Samgwangsa Temple Buddha Birthday Lantern Festival (Day 3)

Every May, the Lotus Lantern Festival takes place at the Samgwangsa Temple to commemorate Buddha's birthday. It is a spectacular time to visit as the entire temple grounds will be lit up with lanterns and floats.

As we visited on a Saturday evening, the roads leading up to the temple were severely congested. The traffic police tried to stop cars from going anywhere near the temple entrance. We had to alight some distance away from the temple and our taxi driver was extremely apologetic that he couldn’t bring us all the way up to the entrance. No worries though, we managed to make our way up a steep hill on our own (after breaking out a bit of sweat).

A funny thing happened to us while we were walking up to the temple. We were stopped by an ahjumma near the parking lot. She was carrying several plastic bags and she fished out something and passed it to us – it was red bean buns! We were like “HUH, what’s going on” and tried to tell her “gwenchanayo” and shook our heads, but she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. She was insistent that we take the food! Haha! So weird! We didn’t know what was going on but thanked her for it anyway.

steps leading up to the temple were decorated with zodiac lanterns

Although we had already seen one Lotus Lantern festival at Haedong Yonggungsa the day before, the festival at Samgwangsa is on a whole new different level altogether. We were really, really fortunate to visit Busan during Buddha’s birthday because we get to see Samgwangsa Temple at its most beautiful.

Thousands of brightly lit lotus lanterns were strung across the temple grounds, together with many other creative lantern displays such as the twelve animals of the zodiac. Some of them can even move and breathe fire! WOW! Needless to say, this stunning display of lanterns attracted many devotees, curious tourists and hardcore photographers alike. It’s really impossible to take a lousy photograph here. The best time to visit would be in the evening, where you can see the sight in both its daytime and night-time glory.



 

When we left, we realised that the temple was distributing bread, bananas and drinks to devotees and many locals were seen leaving the temple with humongous bags of food. I guess this is where the ahjumma we met earlier got the red bean buns!

red bean buns that we ate for breakfast the next day

Clutching our precious anpan in our hands, we made our way downhill to catch a cab back to Seomyeon. We grabbed a late dinner and did a bit more shopping before returning back to our hotel. Another wonderful day in Busan. Saranghaeyo Busan!

dinner was seafood udon with loads of bonito flakes

How to get there: 

Take the subway to Seomyeon station and take a taxi (about 5,000 won) to the temple. Alternatively, you can take the mini bus No. 15 at the bus stop across from the Lotte Department store in Seomyeon. Get off at the entrance of Samgwangsa temple.

Visiting downtown Busan: Song Sang-hyeon Square and Seomyeon (Day 3)

The Song Sang-hyeon Square  (송상현 광장), a newly-open public square on Jungang-daero Avenue, Busanjin-gu.

The square is Busan’s answer to the other symbolic squares found in world class cities such as New York's Time Square, London's Trafalgar and Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Before our Busan trip, I read that there was a Lotus Lantern Festival to be held there but alas, I must have gotten the dates wrong, because when we went there, there was nothing there! I think the festival must have been held on the previous week. Darn.

enjoyable public space where kids can play in water

 Nonetheless, we explored the area a bit. It’s a nice little urban oasis in the middle of the city, complete with lush greenery and many neat rows of trees. There is also a large, well-manicured lawn where people can picnic and a stream where little kids can play. It’s quite a nice place to cool down and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. This place comes alive especially during the weekends when there are flea markets and live performances from local bands.

Gamcheon Culture Village (Day 3)

After lunch, we hopped on a cab to Gamcheon Culture Village (감천문화마을), a quirky little arts enclave on the other side of town. Most of us know this place because it was featured prominently in a Running Man episode (Busan’s very own Jung Yonghwa from CNBLUE was the guest).

 

Taejongdae (Day 3)

Since we had a super-packed itinerary the day before, we decided to sleep in a little later the next day and take it easy on Day 3. We start the day at the city’s most iconic attraction, Taejongdae (태종대) which is famous for its rock beach and coastal trails with magnificent views of the sea. If the word “taejong” sounds familiar to you, it is because it is named after King Taejong of the Shilla Dynasty himself, who enjoyed coming here to shoot arrows here.

Getting here by public transport was a breeze. From the bus stop opposite Busan Station, we took Bus 88 to Taejongdae. You can even check for bus arrival times at the digital signboards at the bus stop for estimated timing of bus arrivals – pretty cool!

Route for Bus 88. Busan Station is the one before YMCA. Taejongdae is the last stop.

Top: The bus stop to board the Bus 88 to Taejongdae. Bottom: The shop behind the bus stop.

Shinsegae Centum City and SpaLand, Busan (Day 2)

In a happy daze after our maiden Hanbok photoshoot, we left BEXCO grinning like two silly fools. We then made our way on foot towards the nearby Shinsegae Centum City, which holds the Guinness Book of Records for being the largest shopping centre in the world!!!!

Everything you want, you can probably get here. We were pretty much beat by the end of the day so we didn’t explore all of the floors.