Ever fancied walking the oldest fortress walls in Korea, well on the Geumjeongsanseong Fortress hike, you can!
18 km of old temple walls along a ridgeline high above Busan sounded good enough for me to attempt this 10-mile point-to-point trail.
With a history dating back to the 1500s and with the most incredible views over Busan, Korea’s second biggest city, this was absolutely worth the sweat and hours on trail.
How to get to the Geumjeongsanseong Fortress
You’ve got two options really.
This 10-mile hike can be found here:
Or you can take the cable car up to one of the gates and see it for yourself.
If you’ve got a full morning or afternoon, then I’d strongly recommend walking the entire route as it was worthwhile. The trail is shaded by trees in part, and sometimes fully open to the incredible views down over Busan.
If you’re doing the trail then you can catch the metro from anywhere in Busan and get off at either:
Oncheongjang station or Beosuem station.
Alternatively, you can get the cable car from a short walk from Oncheongjang station.
My Experience with Geumjeongsanseong Fortress
Having misread the actual AllTrails data for this one, I took the slower, and less steep way up. Which meant I had a steady climb for a few miles up to Beosuem Temple.
To be fair, the route was probably better done this way, as I was later to find out how steep the trail is if you start from Oncheongjang.
The entire trail is beautiful, from following the ancient fortress wall to being towered above Busan. Weaving in and out of secluded woodland, to standing on top of peaks with incredible vistas.
There are a tonne of trails, side missions, and all sorts of things you can do here, so don’t feel like you have to stick to the AllTrails and that’s it.
Make your own trail up. Get the cable car. Get off early. Do whatever you need.
Personally, if you’ve got time to do the full 10 miles, then I would recommend it, as it was an incredible day out on the hills.
If you’ve any questions about the Geumjeongsanseong Fortress hike then drop them in the comments below and I’ll be happy to help.
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