Busan has a multi-million population of 3.44, but the city feels compact with several places of interest to us not too far from our Airbnb apartment. The Songdo Marine Cable Car has two stations, with most visitors usually opting to take the car from the Songdo Bay Station, which was just 12 minutes away by cab from our apartment. I’d read reports that the Yonggung Suspension Bridge can get pretty crowded, so – being the creatures of habit we are when we’re touring – we set out early and reached the Station 30 minutes before the cable car operation began at 9AM.
A bit of surprise too: we’d thought that the Busan Visitor Pass was going to get us a normal cable car, but we were assigned the ‘Crystal Cruise’ which basically is a larger car with a tempered glass floor that lets you have a glorious view of the ground or sea below as the car moves along the ropeway.
Unlike many of the cable car systems we checked out in Japan, this one – like the one in Sentosa – travels across a body of water, and for 1.62km from the east of Songdo Beach where Songdo Bay Station is located, to Amnam Park to the south with the end point being songdo Sky Park Station. The cable car ride itself is about 10 minutes long, and you can even pair your smartphone via Bluetooth to the car’s speakers to play your own music. The car operates at a height of 86m, and affords greatviews of Busan city, and the Sea of Japan on the other side.
The cable car station on the south side is the Songdo Sky Park Station, and it’s situated at Ammam Park – a fairly big area in itself. We opted just to explore the Songdo Yonggung Suspension Bridge rightaway though before the inevitable morning crowds came in: blogged in the next post!