Daegu has now started a tour bus has which visits tourist attractions around Palgongsan. The tour bus starts from Dongdaegu Station and visits at Bongmu Park, Guam Farm, Gatbawi, Banjja Yugi Museum, Donghwasa Temple, and Palgongsan. The buses will stop and spend about 1-2.5 hours at each location. The total tour ranges from 4-8 hours depending on long the tourist wants to customize their trip. Tourists can take the next bus for moving to the next destination after sightseeing or go to the last destination directly, if they choose.
Buses leaves Dongdaegu daily from 10:00am, 12:30pm and 3:00pm in afternoon. The fare for adults is 5000 won and 3000 won for teens/children. The city is also offering a 40% discount for the month of July.
In addition, there will be 20% discounts at designated restaurants around Palgongsan, as well as discounts for the Palgongsan Cable car (20% off), Palgong spa and Interburgo Hotel (10 ~30%),
along with translation assistant at Donghwasa and Bongmu Park.
Tickets are available at the Daegu/Gyeongbuk Tourist Information outside of Dongdaegu train station.
A special thanks to Choi Hoseok and Sun Hwangbo for translation efforts.
With a 3-4 year development plan and an expected finish date of 2012, the city plans to create a ‘Safari’ in southeast Daegu, near Daegu Grand Park. This effectively would become the 2nd largest zoo in Korea, after the big one in Daejeon (and if you exclude the one in Everland). The city would be merging its current half-assed one at Dalseong Park, with the new, bigger one. In addition to the 300+ animals being moved over, would be an additional 200+ new animals for the zoo, plus a mock safari ride running through a park of lions, tigers, giraffes, etc…, not unlike the safari ride at the zoo in Daejeon. With the big waterpark also being discussed for the same area, the Daegu Grand Park vicinity is really starting to become hot.
The 2008 Muju Firefly Festival starts this weekend in picturesque Muju, a little over an hour west of Daegu. Should be a great weekend to see that part of country.
After passing Daegu Airport on the way to Palgongsan, if you look to the right, you’ll see glimpse of a hill with huge mounds of sculpted earth. That’s the Bullo-dong Tombs, which were massive grave sites for the early settlers in the area, dating back 1000, to possibly as much as 2000 years. For something so significant in Daegu‘s history, the memorial park is quite undermaintained and doesn’t get hardly any attention from visitors, save for the occassional senior citizen getting some exercise or someone walking a dog.
But with the coming 2011 World Championships in Athletics, the city plans to give the area a much needed facelift. But regardless of when they get around to this, Bullo-dong Tomb Park is a nice visit for a stop and stroll, if on your way to Palgongsan, particularly in the summer.
(The annual Dongseongno Festival is this weekend in downtown Daegu. Expect nothing but the finest of ridiculously crowded streets filled with gawkers watching all the dancing and singing, calligraphy artists, and cosmetic booths. If you’re not into that sort of thing and want to get away from the commotion of downtown, remember that a great area to eat and get your drink on, is only 10 minutes taxi ride away.
