Busan's mountainous geography helped it become a cultural melting pot

Panoramic view of the port and the mountainous village of Ami-dong in Busan's Seo District, June 9. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Rugged life in post-war Busan made residents hot tempered, loud speakers

By Lee Hae-rin

BUSAN ― Son Min-soo, a native of Busan, points to the old section of the southern port city to emphasize the real face of his home town. His hand gestures toward Busan's Ami-dong in central Seo District.

"Here. This is the most Busan-like scenery. I mean the mountainous villages and the ocean viewed from the hillside roads," said Son, who is also a travel guide.

"People often picture the oceans when they think of Busan. But actually, Busan is all about the mountains," explained Son, based on his experience as a consultant for the city government's tourism policies. "Busan's very name has mountain ― 'san' a Chinese character ― in it."

Son Min-soo / Courtesy of Son Min-soo

As Son said, Busan, the country's largest harbor city in the southeastern part of the peninsula is one of the most popular travel destinations due to its beautiful beaches. However, at the core of its identity and culture are the mountains that take up 70 percent of the city's geography where over half of its 3.4 million population reside.

According to Son and many scholars, Busan is Korea's cultural melting pot. Its mountainous villages have been home to millions of Korean migrants that migrated from across the country, including Korean War refugees from North Korea and migrant workers.

"Sanbok" roads or roads that cross a mountain's belly, are bridges connecting these mountainous villages. Sanbok roads stretch over 22,229 meters to connect six major districts, according to the city government.

After the outbreak of the Korean War, on June 29, 1950, the first wave of displaced people came down to the southern city by train. Filled with war refugees, the train arrived at Busan station. The only city left unconquered by the North Korean military and which later became a shelter for people fleeing from the communists, making the city's population increase from 480,000 ― in 1945 ― to over a million.

The city's population kept growing. The port city has been at the heart of the country's industrialization and economic growth between the 1960s and 1980s, attracting millions of migrants from all across the country for jobs in the manufacturing sector. The port city had booming labor-intensive industries such as textiles, plywood related work and shoes.

The city was overloaded with more than three million people by 1979, which is similar to today's 3.4 million Busan residents.

However, the city didn't have enough urban space to provide housing to meet the skyrocketing population. Naturally, the migrants found homes in the mountains close to the industry complexes and built cardboard cities over the steep hills, seeking a place to call home.

"Sure, their life was tough, but here was their shelter and a place of hope," said Son. "Two words that could best describe their life would be survival and hope."

The lives of the Busan's old town dwellers are well documented in the photos of Choi Min-shik, Korea's first-generation documentary photographer whose activities were based in Busan from the 60s to the 70s.

A mother breastfeeds her baby with her hands behind her back in this photo taken by Choi Min-shik in 1969. The records show that her hands were dirty from seaside chores and she kept them away from her children. Korea Times file photo

Born in Hwanghae Province of North Korea in 1928, Choi captured the lives of ordinary people. Choi's notable works portray both the poverty that these people faced at the time and their human strength to overcome tragedy.

Along one of the sanbok roads in Ami-dong is the Ami Cultural Learning Center, exhibiting Choi's works.

Such history and the mountainous geography of the diverse city helped inspire one of the most famous Korean cliches about what the Busan people are like today.

"Busan people are perceived as being loud-speakers, quick-tempered, with a rough and wild manner," Son said, explaining that sanbok roads partly played a role in shaping the peoples' personality.

In these mountainous villages jam-packed with back-to-back homes, every moment in life was a fight for survival. They needed to always be in rush and get ahead of one another to secure a bowl of drinkable water from the well or use shared toilets at the end of the steep road.

Seen is the chimney of a public bathhouse in the mountainous village in Ami-dong, Seo District, Busan, June 10. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Son agreed that Busan people's culture of regularly going to the public bathhouse also originated from this. "My family and I were born and raised in Busan all our lives, we need to go to the sauna. At least once a week."

As they clawed their way out to settle down in the southern city from the difficult times, their primary concern has always been to protect their families.

"Most of all, they didn't want to pass down the poverty on to the next generation," Son said. They had gone through enough misery and hardship and desperately wanted to end the cycle of poverty at their ends.

Such challenging circumstances fostered their quick temper, making Busan people who they are today. Although they may not seem like it, they are warm-hearted and inclusive, Son said.

"If you are lost in the city and ask a passerby where to go, no Busan citizen will look away," Son said. "People here have a lot of 'jeong' and will be happy to help you."

In this photo taken in April 2017, a nighttime view of Busan is seen from a "sanbok" or mountain road in the mountainous village of Seo District. Korea Times photo by Choi Heung-soo

The hillside people's fierce spirit and tenacity for a better future built Busan, the metropolis that it is today and contributed to the country's export-led economic growth.

Standing from the sanbok roads at nighttime, a mix of orange streetlamps from the old towns and fluorescent neon lights from the skyscrapers and the Gwangan Bridge over the ocean create a unique nighttime scenery in the city.

"This is what Busan is, an original combination of old and new, past and present" Son said.

Busan is one of the country's five regional tourism hub cities designated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization in 2020, along with Gangneung of Gangwon Province, Jeonju of North Jeolla Province, Mokpo of South Jeolla Province, and Andong of North Gyeongsang Province.