Most people associate cherry blossoms, especially excessive blossoms as a Japanese thing. It seems like every year the newspapers have travel stories about visiting kimono-clad women in Shinto temples with cherry blossoms floating everywhere.
Well, guess what.
Korea has cherry blossoms too.
I've seen many such trees in Bundang in the past, but it is in the southern end of the country that the cherry blossoms truly bloom. Jinhae, a small city not far from Busan has an annual cherry blossom festival, and is known for having over 70,000 cherry blossom trees.
Traveling to Jinhae during the 7-10 days that the trees are flowering is apparently quite an adventure. Note that I said "apparently." There are many trains and buses leaving from Seoul to Jinhae, and the crowding is supposed to be ridiculous. It is apparently an annual pilgrimage for many Korean families.
But getting to Jinhae from Busan is not as easy. The bus terminals here are somewhat confusing. The western bus terminal doesn't service cities to the west of Busan (such as Jinhae or Yeosu). The northern bus station does that, but the northern bus station has just moved many kilometers north of its old, handy location, and now no one I work with (Korean) knows exactly where it is or how to get to it. The online maps still show the old location.
But that's OK, because although Jinhae was out of reach, Busan itself has many cherry trees. My own neighbourhood has many, and walking to work under them was nice for a week or so.
In Busan, there's an area near Gwangalli Beach that has a high concentration of cherry trees. The English name for this area is "Cherry Blossom Lane" and the photos on this page are from that place. It was not excessively large, but it was impressive, with the trees arching over the main street for at least a kilometer. The side streets in the neighbourhood are equally blessed with these trees.
Oddly, no one mentions what happens when all the flowers fall off. By my apartment, the fallen petals just simply disappeared at night, either carried by the wind or swept away by some unseen government service.
Maybe it's magic.
— SGP
