So my mom has come to visit us here in Busan, Korea. A little background on her – she’s a flight attendant and has traveled all over the world but never to Korea. When I was young, I remember collecting the foreign money and looking at pictures from all the countries she and my father would visit.

Since she visited fairly early in my contract (2 months in), I wasn’t able to take any work off. Luckily she came with her friend, Gwen and they were able to visit other parts of Korea (Jeju, Gyeongju and Seoul) during the week and then make their way back to Busan when we had off.

This is now the #1 rated place to visit in Busan on TripAdvisor.

A little history first: The Korean war was fought between 1950-1953 and technically has never ended – it’s officially an armistice or pause in fighting until this day. The U.S. was heavily involved helping South Korea fight against the Chinese backed Communists in the North. China has never released official casualty figures (it’s estimated to be around 600,000 dead) and millions of Korean perished in the war. Also, about 40,000 Americans lost their lives in this war which is sometimes referred to as ‘the forgotten war’

Besides the U.S., there was several dozen other participating countries on South Korea’s side. After the Chinese entered the war to aid the North Koreans, there was a push that took over almost the entire Korean peninsula except an area around Busan – known as the Busan Perimeter.

It is not uncommon for older Koreans to say ‘thank you’ to Americans that they meet on the subway or street. Especially in light of the increasingly despotic rule of North Korea over the past 6 decades, many South Koreans understand that the outcome of the war could’ve been drastically different without the help of the United States – with the possible result being the entire peninsula under the rule of the communists in the north.