South Korea is not large – its landmass is roughly half the size of the United Kingdom, one quarter of Japan, or one hundredth of that of the USA. It also only shares its northern border with North Korea, with the rest of its border coastal. Yet, many of the cities are landlocked, thanks to its fairly uniform shape, which means it is home to a range of environments, including many scenic parks, mountains, and forests.

Busan is no exception. Despite being known as a coastal metropolitan city, inland just a little north of the main city centre is GeumJeongSan, or Mount GeumJeong (금정산), a mountain whose respectable peak of 800m (2,600 ft) makes it a popular hiking destination for both locals and tourists, especially on the weekend.

Most hiking trails on GeumJeongSan will take 2 hours with a steady pace, but thanks to a gorgeous, breezy, clear day, we were more than ready to take on the walk. In fact, we couldn’t wait to get there – though for a slightly different reason. GeumJeongSan is also home to 2 unique specialty dishes that makes for good fuel, or a post-workout protein boost.

In Daegu, we conquered ApSan’s 600m peak, but were bested by the daunting 1,200m-tall PalGongSan, so we were determined to make our way up GeumJeongSan on foot. Alternatively, there is a cable car that departs from GeumGang Park near the foot of the mountain. This 6-minute ride costs ₩8,000 (US$6.45) return and departs once every 20 minutes. We aren’t quite sure where it ends up, but there are more details on this site for those who may not have time to complete a full hike.

Getting to GeumJeongSan

Regardless of which route you may intend to take to the top of the mountain, the closest train station is OnCheonJang (온천장역). From here, the lower cable car station at GeumGang Park is around 15 minutes’ walk. Otherwise, if you’re looking to start your walk up, you can take the bus 203 which starts opposite the station.

Simply take exit 3 or 5 and take the bridge over the main road where the bus stop is located at the foot of the stairs. This bus will take you to JukJeon Village bus stop (죽전마을) partway up the mountain, from where you can follow the large posted maps to find the walking trails.

GeumJeongSan Specialties: Barbecued Duck and Goat (오리/흑염소 불고기)

Korean barbecue is nothing new, conquering all corners of the globe thanks to the moreish combination of juicy, fatty pork or beef eaten with salty, spicy condiments in a fresh lettuce wrap. A little less commonly found throughout Korea is ori bulgogi barbecued duck (오리 불고기) and heukyeomso bulgogi barbecued black goat (흑염소 불고기). Though barbecued duck is also a specialty in a couple of other cities throughout South Korea, both of these are dishes that are not commonly found in a typical barbecue restaurant, but featured in many of the menus throughout the village.

Admittedly, neither are cheap dishes to get. Per person, you can expect to pay around ₩35,000 (US$28.20) for the barbecue goat, and around ₩40,000 (US$32.30) for a two person portion of grilled duck. As is common with Korean barbecue restaurants, you will likely be declined if you’re looking to choose one portion each of multiple dishes, or if you are a single diner seeking to order barbecue, as each meat is served on its own grill, which is labour intensive to clean.

HyeonDae Garden (현대가든)

There are several restaurants in the area. We stopped off at HyeonDae Garden, which is located close to one of the bus stops before the main village. They have a menu option for 2 portions of barbecued duck for ₩40,000 (US$32.25), which although was ₩5,000 (US$4.10) more expensive on the table menu, was labelled as such on the wall. As expected, this came with several side dishes including kimchi, several types of pickles, various salads, dressed seaweed, raw garlic and green peppers, and fresh lettuce leaves for wrapping.

The friendly lady who served our food advised that the duck could be eaten straight after it is served. The duck is grilled in the kitchen and served onto the heated hotplate to keep warm, which continues to grill the meat a little further and soften the onions and chives served on top. This is likely as they use charcoal to grill the meat, which is expensive and difficult to maintain for multiple-grill setups such as in a barbecue restaurant. While you no longer have the fun of cooking from raw meat, which might be disappointing to some, the payoff is worth it – we paid far less attention to keeping the duck from burning while enjoying incredibly fragrant, flavourful meat, whose smokiness is incomparable to hotplate barbecue.

Because the seasoning of red pepper paste is light, the charcoal flavour is very reminiscent of Vietnamese grilled meat thịt nướng, or Indonesian satay, and without a doubt the taste will resonate with many people whose local cuisines use charcoal grilling for their meat. The light seasoning allows the full flavour of the charcoal and the duck meat to come through, which is unbelievably satisfying.

Of course, we recommend to eat it as a wrap, combining the cold, crisp lettuce with spicy raw garlic, salty ssamjang bean paste sauce (쌈장), and any combination of pickled vegetables for an explosion of flavours, textures, and temperatures. This was easily one of our favourite meals throughout Korea, highly recommended to anyone visiting the mountain. Without a doubt, we would love to return to have a taste of the grilled black goat.

The Walk

From HyeonDae Garden restaurant, we walked through the village and north towards the GeumJeongSanSeong BukMun (금정산성 북문), also known as the North Gate of GeumJeongSan Fortress.

This consisted of walking mostly on roads built for cars, until the last few hundred metres to the fortress, which consists of walking paths though on wide, flat terrain.

Then, at the North Gate, we followed the path leading towards the right, which took us through the walking route until we eventually came to the East Gate of GeumJeongSan Fortress (금정산성 동문). It was this leg of the route which the hiking really began, which had a combination of every path style we could think of from beautiful, constructed bridges and natural stone walkways to forest trails whose only paths were the beaten tracks from hundreds or thousands of other hikers  before us.

Besides the terrain, there was also every manner of scenery, including lush, rolling green hills, walls of canopied trees, and breath-taking views of the city in the distant valleys and the ocean beyond. Throughout the mountain there are also plenty of places of interest including temples and parks dotted throughout the entire area. Truly, this walk had everything, and the blessing of moderate weather and endless blue skies did not go unappreciated.

In all, the walk took us around 2.5 hours at a moderate pace, and included plenty of time to stop and photos of the scenery.

There are, of course, many routes to take, which could include any variety of terrain and length of time to walk. We would, however, highly recommend the direction we went, as it was mostly downhill from the North to the East Gate, something which would have been much more difficult in the reverse direction.

From the East Gate, it is only another 15 minutes’ walk to the main village and bus stops down to the station, so you can have a meal after the hike instead, or as we did, take the bus back down to OnCheongJang Station.

Without a doubt, this was one of our favourite activities in Korea, as it had everything. If you’re looking for food, for photo opportunities, for a day activity, or for history and culture, our trip to GeumJeongSan had all of these rolled in one. As such, it earned a Twins’ Pick for activities we’d recommend to anyone.