Busan — a little more

The 22 of us on the tour are a pretty diverse group — one woman from Italy, one from Vietnam Nam, one born in Madagascar, 2 Chinese American women, 3 Japanese American women, and 2 Japanese American men. Makes for lots of interesting chat.

I hadn’t expected to see hillside favelas inside Korea’s 2nd largest city but it makes sense when you think about the extreme poverty and homelessness caused by WW II and the Korean War. The wide current disparity in income levels is startling. Busan has a huge container port and is a manufacturing hub. They say that when you get to Busan’s New City, you can smell the money — I agree! Koreans are a very driven people, highly motivated by the need to succeed.Read more