If you’re a cinephile, you’ll know about the
Busan International Film Festival (BIFF). Held over eight days in
October, BIFF is one of
Asia’s biggest annual film festivals. As well as BIFF,
Korea’s film city has draws all year round; here’s a guide to Busan for those who love life through a lens.
Busan Cinema Center
The home of Busan International Film Festival, the Busan Cinema Center, is located in Centum City (next to Shinsegae Centum City, which holds a Guinness world record as the largest department store in the world). It holds events year-round in its outside auditorium and has a number of movie theatres within its 150 million-dollar building. Tours are available, but it’s also worth going just for the movie-character sculpture selfies. At night, the building is illuminated, highlighting its unique architectural design.
BIFF Square
Set in the bustling downtown area of Nampo-dong, BIFF Square is Busan’s cinema district. Movie theatres jostle with shops, cafes and restaurants, and the area is famous for its street food. It’s divided into two sections, ‘Star Street’ and ‘Festival Street’. Don’t forget to look down — on the ground are hand prints from celebrities and film-makers including Jeremy Irons, Ennio Morricone and Juliette Binoche. BIFF Square is one of the best places to try ssiat hotteok, a sweet, deep-fried pancake filled with brown sugar syrup and chopped nuts.
Black Panther filming locations
To Marvel fans, Busan may look familiar. The city was used as a location for the 2018 blockbuster movie Black Panther, and iconic buildings such as Gwangan Bridge made an appearance in the movie’s high-speed car chase. Channel your inner Wakandan and stroll through filming locations such as Jagalchi Market and Gwangalli seafront; don’t forget to take a selfie with the Black Panther statue on Gwangalli Beach!
Cinema Street
Want some seaside air? Head to Haeundae, where the seafront walk by Marine City is lined with film-related sculptures and images. There are also trick-art photo zones, film posters from Korean movies and a zone called
Santorini Square, where a number of famous Korean actors and film-makers have left their hand prints. Free telescopes are set at intervals along the walk to provide a view of the ocean. The street is lit at night, so you can head down there any time you like.
K-drama filming locations
Korea’s second city has been used as a filming location for many films and TV shows, so there’s plenty of places for K-drama fans to check out. Dalmaji-gil Road’s romantic atmosphere has been used in a number of drama scenes, and it’s especially beautiful during cherry blossom season. Gukje Market was heavily used in the 2014 movie Ode To My Father, a drama film set during the Korean War. Gamcheon Culture Village was used in the popular reality show Running Man (which also featured Shinsegae Department Store) as well as in Marry Me, or Not?, the first Taiwanese drama to be filmed in Busan.
See more: Best late night restaurants to eat in Busan, Korea
Source: Internet
One of the most popular sweets available throughout the island is the humble pineapple cake. It’s a buttery pastry with a deliciously sweet pineapple paste at its center. These usually come in airtight packaging so taking them home on the plane is no trouble at all.
You may have heard of the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, but you probably didn’t realize that you can buy these wonderful little miniature sky lanterns as souvenirs. Handcrafted and set within see-through containers, they make a nice little ornamental gift for someone’s mantelpiece.
Of course, you can buy jade all around the world, but Taiwan is well-known as a place to find some the finest jade on the planet. The jade market in Taipei offers an incredible range of pieces in all shapes and sizes but expect to pay premium prices for high-quality pieces.
The teas of Taiwan’s mountain regions are among the most sought after in the world so if you have a tea connoisseur in the family then you surely have to take home a box of leaves. Look out for Oolong; it’s the most popular, and with good reason.
They do things differently here in Taiwan so don’t expect the typical nougat you find in candy bars in the west. Taiwanese nougat is often quite hard and chewy and full of peanuts. Some will also have sesame too while others may have pieces of brown sugar. Nougat is the most traditional of treats in Taiwan and expect to find boxes of it everywhere especially during festivals.
The sun cake is a flaky pastry that traditionally has a sweet and sticky filling. These days though you can get many different flavors such as dried pork and even green tea. In truth though, the originals are still the best.
A typical Filipino breakfast can range from pandesal (bread rolls), champorado (chocolate rice porridge), garlic fried rice, and meat—such as tapa (dried or cured beef), longganisa (Spanish sausage), tocino (sweet pork belly), corned beef, or fish such as daing na bangus (salted and dried milkfish), or itlog na pula (salted duck eggs).
The Chinese have a special version of a doughnut, which is called youtiao (long, golden-brown, deep-fried strip of dough). They’re best served dipped or soaked in soy milk.
The Vietnamese have bì for their breakfast. It’s basically shredded pork mixed with pork skin, eaten with “broken rice”: rice made from fractured and broken grains.
For the Malaysians, they have nasi lemak, which is a rice dish cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaves, served with a bunch of different garnishes.
Koreans are all about their tofu or cabbage soup, rice, pickled veggies, kimchi (of course), and soy-marinated beef.
Congee is the breakfast go-to dish for Singaporeans. They usually flavour it with cuttle fish, pork, or eggs.
