Time of the visit: the 1st of oct.,2025

At 11.30 am I took the direct bus(every 40 min) from Busan Central Bus Terminal,next to the metro stop " Nopo",to Tongdosa-Sinpyeong Bus Terminal.The journey took about 25 min.

The walk to the temple is very easy. You turn right when you leave the bus station and keep walking straight ahead... straight ahead. The path leads directly to the temple. After about 5 minutes, you reach the Yeongchuisanmun Gate. From there, you walk along a charming pedestrian path, separated from the cars by the river. This path is simply beautiful, lined with large old stone lanterns, a cafe in a sort of small temple replica, and Buddhist inscriptions on stone blocks.

GabLabCebu's review hits the nail on the head, but more on that later.

After about a 20-minute walk along a truly fantastic path, you reach a fenced-in area with giant tortoises. I stayed there for a few minutes and took a close look at them. The main gate is directly adjacent. I first visited the wonderful Tongdosa Museum (free entrance), which explains the history of the temple and displays some of its treasures, such as tablets, Buddhist images, statues, prints, and printing plates. I stayed there for about 20 minutes.

The 600 Buddhist paintings rival any other leading museum in the field of Buddhist paintings.Impressive.

Through another gate, the Buriman Gate, the last of four entrance gates, I entered the main complex of smaller and larger temples. Based on our fellow member GabLabCebu's review, my expectations were quite high.However,my high expectations were far exceeded. I entered another dimension. There were visitors there, but not crowds, and at no point did I feel like there were too many visitors. I entered many temples and admired the treasures there. Time flew by. I stayed in one of the magical subtemples for more than 45 min as well as around 20-30 min in the main hall,the Daegwangmjeongjeon hall.To my horror, I realized it was just before 5:00 p.m. I hurried out of the main complex, as the temple complex was supposed to close at 5:30 p.m. I wanted to visit the side complexes. First, I crossed the river over the stone bridge and visited some closed and unattractive temples along the main road. Then I went back up the road, crossing a bridge over the river, to visit another complex consisting of some modern buildings for the monks and two beautiful temples. The larger one was not open to the public, while the smaller one housed countless small Buddha statues. Afterward, I briefly visited the stone pagoda and returned to the main complex, where there were only a few visitors. I asked a monk how late it was open.He replied that everything was open until 8:00 p.m. today. I was amazed and astonished.I strolled leisurely through the main complex once more, and as I was about to leave, I noticed that the remaining visitors had gathered in front of the bell temple, which also houses large drums. At 6:00 p.m. sharp, a drumming ceremony began, performed alternately by different monks. It lasted about 15 minutes and ended with several bells ringing. As I was about to leave, I noticed that all the buildings within the complex were bathed in different colors... pleasant music filled the air... there were hardly any visitors left... artificial fog was being produced in the river and guided through changing color fields. Various color projections were being shown on various buildings. A breathtaking light show was being shown on the museum building, combined with a kind of animated history of the temple. There were maybe 7-8 visitors there, but certainly 3-4 times as many monks.The next day, large Buddhist ceremonies are supposed to take place, with countless visitors expected.

Pure luck to have the privilege to see that magic with my proper eyes and with almost no other visitors! One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life. Now back to our fellow member: I agree with him 100% that Tongdosa is a giant that can stand on its own two feet and deserves to have its own heritage site. And I also agree with GabLabCebu's statement that Tongdosa is more of a forest temple.

Tongdosa is a fabulous complex that ranks right up there with the best heritage sites on our planet.

As I am staying around 4 weeks in Busan I intend to revisit it...again on a working day.