Howdy all. I’m trying to get through all my experiences in Korea and I wanted to wrap the rest of my Busan travels up in one post, but I realised that it made more sense to split it and today focus on the two temples I visited there.

Both temples were really something special, especially the second one. The first was the Beomeosa Temple. I needed to take a metro train out to Beomeosa Station from where I caught a number 90 bus up the mountain to the entrance of the temple. It took a while because it’s a long way from the centre of Busan, just to Beomeosa Station it is 20 km by train. The bus ride up Geumjeongsan Mountain to the temple took around 20 minutes.

It was the first stop in a very full day that included a fair bit of hiking to get to the second temple, Seokbulsa. Once dropped off at the entrance it was a short, uphill walk to get to the temple, but first I crossed what could be described as a ‘babbling brook’, and then not far up the path to the left was what seemed to be a curious graveyard. The stone path continued on through a decorative gate, and another into a large courtyard with so many coloured lanterns above it.

It was coming up to the ‘birthday of the Buddha’, and lanterns would be a bit of a theme when I visited Buddhist temples in Korea. Interestingly, Buddhism is NOT the number one ‘religion’ in South Korea, the most popular religion is Christianity. The interweb tells me Beomeosa Temple is the head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. It was established in 678 CE.

The main prayer hall as I understood it was at the very end/top of the complex. All in all it wasn’t a super elaborate temple but the lanterns looked beautiful and that made it quite special.

From there to get to the second temple of the day, which turned out to be the more difficult to reach, I ended up taking an Uber to Geumgang Park. When you summon an Uber on your app in Korea you get a normal taxi which must be plugged into the network I guess. I like it because taxi drivers keep their business, they know exactly where you want to go and you can see the price before you order the car.

Geumgang Park took me back towards Central Busan, albeit still a fair way away. I had done my research online about the Seokbulsa Temple which was famed for its rock carvings of Buddha, and the instructions were to get to the top of Geumgang Park which was a bit of another mountain that you took a cable car or ‘ropeway’ as they called it to the top.

It was a little wait because there is only one car each way up or down the mountain. The views were pretty good over Busan as we ascended, although getting good shots from the cable car was difficult due to the fact that the cable car itself was pretty packed.

At the top there’s a few buildings and spots to sit, but I was quickly heading down the path towards the temple. I had directions to follow the sign to the ‘South Gate’ which I was told was pretty easy and hard to get lost. Guess what? I got lost! And how! I understand that after around 15 minutes I should have reached the South Gate of a big fortress. I never did.

I kept following the path I was on, for quite a while blissfully unaware I was not on the right trail. I was on the Busan side of the mountain and I had some great views at times, but the trail got less pronounced the further I got along, and at one point I was scrambling over rocks so I KNEW I was not on the path.

I looked at Google Maps with my internet occasionally working but mostly not. But I could work out at least which direction I should be heading. I came to a bit of a lookout and bumped into an older Korean lady hiker who spoke no English and tried and mostly failed to communicate with her about where I was going. She kept point in the direction I was going, so I continued on down this tall staircase that appeared out of no where.

Eventually I hit a path which pointed me in the right direction and some more hikers who pointed me in the right way. Eventually I came out at the road leading up to the temple, around 500 metres or maybe a little more from the entrance. It was probably the steepest road/path I have walked up in MY LIFE. The video does not really illustrate how steep it was.

But I made it to this magical and somewhat understated temple with a giant bell, a few buildings all under these giant boulders. Walk between a couple of buildings, one a small prayer hall with rows of small golden Buddhas, and there’s a space under the carvings and these steps up to the top. I walked half way up to best capture the carvings, there were a number of them. Some single Buddhas, some multiple in a row. It was really a special location. And I feel like there is little words can do to adequately describe it.

It was built by Jo Ilhyeon, a monk, back in the 1930s so it’s not super old. It is one of the lesser known temples in Busan, but despite the fact that I hiked for 90 minutes instead of 30-40 minutes to get there and was barely alive after the steepness that greeted me on the final ascent, it was definitely well worth it!

Thanks for joining me today. Stay tuned next week I will do a post with a full lot of photos from exploring the temples! The next one will be the final Busan blog covering the Jagalchi Fish Market and the Gamcheon Culture Village. Take care wherever you are – May the Journey Never End!