Gimhae Excursion
Gimhae is better known as an airport for flights in and out of Busan. Turns out it’s also the name of a pretty cool town.
I went there on Sunday to meet a friend who lives there. From the maddening throngs of my 대학요 hub, I took the subway northwest to the final stop, met her there, then together we took the 45-minute bus ride into Gimhae. Thinking about airport neighborhoods typical in the US, I expected a gritty industrial town. I learned two things: Gimhae Airport isn’t actually in Gimhae, and Gimhae is not a gritty industrial town.
In fact it’s quite clean and pleasant. There are flowers everywhere and the skyline is dominated by a rocky and green twin set of hills. On one of the hills is an observatory and on the other is a fortress wall. We first went to the national museum, which is surrounded by a lush park. The museum facade looked like a smaller version of the new De Young Museum in San Francisco. After learning about historical and prehistorical Gayan artifacts, we walked around the park under the hum of cicadas and eventually ended up at the tomb of an old queen who lived here. Later, we went to a monster-sized Home Plus for a Chinese dinner.
As the sun went down, we walked around the concert hall building and over to Yeonji Park, which has a lake in the center. Around 8 pm, they turned on a big fountain show with colored lights. A little bit later, they sent up a sheet of water and projected an animated laser film.
So that’s my Gimhae invasion. It was a nice day. Next time, I’m going to climb that hill and check out the observatory. Click ahead to see photos…
Gimhae National Museum
Gimhae National Museum
Ivy on the wall at Gimhae National Museum
Gimhae National Museum
Queen Suro's tomb, Gimhae
Elephant Talk 
April 6, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Thank you for posting this. I am moving from the U.S. to Gimhae in a few weeks to teach English to grade school students. I am trying to find what I can on Gimhae. Your write-up made the town seem pretty pleasant. I am looking forward to exploring it on my time-off. I want to visit Busan also. Just how far away is Busan? I could only find one decent on-line map (Google maps) and it seems to be very close…separated by a river? Anyway, thanks again for posting this.
April 6, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Busan is not far at all. But it takes a while if you don’t have a car. You can take a bus to the nearest Busan subway stop, about a 40 minute ride, if memory serves. Then it’s probably another 20 minutes on the subway to somewhere interesting, like Pusan National University. Ask your school and they can point you in the right direction. You’ll probably be making many trips into Busan. It’s close and there’s a lot more to do. Good luck!
September 3, 2009 at 8:02 am
I have been offered a job in Gimhae and I would also like to know more about the area. I wonder if I could ask Mr. Kim Johnson about his experience there.
Thank you.