Go to Korea Research Team

Nineteen kilometers is a long day for anyone, but my friend Doyoon had just signed up for a spring marathon and wanted a long training walk, so we combined two Gamnaetgil sections — Course 8-1 and 8-2 — into one continuous outing from Hoedong Reservoir all the way down the Suyeong River to Millak Bridge. … Read more

Most of the Gamnaetgil trail is about coastline and rivers, so Course 7-3 stands out — it’s the one section that trades sea views for history, looping through the old center of Dongnae, Busan’s historic seat of government long before the modern port city grew up around it. My friend Areum, who studied Korean history … Read more

By late October the silver grass along the Nakdong River turns Samnak Park into one of Busan’s better-kept secrets, and my friend Hana had been sending me photos of it for a week straight before I finally agreed to go see it in person. We picked Gamnaetgil Course 6-1 for the trip — a 13-kilometer … Read more

Gadeokdo doesn’t feel like part of Busan when you’re standing on it. Technically it’s the city’s westernmost and southernmost point, but it’s an island connected by bridge, set between the container terminals of the new port and the open sea toward Geoje. Gamnaetgil Course 5-3 loops around its coastline, and everyone who’d done it warned … Read more

My friend Minji had been asking me for weeks to try one of the Gamnaetgil (갈맷길) trails – the loop of coastal and riverside paths that circles Busan for roughly “700 li,” the old-style measurement that works out to around 280 kilometers in total. Neither of us had the stamina (or the time) to think … Read more