Not every part of Galmaetgil is coastline. This section is the urban one: it runs through the old centre of Busan, past Jagalchi, Korea’s largest fish market, and into the covered alleys of Gukje Market. There is no scenery in the usual sense and it is one of the most interesting hours of walking in the city.
It belongs to Galmaetgil Course 3 — 41.0 km from the Oryukdo ferry pier to Dongsam, about fourteen hours end to end. Route 3-2 is the downtown portion.
Walking load
| Time | 1.5–2 hours walking; longer if you stop to eat |
| Surface | Paved streets and covered market alleys |
| Ascent | None |
| Shade | High — much of Gukje Market is under cover |
| Exertion | Low |
| Leaving early | Very easy — always minutes from a subway entrance |
| Facilities | Everywhere |
| Note | The best section in rain or heat. Crowds are the only real obstacle |
Load figures are our editorial assessment for trip planning, not measurements. If a clinic has given you activity restrictions, read these against that advice — see treatments that don’t cost you a hiking day.
What is on the route
Jagalchi Market — a working fish market on the harbour, not a tourist reconstruction. The ground floor is tanks and trays and women who have sold here for decades; upstairs, restaurants cook whatever you buy below. Mornings are the real thing; by mid-afternoon it has quietened.
Gukje Market — “international market”, grown out of the trade that followed the Korean War, when Busan was the refugee capital. Several blocks of covered lanes selling clothes, tools, fabric and street food. The alleys are narrow, numbered and easy to lose track of, which is the point.
BIFF Square — the old cinema district between the two markets, now a street-food strip. Busan’s film festival takes its name from here.
Bosu-dong Book Street — a lane of secondhand bookshops stacked floor to ceiling, a short detour off the route and worth taking.
The walk itself
Flat, paved, entirely urban. This is a section you walk in whatever you are already wearing, and the only real obstacle is crowds. Rain does not matter much — most of Gukje Market is under cover, which makes this the obvious choice on a wet day when the coastal sections are miserable.
An hour and a half to two hours if you keep moving. Considerably longer if you stop to eat, which is the sensible way to do it.
Waymarking is harder to follow here than on the coast — arrows compete with shop signage. This is one section where having the route on your phone helps.
Getting there
Jagalchi station and Nampo station, both on subway line 1, sit at either end. It is difficult to get lost in the sense that matters — you are always a few minutes from a subway entrance.
Combine it with
- Jagalchi Fish Market — what to order and how it works
- Busan’s markets
- Course 3-3 on Yeongdo — the next section, across the bridge
More on Galmaetgil
In an emergency
Korea has two emergency numbers, and both answer in English.
- 119 — fire, rescue and ambulance. This is the one to call for an injury on a trail.
- 112 — police.
Korean trails carry numbered rescue markers — small posts with a code on them. Reading that code to the operator locates you far faster than describing the scenery. Note the last one you passed.
Mobile coverage is good on almost all the routes described here, including the ridges.
Galmaetgil routes were restructured in 2023. Course-level distances follow Busan Metropolitan City’s current figures; section times are planning estimates. Market opening days vary — Jagalchi closes on some Sundays.
Closures are the thing worth checking
Korean trails close, and not only for weather. National park ridgelines shut during the spring and autumn fire-risk periods, coastal sections close for construction or erosion, and some routes run on fixed opening hours rather than dawn to dusk. These are published by the managing authority and almost never by the blogs describing the walk.
Distances and difficulty ratings are worth taking from the official course data too. The national walking trail portal publishes track files and an assigned difficulty grade, which is a steadier basis for planning a day than someone else’s impression of how hard it felt.