Busan, April 6, 2026

Today we are again in the port city of Busan in South Korea. This time, we haven't traveled far from the city; instead, we visited a temple and a bamboo forest on the outskirts. In a city with 3.5 million inhabitants, this still means a 45-minute drive.

The city is brimming with high-rise buildings and modern structures (e.g., the new opera house) along with bridges featuring entrances reminiscent of the Gotthard's tunnel turns. What is different this time is that the visibility is somewhat poor, but the many cherry trees are in full bloom all around. Between the buildings, in parks, in forests, along rivers, and even beside highways.

We set out early for a tour and first visited the Hae Dong Yong Gung Temple. This is a large Buddhist temple complex that is said to have been built in 1376. However, this doesn't seem to be historically accurate. The complex is very large and beautifully situated by the sea. Prayers and offerings are actively made here. There are various Buddha figures, other deities, and also statues representing the Chinese zodiac signs. As in Japan, the boundaries to other religions are fluid, and as long as money flows—here, the Won—everything is generally fine. Indeed, in the middle of the temple complex, there are currency exchange machines, ATMs, and souvenir shops.

After the temple, we continued to the Ahopsan forest, which has been owned by the same family for 400 years and has been maintained by nine generations. For a long time, it primarily consisted of bamboo. However, the significance of bamboo has declined markedly, and now cypress, cedar, ginkgo, and pine trees are also being planted again. The forest is also used for the cultivation of edible mushrooms. The remaining bamboo forest is now used as a tourist attraction and film location. Six feature films and several series have been filmed there. There is still a gate from the past that remains from the filming of the movie 'The King: Eternal Monarch.' However, the gate seems to no longer function, as we tried it several times. We were able to enjoy a nice hike through the forests, and our guide reluctantly joined us on the long path. Nonetheless, we adhered precisely to the scheduled time.

After this excursion, we took the shuttle bus back to the city center. It was very lively with food stalls and restaurants everywhere, small shops particularly selling clothes, watches, jewelry, and electronics. Then, in the evening, rain began to fall here as well, so we returned to the ship and officially departed from South Korea.