One day on Busan's Donghae Line: the coastal train locals ride to Ilgwang

Most visitors to Busan stop at Haeundae, where the sand is wide, the towers are new, and the coffee costs what it costs. The train that leaves from Bujeon (부전) runs straight past it and keeps going east, and the stops after Haeundae are where the city spends its own Saturdays.

Start at Bujeon, not Busan Station

The Donghae Line (동해선, Donghae-seon) is a commuter railway rather than an excursion. It takes the same transit card you tap for the metro, boards from screen doors like any subway platform, and carries you from Bujeon in the middle of the city out to Ilgwang in under an hour. Bujeon Station sits beside a market of the same name, so buy fruit or a bag of hotteok before you board; nothing is sold on the train, and the ride is long enough to want something.

Songjeong and Osiria, two different moods

Songjeong (송정) is the surf stop. Board-rental shops line the road down to the water, the beach is shorter and shallower than Haeundae's, and in the off months it belongs to dog walkers and men fishing off the rocks at the east end. One station on, Osiria (오시리아) is where the crowd empties out for Haedong Yonggungsa, a temple built onto the sea cliffs about twenty minutes' walk from the exit. Go before ten if you go at all; the approach lane is narrow and it queues.

The rule on this line is simple: get off one stop after everyone else does.

Gijang, then the quiet at Ilgwang

Gijang (기장) is a working town, not a resort. This is anchovy country — the boats land at Daebyeon Port a short bus ride away, and the covered market by the station sells them dried, salted and sorted by size, alongside seaweed and whatever came in that morning. Two stops later Ilgwang (일광) opens onto a crescent of grey sand with a low seawall, a row of cafés facing it, and almost nobody photographing any of it.

동해선은 관광열차가 아니라 출퇴근 열차다. 그래서 더 좋다.

Trains are less frequent than the metro, so read the departure board rather than assuming one turns up. Check the last westbound service before you settle into a café seat at Ilgwang, because the walk back to the station is short and the temptation to stay is not.