Best Historic Sites in Busan

Gamcheonsa, a small nuns' practice temple below Myobongsan in Yeonsan-dong, is known for spring water that never dries even in drought, certified as a local mineral spring, and is also famed as a Gwaneum prayer site for the Avalokitesvara enshrined in its main hall.

Geumgangsa, founded in 1951 by the monk Wolmyeong on the southern slope of Geumjeongsan, grew under Hyeseong from 1964 into a center of international Buddhist outreach, set amid old pines and the Chabatgol tea-garden culture where visitors can rest over a cup of tea.

The Yulli rock shelter, set below the western ridge of Geumjeongsan facing the Gimhae plain across the Nakdonggang, was excavated in 1972-73, yielding late Neolithic to Bronze Age pottery and stone tools; it is a uniquely well-preserved inland mountain shelter among Busan's many shell-mound sites. (Source: Korea Heritage Service)

The East Gate, the largest and most scenic of Geumjeong Fortress's four gatehouses, sits on a 415m ridge of Geumjeongsan and is the most accessible to visitors; an arched single-story gatehouse, it was completed in about a month in late 1807 according to the fortress construction record.

Geumsusa, a small temple below Gubongsan reachable right by a bus stop on the hillside road, is the head temple of Korea's Wonhyo Order and honors the legacy of Wonhyo; its Hoguk Yeonggak shrine holds memorial tablets of independence patriots, marking it as a patriotic temple.

Geumyongam, a small hermitage on Soemisan named for the "golden lotus," was founded around 1919 by a Buddhist nun who built a three-bay hall here; it has a Yeomhwajeon main hall rebuilt in 1992 and a Samseonggak whose painting of three goddesses is long known for answering prayers for sons.

Gijang Hyanggyo, first built in 1617, has most of its present buildings dating to an 1855 restoration, laid out with the Myeongnyundang lecture hall in front and the Daeseongjeon shrine behind; once a state-supported school, it now keeps only its ancestral-rite function.

Gukcheongsa, said to be founded by Uisang and rebuilt in 1703 with the construction of Geumjeong Fortress, served as a fortress-defending temple housing a monk-soldier command; records and a preserved iron seal of the monk-general point to its role as a base of the righteous monk army.

Gwaneumsa, a downtown Busan branch of Songgwangsa, was begun in 1940 by the monk Illyeon on Seunghaksan and registered as a branch in 1984; it holds the city-designated Lotus Sutra volumes 4-7, a Joseon-period reprint of a 1405 woodblock edition valued in Buddhist and bibliographic studies.

Gwansuok was the residence of the gwansu, head of the Choryang Waegwan, the Japanese trading quarter around Yongdusan that handled Korea-Japan commerce; stone steps still remain at the house site, and a marker now stands where the Waegwan once was.

This was the base of the Gyeongsang Left Navy that guarded the southeastern coast against Japanese raids; moved to present-day Suyeong-dong before the Imjin War and rebuilt in 1692, the fortress once had four gates but now retains mainly its south gate, an arched gate, and stretches of wall.

Haedong Seongchwisa in Gijang-gun, founded in 2000, has a Daeungjeon, a Jijangjeon, a monks' quarters, and a cave-shaped mountain-spirit shrine, where the resident monk preserves the Korean Buddhist chant tradition of beomeum beompae heard during rituals.