---
node: spot_busan_haedong_yonggungsa
type: spot
slug: haedong_yonggungsa
destination: dest_busan
title: "Haedong Yonggungsa"
lead: "Haedong Yonggungsa is a temple built on the rocks at the sea's edge north-east of Busan, which is unusual — Korean Buddhist temples are almost always in the mountains. It was founded in 1376 and rebuilt in the 1930s."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_busan_haedong_yonggungsa.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haedong_Yonggungsa_Temple_20200522_036.jpg"
image_author: "Mobius6"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The site was chosen for a vision of the sea goddess, and the placing is the whole argument of the temple: you come down 108 steps to it rather than climbing, and the main hall faces the water with the surf below the balustrade. The 108 steps stand for the Buddhist afflictions, and the small shrines along the way — for study, for pregnancy, for traffic safety — show what people actually come to ask for.

## Highlights

Come at sunrise on the first days of January if you want the crowd, and at any other dawn if you do not. The pool of coins at the base of the steps is worth a minute for what it says about the place. Buses from Haeundae take about half an hour and the last stretch is a walk lined with food stalls.