Busan Station

Lodging: Both motels and hotels. Ask the tourist office for recommendations.

Tourist Office: Yes, excellent.

Of interest: Fake Chinatown, City Tour

There are really two stations, one for the subway and one for the train. They are separated by a plaza which has frequent public events. When I was there last, floats for a Buddha's Birthday parade were being displayed in the plaza.

Busan is the main KTX station for Busan. There is an excellent tourist office here. The staff in this office know a lot about Busan. Ask them any questions that you have about Busan or the surrounding area. They have good maps of Busan and other places in Korea.

Some slower trains for Seoul leave from Busan Station, but most of Busan's intercity trains leave from Bujeon.

Across the street from both the stations is a fake Chinatown. A couple of Busan's older Chinese restaurants are here, but there are more Russians than any other nationality. It is not really that international, and it is kind of skanky at night.

The City Tour buses leave from the side of the station plaza. There are two lines during the day, one going east and one going west. You have to buy a separate ticket for each line. Tickets are 10.000 won each with a 20% discount for people arriving by KTX and for groups of 20 or more. Tours run everyday except Monday.

Busan is spread out along the coast, so these tours are a good idea for a first time visitor. There is also a night time tour that runs once each night.