🎧 Yul's Korea Audio Guide
Yeosu Night Sea, Expo 2012 & Odongdo
Narrated in English with Korean phrases by YUL of KVIBE IDOLS.
🎵 Background music: Letter on the Wind (바람의 편지) — KVIBE IDOLS · Listen to the full song →
Full transcript
Annyeong, yeoreobun! It's Yul. Can one song change a whole city? In Yeosu, the answer might be yes!
In 2012, the band Busker Busker released a song called Yeosu Bam Bada, which means Yeosu Night Sea. Their singer, Jang Beom-june, wrote it after passing a beach in Yeosu one night. It shot up the charts, and suddenly everyone wanted to see Yeosu's night sea. Daebak!
But that same year, Yeosu threw an even bigger party. From May to August 2012, it hosted a World Expo with the theme The Living Ocean and Coast, and counted more than eight million visits. There was a giant water show called the Big-O, and a pipe organ inside an old cement storage tower.
Now let's rewind more than four hundred years. Here's the twist: this romantic city was a navy base. Yeosu was the naval headquarters for the eastern part of Jeolla Province, and when Japan invaded in 1592, it was the first base of Admiral Yi Sun-sin's fleet, with the famous turtle ships.
Then walk out to Odongdo, a little island joined to the land by a 768-meter breakwater. More than three thousand camellia trees grow there, starting to bloom red in January and peaking around March.
Yul's tip! Come at night. Ride the Yeosu Maritime Cable Car over the sea, or sit by the harbor and watch the lights of Dolsan Bridge dance on the water. And yes, play the song. Everyone does.
Next, we're heading to hills covered in green tea, like a giant green carpet. Kaja!
