Go to Korea Research Team

July in Busan means punishing daytime heat, so when my walking group scheduled Course 9 as a sunset walk instead of a morning one, I convinced Yerim to come along for what turned out to be a genuinely different way to experience Gamnaetgil. Starting at Jungni Port on Yeongdo in the early evening, the whole … Read more

Some walks are about nature, and some are about a city showing off its layers — Course 8 is firmly the second kind. Starting right at Busan Station, this route packs in Chinatown, a historic mountaintop park, the country’s largest fish market, a working shipyard village, and a cliffside art town all in one go. … Read more

Course 7 picks up where Course 6 left off, at Yeongga-dae, and turns out to be one of the richest history walks on the entire Gamnaetgil trail — a compressed tour through Joseon-era diplomacy, colonial-era commerce, independence movement history, and modern Busan all inside about six kilometers. My friend Areum, unsurprisingly, was the one who … Read more

We should have checked the forecast more carefully. Course 6 turned into our first proper rain walk together, and honestly, it ended up being one of the more memorable outings — there’s something about grey skies that suits a route built around a war memorial and an old quarantine village more than clear blue ones … Read more

May in Busan means flower festivals, and Course 5 starts right in the middle of one. My friend Hana and I met at Namcheon, at the western end of Gwangalli Beach, where a temporary barley field and flower garden had been planted for the season, complete with a thatched-roof hut straight out of an old … Read more

Course 4 is Gamnaetgil at its most “greatest hits” — Haeundae Beach, the APEC summit house, a yacht harbor, and one of Busan’s most photographed bridges, all inside a single ten-kilometer walk. My friend Doyoon, still deep in marathon training after our long double-course day back in January, wanted something flatter for a recovery walk, … Read more

By mid-April the cherry blossoms around Busan were mostly gone, petals collecting in the gutters instead of on the trees, but Course 3 turned out to be one of the prettiest coastal stretches we’d walked yet — a mix of small fishing harbors, dramatic breakwater lighthouses, and the long approach to Cheongsapo’s famous stepping-stone viewpoint. … Read more

Cherry blossoms were just starting to open when Woojin and I set out on Course 2, a mostly flat 11-kilometer stretch through Gijang that runs from a riverside park down to a small fishing village lined with some of the more unusual lighthouses I’ve seen in Busan. We caught an early train out to Ilgwang … Read more

There’s something satisfying about a first walk of a new season, and Gamnaetgil Course 1-1 — the very start of the entire 700-li trail — felt like the right place to begin. My friend Woojin and I picked a mid-March Saturday, still cold enough for jackets but with real spring light, and took the train … Read more