Photo: Ingrid Truemper (CC BY-SA 2.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Busan, the city that stayed behind the front in the Korean War of 1950 to 1953, became the provisional capital and filled with refugees. It begins at Jagalchi Market on the South Port, named for the pebbles of the old gravel beach, whose present seagull-shaped building was finished in 2006, and goes through Nampo-dong: BIFF Square, named for the Busan International Film Festival in 1996, Gukje Market, which grew on vacant land left after the Japanese residents withdrew, and Bosu-dong Book Alley, born of the postwar need for cheap books. It continues to the Provisional Capital Memorial Hall, built in 1926 as the provincial governor's residence, the Provisional Capital Government Building of 1925, the Busan Modern History Museum in the Oriental Development Company's building of 1929, Baeksan Memorial Hall, honouring Ahn Hee-je and the trading company he ran as a front for the independence movement, the Forty Steps, where refugees gathered, and Yongdusan Park with its statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin and Busan Tower. Then come Yeongdo Bridge, built as a drawbridge across the port, and, by car or bus, Gamcheon Culture Village on the western hills, settled in the 1950s by refugees, and the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Nam-gu, established in 1951, a place of mourning where visitors are asked to be quiet. Cruise passengers usually reach Nampo-dong by the city shuttle, about half an hour from the cruise terminal, so keep the all-aboard time in mind.
16 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 97 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 4 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Jagalchi Market, BIFF Square, Gukje Market, Bosu-dong Book Alley, Provisional Capital Memorial Hall, Provisional Capital Government Building.
Busan Modern History Museum, Baeksan Memorial Hall, Forty Steps, Yongdusan Park and Admiral Yi Sun-sin, Busan Tower, Yeongdo Bridge.
Gamcheon Culture Village, UN Memorial Cemetery: the Gate and the Memorial Hall, UN Memorial Cemetery: the Main Burial Area, UN Memorial Cemetery: the Wall of Remembrance.
The fish market on the South Port, named for the pebbles of the old beach; its seagull-shaped building faces the sea with its back to the city.
The market that grew on vacant land after Japanese residents withdrew, a permanent place to trade what the war and its aftermath left behind.
The governor's residence of 1926 that housed President Rhee Syngman from 1950 to 1953, while Busan was the provisional capital.
The steps between the port's docks and the hillside shantytown that became a gathering point for refugees during the Korean War.
The steep hillside west of the centre, settled in the 1950s by Korean War refugees and followers of the Taegeukdo movement.
The cemetery established at Tanggok in 1951 to bring together remains that had been temporarily buried at many places across Korea.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 16 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 16 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Busan — the Refugee Capital: Nampo, Yongdusan and the UN Memorial Cemetery, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
16 narration points, including Jagalchi Market, BIFF Square, Gukje Market, Busan Modern History Museum and Forty Steps. That is about 21 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~4 hours with the rides to Gamcheon and the UN cemetery total, but you walk at your own pace. 16 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.