Haeundae-gu
Haeundae-gu is a
gu in eastern
Busan,
South Korea. It has an area of 51.44 km², and a population of about 404,000. This represent about 10.9% of Busan's population [
1].
It became a division of Busan in
1976 and attained the status of
gu in
1980.
Haeundae can easily be reach by
subway on the
Busan Subway Line 2, or by
train on the
Donghae Nambu railway line. Both Haeundae subway and train station are built adjacent to each others.
Haeundae is now an affluent, beach front community that attracts tens of thousands of Korean tourists to what many consider to be Korea's best beach. It has been subject to considerable commercial development.
Haeundae takes its name from the ninth century
Silla scholar and poet
Choe Chi-won (literary name Haeun, or "Sea and Clouds"), who by historical account admired the view from the beach and built a pavilion nearby. A piece of Choe's calligraphy engraved on a rock at Haeundae still survives.
Along the 12 km of coastline Haeundae Beach is Busan's most popular beach, and with
Seogwipo's, one of the best known beach in South Korea. During the summer vacation, especially on weekends, the area becomes a wall of humanity with more than 100,000 people on the narrow, one mile strip of sand. It is now home to most of the expatriates living in the Busan area. Along with
Geumjeong Mountain this is one of the popular spots in Busan to view the first sunrise on
January 1, where a crowd few thousands gathers there before dawn. It is also known for its "
Polar Bear Club", even tough the winters are not cold enough to get the sea to freeze. For the
2006 FIFA World Cup match between
South Korea and
Togo about 50,000 people were expected to come to the beach to watch the match projected on a giant screen [
2].
|
A deserted Haeundae beach at dawn, February 2005 |
Haeundae-gu is divided into 7 legal
dong, which altogether comprise 18 administrative
dong, as follows:
*
U-Dong (2 administrative
dong)
*
Jung-Dong (2 administrative
dong)
*
Jwa-Dong (4 administrative
dong)
*
Songjeong-Dong*
Banyeo-Dong (4 administrative
dong)
*
Bansong-Dong (3 administrative
dong)
*
Jaesong-Dong (2 administrative
dong)
*
Haeundae-gu website (in English)
*
List of Korea-related topics*
Geography of South Korea
