo Bridge

   영도대교

   Built during the period when Japan was exploiting Korea, this was Busan's first bridge, connecting the mainland (Nampo-dong) and the island (Yeongdo) to transport people. It takes the form of a bascule bridge so that boats traveling between Namhang and Bukhang can pass beneath it, and it was raised as few as 2 times or as many as 7 times a day. At the time, many people gathered to see the curious sight of the bridge rising up toward the sky, and it gradually became a Busan landmark. Later, during the Korean War, it served as a meeting spot where separated families reunited, and it is a place steeped in the sorrow of refugees, who, in their anguish to learn whether their loved ones were alive or dead, asked fortune tellers at the makeshift stalls beneath the bridge. It was originally named Busan Daegyo (Busan Bridge), but as the bridge aged and a new Busan Daegyo was built, its name was changed to Yeongdo Daegyo (Yeongdo Bridge). It remains more familiar in people's memory under the name Yeongdo Dari (Yeongdo Bridge).\nMoreLess

   ReviewsSaveDirections
2. 2

   Ship Repair Yard Street

   수리조선소길

   This is a place with so many ship parts businesses gathered together that people say if you can't find it in Yeongdo, you can't find it anywhere in the country. There are still elderly women here who do the grueling work called 'kkangkkangi'—chipping off corroded paint, an essential step in ship repair. Here, it is a trade just as important as that of the haenyeo (female divers). Walking through the narrow alleys, you can easily come across colorful drums and scrap metal. The mix of scrap dealers, parts suppliers, and shipyard signs creates a distinctive atmosphere. The ferry landing that used to shuttle between Yeongdo, Nampo-dong, and Jagalchi, and Yongsindang Shrine, which comforts the souls of those who sacrificed their lives building Yeongdo Bridge, remain here, as if to prove that Yeongdo really is an island. \nMoreLess

   ReviewsSaveDirections
3. 3

   Namhang Market

   남항시장

   Namhang Market is a traditional market formed in the 1960s, after people began settling in Yeongdo in the wake of the Korean War, and it boasts the third-largest scale in Busan. Selected in the 2012-2013 'Culture and Tourism Market Development Project' competition, it has since carried out various cultural activities, holding market culture festivals such as a market music festival and a market theater festival, transforming Namhang Market into a cultural space where local residents and merchants can come together. \nMoreLess

   ReviewsSaveDirections
4. 4

   Bongnae Market

   봉래시장

   A traditional market that formed naturally during the Japanese colonial period, it once boasted a large scale, but shrank after part of it was absorbed into the roadway when Busan Daegyo (Busan Bridge) was built, and its commercial area shrank further once Namhang Market opened across the way. Even so, food companies with over 50 years of history and tradition, such as Samjin Foods and Seongsil Foods, continue to hold their ground in Bongnae Market, steadily loved by the surrounding community. \nMoreLess

   ReviewsSaveDirections
5. 5

   Busan Fish Cake Exhibition Hall

   부산어묵전시관

   This fish cake exhibition and experience hall was created by Samjin Foods, the oldest existing Busan fish cake manufacturer. Along with a bakery-style fish cake café on the 1st floor, the 2nd floor operates an exhibition and experience area where visitors can learn about the history of fish cakes. In the 1950s, Park Jae-deok, who had learned fish cake-making techniques in Japan, rented a shack at the entrance to Bongnae Market and began making fish cakes; the factory in Bongnae-dong, passed down through three generations, was remodeled into an exhibition and experience hall and reopened in 2013. You can experience the very same taste of fish cakes that mothers once handed to their children when they tagged along to the market as kids.\nMoreLess

   ReviewsSaveDirections