3 Jun 2019 - Busan Day 3: Yongdusan Park (龙头山公园)

If you read my earlier post, you would have seen a tall tower in some of the photos.  That's Busan Tower which resides in Yongdusan Park, our next place of interest to visit.  Yongdusan (龙头山) Mountain (49m) in downtown Busan is one of Busan's three famous mountains. It was originally called Songhyeonsan Mountain, which means a mountain with a view of the sea through the dense pine tree forest. Later, the name was changed to Yongdusan Mountain, as the mountain peak was shaped similar to a dragon's head (yongdu), protecting the area against foreign invaders overseas.

The walk towards Yongdusan Park was pretty tiring as we need to walk up a long stretch of slope.  There is actually an easier way to get up to the park by escalator at the other side but we only realized it when we were leaving the park later that night.

The mountain held shrines for the mountain gods built by the Japanese before the 8.15 Liberation. Now the mountain is home to a variety of monuments, including Cheokhwabi Monument, Chunghontap Pagoda, 4.19 Revolution Monument, a statue of Admiral Yi Sun-shin, and Busan Tower.

Below photo shows Busan Citizens’ Bell Pavilion, occupying a floor area of 60.84㎡ and standing 11.62 m high.  It is aptly named because it cost KRW1.28 billion and all of which came from 100,723 donations by Busan residents. The 25 ton, copper Korean bell (beomjong) was designed by Seung-rae Cho, a professor at Pussan National University, and manufactured by Hongjongsa in 1996. The etchings portray a dragon and nature scenes of the local area. Busan Citizens’ Bell is stuck ten times as a countdown during New Year’s Eve. It is also tolled on Independence Day (March 1) and Liberation Day (August 15).

Flower Clock in Yongdusan Park was made on October 8, 1973 and remodeled in June 2000.  With a diameter of 5 metres, this is the one and only flower clock in the nation that has a second hand.

We wandered around the park before visiting Busan Tower.  Our plan was to get up to the tower at the right time so that we could enjoy both the day and night views of Busan.  Stay tune for the next post.

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