Songdo Beach

This guide to Songdo Beach in Busan traces how Korea's first public beach, opened in nineteen thirteen under a Japanese-run company, went from packed postwar swimming resort to a shoreline the sea itself turned against. You'll hear how pollution and shrinking sand pushed swimmers east, and how the boats that once carried bathers found a new cargo instead. It follows that shift into what's eaten along the shorefront today, from cold noodle-and-raw-fish bowls to a peppery cod soup and fish-cake hot dogs near the cable car.