Jinhae & Masan: Korea's Cherry Blossom Capital and the Home of Agujjim

Changwon is a merged city on the south coast made from three old towns — Changwon, Masan, and Jinhae — and each keeps its own character. For travelers there are two reasons to come: the largest cherry blossom festival in Korea, and one of the most distinctive regional dishes in the country.

Jinhae in April

Jinhae was built as a naval port and planted with cherry trees a century ago. There are now something like 350,000 of them, and for ten days from around late March into early April the Jinhae Gunhangje Festival fills the town.

The two famous spots:

• Yeojwacheon stream, where the trees arch over a narrow canal and a small footbridge — the image you've seen on every Korea travel account.
• Gyeonghwa Station, a disused railway platform with blossom trees crowding both sides of the track. It's the most photographed cherry blossom site in the country.

Also worth the climb: Jehwangsan Park, up a long staircase (or a monorail) to a tower with the view over the whole harbor and the pink town below it.

Masan the rest of the year

Masan is the old port half of the city, and it has one thing every Korean knows it for: agujjim (아구찜), braised monkfish with soybean sprouts in a thick chili sauce. The dish was invented here, and Odong-dong has an entire street of restaurants doing it.

The other Masan institution is the tongdak and sillibijip culture — small, cheap drinking restaurants where a very modest sum buys soju and a rotating series of side dishes.

What to eat across the city

• Agujjim. Order it jjim (braised, the classic) rather than tang (soup) for the full version. It is genuinely spicy.
• Hoe and seafood. Masan's fish market and the Jinhae coast supply a strong raw-fish scene at prices well below Busan.
• Gomtang. Long-simmered beef soup, a Masan staple for market workers.
• Grilled beef and pork. Gyeongnam grill houses tend toward simple salt-grilled cuts with excellent kimchi.
• Sillibijip. The Masan drinking-restaurant format: you order alcohol and the food arrives. Cheap, generous, and completely local.

Practical tips

• Getting there: KTX from Seoul to Changwon Jungang or Masan, about 3 hours. Buses run frequently from Busan (about an hour).
• During the festival, do not drive. Park-and-ride shuttles run into Jinhae and the roads are closed.
• Go early for Gyeonghwa Station. By 10am in festival week the platform is packed.
• Blossom timing shifts each year by up to a week. Check the forecast published each March.
• Outside April, Jinhae is quiet — which some people prefer.

Each restaurant below has a video on its EatHub page. Book accommodation months ahead for festival week; the rest of the year, just turn up.