[EXPO BID D-100] Breaking down Busan’s bid from Attractions to Zero-waste

Preparations are in full swing in Busan for the hoped-for World Expo 2030, not just hosting it but using it as the first step to solving urgent challenges facing humanity.

Preparations are in full swing in Busan for the hoped-for World Expo 2030, not just hosting it but using it as a springboard to solving urgent challenges facing humanity. Busan has assured voting members that it is a qualified candidate with its prowess in achieving carbon neutrality, providing a technological hub and various tourist attractions. Here are a few keywords that distinguish Busan from its rival contenders, Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and Italy’s Rome.

The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) delegation’s on-site inspection visit to Korea in April ended on a positive note, with them saying “Busan has everything that it takes to hold the World Expo.” The final hosting city will be selected at the end of November at the 173rd BIE general assembly in Paris by a secret ballot of 179 BIE member countries.

As Korea’s No. 1 port city, Busan has long been the gateway to bringing in foreign products and culture, making it a symbol of diversity. Working as a channel to receive various aid and war supplies during the 1950-53 Korean War, Busan is now the world’s second busiest transshipment port and cargo hub after Singapore. More than 20 million 20-foot equivalent units are processed annually in the city, accounting for 75 percent of Korea’s annual container traffic.

Busan plans to open an international airport on Gadeok Island — Gadeok-do International Airport — which will be completed in December 2029, about five years and six months faster than originally planned, ahead of the World Expo 2030. Busan will also build an express railway connecting Gadeok Airport and Busan’s downtown area. BuTX is a hydrogen-powered electric train that will connect Expo visitors from the airport to North Port, the proposed venue of the World Expo 2030, in just 15 minutes.

Busan has “enthusiastic passion,” something beyond what others have, in the BIE delegation’s words. Roughly 5,500 Busan citizens, regardless of their ages, gathered at the Busan Station on April 4 just to greet the BIE’s visit to the city for an on-site inspection. In 2016, when Busan started its efforts to win the bid, it received signatories from over 1.35 million citizens.

As a favored site for global MICE, an acronym that stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions, Busan has the experience of hosting many global mega-size meetings and events. It hosted the 14th Asian Games in 2002, as well as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 2006. Other international events held in Busan include ITU Telecom World, the Korea-Asean Summit in 2014 and 2019 and the Inter-American Development Bank annual meeting in 2015. Busan is also home to the annual Busan International Film Festival, or BIFF, Asia's largest film festival.

Busan’s plan to use the North Port neighborhood as the expo venue is well aligned with the city's eco-friendly urban regeneration project. The city plans to turn the area, which has fewer people than other districts with relatively old buildings, into a venue for international exhibitions, and later build more apartment complexes, cultural facilities and corporate offices. On the cards are an opera house for music events and a convention center for the maritime industry.

The North Port is scheduled to welcome the world’s first floating city — Oceanix Busan — in 2028 ahead of the World Expo. The floating community is envisaged to accommodate up to 100,000 residents as a flood-proof infrastructure that rises with the sea and produces its own food, energy and freshwater with fully integrated, zero-waste, closed-loop systems. Busan was selected by UN-Habitat in 2021 for the mega-scale project beating New York, Abu Dhabi and Singapore.

Boogi the seagull, the proud mascot of Busan, is the port city's most-beloved seagull. As a 21-year-old intern working for the Busan Metropolitan City, Boogi is a part of the Expo Dream Expedition team that travels across the country to rally support for the city. Boogi welcomed the BIE members upon arrival at Busan Station to evaluate the city's proposal and also appeared at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul during an outdoor exhibition event, both held in April.

During the Korean War, Busan served as the provisional capital and a refuge for millions of people fleeing from all over the country. Busan was home to 880,000 people during the Korean War, double its pre-war population of 470,000 due to the large influx of refugees. With many foreigners residing in the city, it has many neighborhoods for them such as Chinatown and Russiatown. Texas Street is also situated near Busan Station. A total of 72,361 foreigners reside in Busan as of the end of 2021, according to Statistics Korea, which accounts for 2.2 percent of the city’s entire population.

Eco Delta Smart City, located in the southwest corner of a massive landmass, sits on the Nakdong River and is Korea’s first full-scale smart environmentally-friendly smart city centered around water-based technology. Some 40 innovative technologies, including artificial intelligence and robotics, have been applied so that everything is "smart.” With the city's capabilities in technologies, Busan hopes to open a high-tech World Expo with various next-generation technologies like the metaverse and blockchain.

Sustainability is one of the key pillars in Busan’s vision for the 2030 World Expo, with the expo theme of "Transforming Our World, Navigating Toward a Better Future." In April when the BIE delegation visited Busan for an on-site inspection, their first stop was Eulsukdo, a sandy island sitting where the Nakdong River empties into the South Sea. Eulsukdo has a unique history; starting as a landfill site for thousands of tons of garbage in the 1980s through until the 2000s, it is now an ecological park and paradise for tens of thousands of migratory birds. Its history dovetails with the city's emphasis on sustainability to combat climate change and environmental pollution in promoting its bid.

As Korea’s second-largest city by population, Busan is definitely a must-stop tourist destination with a range of cultural and coastal attractions. Foreign visitors to Busan surged 2,763 percent in May compared to the same month a year earlier. Busan is home to two famous beaches, Haeundae Beach and Gwangalli Beach, just two of many beaches that contributed to Busan earning the nicknames “the Miami of the Far East” and “Santorini in Korea.” Busan is particularly well-known for its large-scale markets, such as Gukje Market, which opened in 1945 after Korea gained independence from Japan, and Jagalchi Market, the largest fish and marine produce market in Korea.

Korea was once an aid recipient after the devastating 1950-53 Korean War, and Busan was the base where the country received aid. Now, with the country having turned into an aid donor, it is fulfilling 1,258 official development assistance (ODA) projects with BIE member states. Busan also plans to transform part of the North Port into an ODA memorial hall after the expo ends.

With the hope of serving as a bridge among countries to solve challenges facing humanity, Korea launched the online service WAVE, where people all around the world can share their thoughts on addressing global challenges. Introduced by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), WAVE helps countries better communicate and solve international problems together. People can write on whatever topics they want across 10 keywords including environment, energy, education, climate crises and poverty. Everyone is welcome to leave comments presenting solutions or offering words of encouragement.

From seafood to sweet street food, Busan’s food scene is heavily influenced by the time when it was a wartime capital and temporary sanctuary for the refugees of the Korean War, as well as more modern, outside influences, typical of port cities. The city is known for dishes made with pork such as dwaegi gukbap (pork and rice soup) and jokbal (pig’s feet). Well-known fish dishes include gomjangeo, which is an eel-like fish that does not have a jaw, and eomuk, otherwise known as fish cakes. The city is home to the country’s first eomuk company, owned by a Japanese company because it was established during the Japanese colonial era.

With Busan setting carbon neutrality as one of its main pillars for the 2030 World Expo, hydrogen is at the center of its green energy transformation initiative. Busan hopes to deploy self-driving hydrogen fuel cell-powered buses during the World Expo. A hydrogen-powered tram will be the main mode of transportation at the Expo site, according to the bidding committee. A hydrogen water taxi will carry passengers on the sea. In cooperation with private companies like SK E&S and Hyundai Motor, Busan plans to replace some 1,000 diesel or natural gas-powered buses in the city with Hyundai’s fuel-cell electric buses by 2025. Ten more hydrogen fuel stations will be built in the city, from the current three.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]