Seoul to Busan

Silla began, by its own tradition, in 57 BC as a small state in the south-east of the peninsula, centred on the basin where Gyeongju stands. For centuries it was the weakest of the Three Kingdoms, beside Goguryeo in the north and Baekje in the south-west. Its early kings were buried under large earth mounds that still dominate the town; the Cheonmachong tomb yielded a gold crown and a painted saddle flap of a flying horse.

Allied with Tang China, Silla defeated Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668, then pushed the Tang armies out by 676 and ruled most of the peninsula as Unified Silla. Buddhism was the state religion, and the 8th century was its height: Bulguksa temple and the Seokguram grotto, with its seated granite Buddha facing the East Sea, date from about 751–774, and both were listed by UNESCO in 1995.

Gyeongju was then one of the largest cities in Asia, with royal palaces around the Wolji pond and the Cheomseongdae observatory tower still standing in the fields. Silla weakened in the 9th century and surrendered to the new Goryeo kingdom in 935. Gyeongju became a provincial town, which is why so much survives: nobody rebuilt over it.

In 1392 the general Yi Seong-gye overthrew Goryeo and founded the Joseon dynasty. Two years later he moved the capital to Hanyang, today's Seoul, chosen by geomancy for its ring of mountains and the Han River to the south. A city wall of about 18 km linked the peaks; sections and several gates, including Sungnyemun and Heunginjimun, still stand.

Joseon ran on Neo-Confucian lines: exams for officials, ancestor rites, strict rank. King Sejong's scholars created the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, announced in 1446 so that ordinary people could read and write. The dynasty's five palaces, led by Gyeongbokgung, were burned in the Japanese invasions of 1592–98 and rebuilt in stages; Gyeongbokgung itself lay in ruins until 1867.

Joseon ended as a Japanese protectorate in 1905 and a colony in 1910. Japan built its government-general building in front of Gyeongbokgung; it was demolished in 1995–96, and the palace gates have been restored since. Bukchon's hanok houses mostly date from the 1920s–30s, when the old aristocratic lots were subdivided.

Liberation in 1945 split the peninsula at the 38th parallel between Soviet and American zones. On 25 June 1950 the North invaded; Seoul fell in three days, and by August the South Korean and United Nations forces held only a pocket in the south-east behind the Nakdong River, the Pusan Perimeter.

For most of the war Busan was the temporary capital. Refugees from across the peninsula crowded into the port; shacks climbed the hills, which is how neighbourhoods like Gamcheon and the stairways around Choryang began. Food adapted too: milmyeon, cold wheat noodles, was the northern naengmyeon made with the wheat flour that aid shipments supplied.

The Incheon landing in September 1950 broke the siege, but Chinese intervention and two years of stalemate followed. The 1953 armistice set the Demilitarized Zone roughly along the front; no peace treaty was signed. Busan holds the only UN military cemetery in the world, where soldiers from many of the countries that fought are buried.

The Gyeongbu Line between Seoul and Busan opened in 1905, built by a Japanese company to move troops and goods from the port towards Manchuria. It became the country's trunk line, and the stations along it, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan, grew into its biggest cities.

After the war the line carried the migration from farms to factories. Express trains cut the trip steadily, and the Saemaeul express of the 1970s made it about 4 h 10. The Seoul–Busan expressway opened in 1970, the first great symbol of Park Chung-hee's development drive.

The KTX, based on French TGV technology, opened on 1 April 2004, running partly on new high-speed track; the full new line to Busan followed in 2010, and a bypass through Gyeongju and Ulsan moved the city's main station out of town. In 2016 a second operator, SR, launched the SRT from Suseo in south-east Seoul, and Korean-built KTX-Sancheon and KTX-Cheongryong sets now run alongside.

Seoul cooking is the court and yangban table: many small dishes, milder seasoning, and markets like Gwangjang that feed the city on bindaetteok (mung-bean pancakes) and knife-cut noodles. Barbecue and fried chicken are national, but the capital sets the prices and trends.

The south-west, Jeolla province, is known as the country's richest table, and Jeonju is its showcase: bibimbap with dozens of toppings, kongnamul gukbap for breakfast, and makgeolli houses where each kettle brings more side dishes.

Gyeongsang, the south-east, cooks saltier and spicier. Andong has jjimdak and salted mackerel carried inland from the coast; Gyeongju sells ssambap spreads and hwangnam-ppang pastry. Busan lives on the sea and the refugee years: raw fish at Jagalchi, dwaeji gukbap pork soup, milmyeon and eomuk fishcakes, a Busan speciality since the 1950s.