Hiking Geumjeongsan mountain & cable car, Beomeosa temple, Heuksong sushi 금정산 범어사

I took a solo trip to Busan. I stayed at Songjeong Beach on a recommendation, and caught up with an old coworker, did some hiking and exploring, and revisited a few places.

DAY 2 OF 3-DAY TRIP to Busan

Hiking

After a long toilet stay (thanks for ordering the spicy pizza last night Ryan…), I was on the train to one of the recommended mountain trails, Geumjeongsan (금정산). You can start at Beomeosa Temple (범어사) which takes about an hour from Songjeong Beach; just head to Beomeosa Station on the subway, in the north part of Busan. The entrance to the park and temple are very nice and I recommend going to the right of the temple and visiting Cheongryeonam hermitage (청련암) after you look at the main temple. The hermitage has lots of interesting statues in a central square area; a woman seemed to be circling it and praying each time around. There were a few plastic water bottles at some of the statues; my initial thought was “Rubbish? Here?” but then I thought that they must be offerings!

Going to the hermitage will get you on the route to one of the main peaks, Godangbong (고당봉). It was an easy forest hike but there were a few obstacles; one was a digger ripping up the trail so I had to go into the forest and cut out this section. Other obstacles weren’t that much hassle; after the rains, some of the trail had trenches in them so care was needed.

The peak was nice with good 360 degree views over the mountain and the cities front and back. It was even possible to see all the way down to the towers of Haeundae Beach and Gwangan Bridge (광안대교). At this point it started to get a bit windy and chilly so I had to hunker down out of the wind to eat my packed lunch! I was regretting not bringing my extra fleece.

The trail down was a fortress wall with lots of gates on the way so it was just a matter of following them. I saw a number of cats plus the cutest of jindo puppies all on his own running around being friendly to the hikers.

Cable car

I was aiming to get to the cable car to take it down however since the latter part of the trail wasn’t that interesting (all trees), I got down at about the east gate and took a bus to Geumgang Park (금강공원) to get the cable car. Note, here it’s called a ropeway; new to me! The ropeway had a real old tin toy feel to it, very colourful and quaint looking. Also clean and well maintained I might add! It was a nice ride up and at the top there are refreshments. I didn’t stop though, just went to the lookout point about 200 metres further up. From there I could see better views of the sea and south part of Busan.

Sushi

After another hour’s ride back to the beach, I chilled out a bit on the balcony with a free hotel coffee, then went on the search for food. I opted for sushi at Heuksong (흑송) which was pretty damn good; definitely a go-to-again place.