One of the things that I truly love about the city of Busan, South Korea are the beautiful bridges. Typically, the Gwangali “Diamond” Bridge gets all of the attention and rightly so! It is a beautiful bridge that lights up with a fantastic show each night around 7 or 8 pm.

However, the newly constructed Busan Harbor Bridge or BusanHangdaegyo is one that is actually quite stunning at night. The bridge was completed in 2014 and I still remember being there when they first opened the bridge up to pedestrians during a special ceremony. There was a bit of a clash with local law enforcement at the time it it was great to be able to see the bridge from up close.

Recently, I saw an image on facebook that I wanted to try and get. The last time I tried was with Pete DeMarco and we actually snuck into a house that was being built in order to get a decent view of the bridge. However, as the years passed finding a decent vantage point became harder and harder.

When I saw the shot I was lucky because it was from the Busan Tourism WEBSITE and they tagged the location. That meant that it was only a matter of time before I would make my way there.

YeongDo Cheonghak Reservoir Observatory

I had my reservations about this place because many times you can get a decent view of a location but often there are trees and powerlines in the way. Amazingly, this was not the case at the observatory. There was a tree that crept into the frame at some angles, but really it was not that big of a deal.

Parking was a little bit difficult as this reservoir had the gates closed for some reason. I parked right at the gate next to another car and hoped for the best. Being that it was late on a weekday, nobody really bothered me but we shall wait and see if a parking ticket comes in the mail or not.

The reservoir has two levels. You can either go around the side of the main building and follow the greed path to the upper section or take the wooden stairs down to the first of the two walking tracks. Then walk across the small field and then up the stairs to the observatory.

BusanHangDaegyo Night View

The best advice that I can give is to get there earlier that you want to and get set up. Typically, weekend night there are probably going to be a lot of people there, so try to go during the week, if you can.

On the far side of the observatory, you will see a statue of an elderly man, just behind him to the left is probably the best place to set up first as there are fewer trees to get in the way. This will probably a coveted location so you want to get set up and just stay there until blue hour.

The sun will set behind you so this is more of a blue hour/ night time location. I would imagine that this wouldn’t be that good for sunrises given the fact that there are mountains in behind the bridge but I could be wrong if the sky is bright and colourful.

Getting There

The bottomline here is that this is one of the best spots to get a great night shot of the city. The reservoir offers a great view without having to hike up a mountain or something like that. If you have been there, give me a shout on instagram and I will check out your stuff.

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