Around my neighbourhood.

Mrs. Ulsan and I went for a walk around our neighbourhood and found some nice places.  The last couple of photos is taken from a hiking trail near our house.  When the weather improves we will go back there and take more photos of the trail and what we see. 

Near my house.

Apparently under the boulder is a grave!

An Iron mine, from long ago!

Another view of the iron mine.

A temple near our house.

A nice little place to rest.

Daewangam Park

In Dong-gu, Ulsan you can find this great pine forest park.  It is fairly easy to get here and is well worth a visit.  There are a couple of differnt trails in this park, but they all lead to the same area, Daewang Rock. In legend, Queen Munmu was submerged here after she died, and became a dragon to guard the East Sea. When you come here, I highly recommend you take trail 'A' and it gives you many great points to take photos and is a great trail with lots of shade, so you can enjoy your walk, even in hot weather. 

Daewang Rock.

Mrs. Ulsan at the rock.

Part of trail 'A.'

Me and the East Sea.

A picture of the area and the trails.

Mt. Gumgang fortress. (partial view only)

A little ways south of Beomeosa temple is Mt. Gumgang Fortress in northern Busan.  Warning, it is actually very difficult to find this fortress, even with navigation!  The first thing you will learn once you get here, is that most of the fortress is gone and this place is more for hiking in the woods.  The hiking trails are, for the most part, very wide and enjoyable.  I would imagine that it would take 2 to 3 hours to walk around whats left of  fortress as it was huge.  If you are coming here to look at what was once a massive fotress you will be disappointed, as I was.  However, if you come here to spend a nice day outdoors and get exercise, you will find it a great place.

The view from one of the trails.

Me on the trail.

Part of what's left of the fortress.

A replica of an observation point of the fortress.

Beomeosa Temple

Deep in the mountains of north Busan, is Beomeosa temple.  Beomeosa temple is near Nopo dong subway station, while buses do go to this temple, you will probably want to go here by car.  It is suppose to be the largest temple in Busan, while not as nice as Haedong young-gunsa temple, it is still worth a trip.  Beware, if you are a person with bad knees, you will not want to go here as there are lots of steps. 

Me at the temple entrance.

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.

The temple was getting ready for Buddha's birthday.

Korean War era POW camp

On Geoje Island, which is just south of western Busan, there was once a POW camp.  It appears most of it was dismantled after the end of hostilities.  Now there is a museum and a replica of the camp in its place.  Honestly, this place was a bit disappointing to me, as I would rather have seen the actual camp, but is still worth visiting for Korean War buffs.  Soon a new part to the museum will open, called 'Peace Park.' Also, the drive to here from Busan was well worth the trip, especially on a beautiful day.  On a side note, soon after visiting this camp, I found out that Hollywood will be making a movie about the Hung-nam evacuation.

A replica of a guard tower

A monument for the nations that fought on the side of good during the war.

A monument of the Hung-nam Evacuation.

A closer view of the monument.

A memorial for those who died at the camp.

A memorial for an American doctor who died at the camp.

The guards barrack. (not a replica)

UN Cemetery

In Busan, you will find the UN cemetery, it is pretty close to Gwangan Bridge so it is easy to get to if you take the Haeundae highway from Ulsan.  A very nice place to visit to remember the past and to appreciate all the soliders that died fighting for Korea and for freedom.  When you visit this place, try to visit this place at either 10 a.m. (UN Flag raising) or 5 p.m. (UN Flag lowering) it is well worth seeing.

New Zealand's memorial

My wife in front of the Korean flag.

Canada's memorial

Wall of rememberance

The flag lowering at 5 p.m.

Kyeong-ju craft's village

In eastern Kyeong-ju, near Bulguk-sa, you will find this arts and crafts village.  It is very much worth a visit, although beware of the shops which all seem to sell the exact same items, which they claim are hand made.  If you look around their long enough, you will find some shops which sell items that you can be sure they made themselves.

A man making a vase.

A Korean kiln

One of the many not so unique shops.

Ulsan KTX station.

Late last year, Ulsan finally got a high speed train connection with Seoul.  Now it takes only two hours to get to Seoul from Ulsan by train, time not including how long it takes to get to the train station.  The station is not in the main city, but near Eonyang, which is in Ulju-gun, Ulsan.  It is about a 30 minutes drive by car from Mugeo-dong, western Nam-gu.

Munsu Athletic Park

In the eastern part of Namg-gu, Ulsan you can find Munsu Athletic park, it is right next to Munsu World Cup Soccer Stadium.  There is a large artificial lake there, which has a walking trail all the way around it, along with other trails in the woods, a very nice place to have a picnic or go for a walk.

Ulsan Barracks

Located in the Byeongyoung area of Jung-gu, once stood a small castle.  There is honestly not much to see at all now, but you do get some decent views of the city from up there.