Dongnae Hot Spring has extraordinary water. During Joseon dynasty, the kings came to Busan to take a medicated bath for his furuncle. You would imagine the large scale of the king’s march. Hundreds of people came to Busan, carrying a palanquin with the overweight King inside. It means that sulfur spa is the best medication for furuncle. The blessed hot spring is now several huge baths and lodges. The underground hot water is pumped up to each separated room. The bath tubs made of tiles are big enough for a family. There are a number of private baths for each purpose, so you can pick what suits yourself. The hot water in Dongnae hot spring area is the same hot water. It is as much valuable as the expensive beauty wash and face lotion, giving the opportunity to experience rejuvenation equally to everyone. Only ten-minute bath can make your skin clean and fresh. An outdoor foot bath is provided for free at the intersection on the center of the hot spring area.
Geumgang park is not far from Oncheonjang. The park and Busan Marine Natural History Museum are close. You can meet alligators alive at the museum, even inside the building, not outside. It is the first and the biggest marine natural history museum in Korea. There are 25,000 types of natural history materials. The exhibition is not for children to study. The wonderless of cannibal shells, oarfish know to live in a mountain for the half of a month, piranha, and shoulder bones of dinosaurs can create diverse topics good enough for dating, except for the couple who are not interested in cannibal shells, of course.
Geumgang park once had the biggest zoo, botanical garden, and hiking course in Busan. It was an old father’s generous privilege to say ‘let’s go to Geumgang park this weekend.‘ Today, there are only a botanical garden and hiking course. Geumgang park, one of the best course to climb Geumjeongsan mountain, is a perfect place to spend holiday calmly as it has relics, too. Moreover, there is a ’cable car. ‘ Ask your bored girlfriend. Do you want to go hiking? How dull. But this sounds different. Do you want to ride on a cable car? This trick to say ’it’s not hiking. The cable car will take you to the top of the mountain.’ is always effective. Imagine a guy to give his girlfriend a ride on a cable car. He has the vintage charm.
It is not difficult to sneak into the closed zoo if you get lost at the botanic garden. It is also a popular filming spot for directors of independence movies. There are still hay elephants rubbed themselves on and the broken cages for Asiatic black bear as they were before. The seal performance stage is full of fallen leaves rather than clear water. Do not enter the zoo because it is an officially restricted area. Once again, officially, you know. Of course you can see the view you’ve never seen before there, but officially, I’m telling you. Of course no one will stop you, you know.
Even in the middle of summer, it is very cool at Geumgang botanic garden. There are not just short grass or wild flowers, but is a dense and huge forest. You can also make a unique wedding ceremony at the outdoor wedding hall at a cheap rental fee. Most of all, time stops when you enter the garden. The plants stand still, and the garden is in the center of a residential area. The sounds of insects and leaves, a bamboo grave, stopped time, and a greenhouse. A cup of English black tea would go with this place well. It is a sacred moment to listen to the low breath of 23,000 kinds of flowers and trees although you don’t know their names.
U Jang Chun Memorial Hall is a place to shortly drop by. Walking along the road named ‘U Jang Chun-ro’, you can reach the memorial hall. Thremmatologist Dr. U Jang Chun’s achievement is not the seedless watermelon, but the theory of ‘synthesis of species.’ He is the one who proved that it is possible to create a brand new plant by crossbreeding the plants from the same genus, despite of their different species. He also demonstrated the seedless watermelon made by Japanese agricultural technology for the first time in Korea, not the one who removed the seeds out of the watermelon. He born in Japan and hardly spoke Korean, but was so brilliant that Korea brought him from Japan by holding the movement for ‘Dr. U Jang Chun’s returning home.‘ He suggested tangerine farming in Jeju Island and developed Korean cabbage by cross breeding Japanese and western cabbage. He passed away in the middle of the development of rice to harvest twice with only one planting. His nickname, Bull Dog, shows how much taciturn he was, but he was a scholar forbidden from leaving the country due to his forthright statement to the government. It is very interesting to learn his lifetime at the memorial hall. The man who was held in contempt as the son of a Korean involved in Empress Myeongseong’s assassination, who earned his doctoral degree in Tokyo Imperial university as brought up by his widowed mother, who overdid to develop tangerine farming technology and Gangwondo potatoes that has strong immunity from virus, but who gained no proper treatment in Korea.
The life of Dr. U Jang Chun, who led the age but silent, is existing in the memorial hall.
In the opposite order, you may naturally go through a duck restaurant on Geumjeongsanseong fortress, Geumgang botanical garden, Busan Marine Natural History Museum, Geumgang park, and U Jang Chun Memorial Hall. You can complete your day with the hot spring.