Dongbaek Island and Nurimaru: The Best Free Hour in Haeundae

At the western end of Haeundae Beach there is a low wooded hill that used to be an island and is now joined to the shore. It is called Dongbaekseom — camellia island. A paved path runs all the way around it at the water's edge, and at the far side of the loop stands Nurimaru APEC House, the building where the leaders of twenty-one countries met in 2005.

The walk is free. The building is free. The whole thing takes about an hour. If a guest tells me they have one spare morning in Haeundae and asks what to do with it, this is what I say.

The walk

The path circles the headland at sea level. It is paved the whole way and mostly flat, with the water on one side and camellia and pine on the other. You can complete the loop in under an hour, or stretch it to ninety minutes if you stop.

What you get from it is the view back at everything else. From the southern side of the loop the Gwangan Bridge crosses the bay in front of you, with the towers of Marine City behind it and the rocky islets of Oryukdo out on the horizon. Turn the other way and you are looking at the full sweep of Haeundae Beach with Dalmaji Hill rising behind its far end. This is the angle you have seen on postcards of Busan, and it costs nothing to stand in it.

There are a few things along the path worth slowing down for. There is a statue of a mermaid — from a local legend about a princess who came from a sea kingdom. There is a monument to Choe Chiwon, the ninth century scholar who is said to have carved characters into a rock here and given Haeundae its name. And there are the camellias the island is named for, which flower between winter and spring. If you visit between December and March you will see the red blossoms drop whole onto the path, which is how camellias fall.

Nurimaru APEC House

The building at the far point of the loop was built for the 2005 APEC summit. Its design is a modern reading of a Korean pavilion. The roofline follows the ridge of the island itself, and twelve angled columns support the exterior.

Inside you can see the summit conference room preserved as it was, along with an exhibition about the meeting. The terrace, built on the idea of a traditional Korean wooden porch, looks out over Oryukdo, the Gwangan Bridge and Dalmaji Hill.

Admission is free. It is open from 09:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:00. It is still used as a conference venue from time to time, so it can close for events. If the building is the main reason you are going rather than a stop on a walk, it is worth checking first.

Set aside twenty to thirty minutes for it. It is not a large museum and it does not need longer than that.

When to go

Morning is the quiet version of this walk — late afternoon into dusk is the beautiful one. The bridge lights come on, the roof of Nurimaru is lit, and the lighthouse plaza on the seaward side is one of the better places in this city to stand and do nothing for twenty minutes.

If you want to see inside the building, remember it closes at six. The usual order is Nurimaru first, then the rest of the loop while the light goes.

The path is lit and there are people on it in the evening, so it is a comfortable night walk. In summer it is also several degrees more bearable than the beach, because the sea breeze comes across it from two sides.

One practical note. There is very little shelter on the loop, so in heavy rain this is not the plan. Light rain is fine and the path drains well.

Getting there

Dongbaekseom is at the opposite end of the beach from the Blue Line Park trains. The trains leave from the eastern end, the island is at the western end. If you are already on the sand, walk west until the sand runs out and the path begins.

Coming from the Centum City side, take the subway to Haeundae station and cut through the beach to its western end. If you would rather make a longer afternoon of it, Haeundae Beach is about a forty minute walk from my hotel, and the island adds roughly another hour on top of that. On summer weekends the trains beat a car comfortably, for reasons I go into in Two Beaches, One Base.

Access from the beach side is a flat walk. The loop path is paved throughout, which makes it manageable with a stroller, and there is lift access to the exhibition floor at Nurimaru from the road below the path.

Why I send people here first

Haeundae has expensive attractions and they are good ones. But visitors often leave having seen the beach, a tower and a shopping centre, without once having looked at this bay from the water's edge. That is the thing that makes this coast worth flying for, and it is the part people skip because it does not appear on a ticket.

An hour on this loop costs nothing, needs no booking, works in most weather, and puts the bridge, the beach, the towers and the open sea in front of you in a single walk. It is also the best introduction to the area. Once you have walked it, the rest of Haeundae makes more sense, because you have seen how the pieces sit together.

If you have one free hour here, spend it on this.

I run a hotel a few stops away on the subway. If you are still choosing where to stay in Busan, you can book with me directly at korea-busan.com.

Walking times in this post are measured from Centum Victoria Hotel.

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