Dongbaekseom Island Rock Trail

A trail laid out along the rocky edge by the water leads from Haeundae Beach to the viewing platforms of Dongbaekseom Island. The wooden boardwalk is interrupted by a short bridge with transparent panels in its two-meter-wide deck. A different crossing once stood here, but it was dismantled after an engineering inspection. The current twenty-eight-meter bridge once again links the beach with the rocky headland.

The wooden boardwalk above the coastal rocks was built here for a specific figure: the Princess Hwangok Mermaid Statue. In two thousand nine, Haeundae-gu officials decided to make it part of a tourist route. They extended the existing path by another two hundred forty-six meters, connected it to the section in front of the hotel, and built a suspension bridge just over twenty-two meters long above the rocks. This created a passage along the shore, allowing visitors to approach the statue from Haeundae Beach.

Three years later, the district invited Chinese travel journalists and asked them to assess Haeundae through the eyes of future customers. The journalists explained that many Chinese people go through life without ever seeing the sea. They were offered the chance to give tourists the opportunity to walk directly above the water, which would require rebuilding the short bridge. Local tour operators hoped to sell trips here to visitors from China and Southeast Asia, including wedding photo tours.

However, the old bridge did not survive until the rebuilding. In December two thousand fourteen, engineers assigned it the dangerous category “D,” and the structure was dismantled. Baek Seong-gi, head of Haeundae-gu, wanted to replace it with a one-hundred-twenty-meter bridge—the largest in the southeastern part of the country. It was to run from the platform near the mermaid to the next headland in the direction of Nurimaru APEC House. About one billion eight hundred million won was set aside for the project.

Dongbaekseom Island was already listed as a city natural monument, so construction here was impossible without the approval of heritage specialists. Members of the city committee decided that one hundred twenty meters of metal would alter the appearance of the rocky coast. They also required that the risk to people in an earthquake or tsunami be considered. In the spring of two thousand sixteen, the project was delayed; the district continued to seek permission, but the committee agreed only to a bridge roughly where the previous one had stood. Its length was reduced to twenty-eight meters. After that, the builders had to return about four hundred million won from the funds already allocated.

In the summer of two thousand seventeen, the new bridge became part of the coastal trail. It is two meters wide, and transparent panels are set into its deck. The path then continues above the rocks themselves and links Haeundae Beach with the viewing platforms of Dongbaekseom Island. Of the plan for one hundred twenty meters above the sea, exactly twenty-eight remain—the current short crossing on the site of the dismantled bridge.