After our excellent cold noodle lunch we are going to walk out to explore the streets. Today we will walk along Nampo-dong Street right up to the Jagalchi Fish Market and Choyang Arcade for Foreigners. We will also be visiting the BIFF Square and end up at the Jagalchi Fish Market (next post) where we will have our dinner. (Didn't we just had lunch? Must be a long walk then, or a long road??)
Me and Miae outside the cold noodle restaurant.
We are now walking along Nampo-dong....Address: Nampo-dong, Jung-gu, Busan-si 부산 중구 남포동
Nampo dong has lots of roadside shopping and I wanted to buy pom poms for my handbag but Miae says they are too cheap and will break off as soon as I hang them on my bag.
Our interest is piqued upon seeing this sign, and no wonder, there are lots of clinics and medical centres all along this street. (Seomyeon Medical Street)
The name of the street is even on the walkway tiles....we will be coming back here to catch our train to Seoul.
View of the busy street and my shiny face, because it is now noon and we have been on the streets for hours!
Interesting sculptures on the roadside.
We have reached BIFF Square! Look at the crowd thronging BIFF Square!
"major renovations took place ahead of the first Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), and the newly transformed district was named BIFF Square on August 14, 1996." sourced from the website
Address : 20 BIFF gwangjang-ro, Jung-gu, Busan,부산광역시 중구 비프광장로 20 (남포동6가) 일대
"The theater district of Busan is packed with movie theaters and play houses, hosts to the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF)."
However we did not see any actors but came across lots of food stalls and eateries.
" This well sought after area is flourishing with not only theaters, but many kinds of shops and eateries as well."
Some of the food, well, I have not seen them before, but we did not try any because we just had lunch.
Finally, we reached the infamous walkway with handprints of actors and directors!
"To commemorate the BIFF every year the winners of the festival contribute copper plates imprinted with their hand and foot prints. These copper plates stretch far across the plaza walkways. The streets are especially crowded in October, when the films are being screened for the movie festival at local theaters. It is during this time that you can also find various events revolving around the promotion of the movies featured at the festival. "
Having been remade as a cultural tourist attraction promoting the advancement of Korea’s film industry, BIFF Square has contributed to Busan’s newfound status as an international cultural tourist city. The 428 meter-long street stretching from the Buyeong Theater in Nampo-dong to the overpass in Chungmu-dong was divided into “Star Street” and “Festival Street,” and on the eve of the festival each year the “BIFF Square Ground Opening” is held on the street.
During the ceremony, events such as the hand printing of famous movie celebrities and Nunggot Jeomdeung (snow-flower lighting) take place. A district such as BIFF Square, crowded with first-run theaters in a city is rare not only in Asia but Europe as well, and for this reason it holds great potential. In recent years, the square has grown into a more complex area, featuring not only movie theaters but also shops and leisure facilities, attracting growing numbers of young visitors and tourists.
That's me lah, shiok sendiri, printing my hand on the already handprinted tile.
Here are some of the celebrities who had their hands printed and I enlarge the names of those that I know..(I got the list from the BIFF website)
* Hand-printed movie celebrities 1998 – Wayne Wang (director, America), Jeremy Irons (Actor, England), Xie Jin (director, China), Kitano Takeshi (director, Japan), Abbas Kiarostami (director, Iran), Kim Ki-young (director,
2000 – Zhang Yimou (director, China), Hwang Jung-soon (actress, Korea), Yu Hyun-mok
2008 – Tsui Hark (director, China), Paolo Taviani (director, Italy), Anna Karina (actress, Denmark)
2010 - Juliette Binoche (actress, France), Willem Dafoe (actor, America), Kim Ji-mee (actress, Korea), Carlos Saura (director, Spain), Oliver Stone (director, America), Emi Wada (costume designer, Japan)
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