Incheon
Port City And Home Of Incheon International Airport; The Port Opened To Foreign Trade In 1883 · Incheon, Incheon
South Korea's third-largest city by population and its main gateway, about 40 km west of Seoul on the Yellow Sea coast. Almost every international traveller lands at Incheon International Airport on Yeongjong Island, and most head straight for Seoul, but the city repays a day or two. The old port of Jemulpo was opened to foreign trade in 1883, and its hillside streets keep Korea's oldest Chinatown, where jajangmyeon noodles were born, rows of Japanese-era banks and trading houses, the Freedom Park laid out for the foreign settlement and the painted lanes of Songwol-dong. In September 1950 General MacArthur's landing here turned the Korean War. South of the old port, the Songdo international district rises on reclaimed land with canal parks, water taxis and glass towers, joined to the airport by the long Incheon Bridge. Offshore lie Ganghwa Island's UNESCO dolmens, the beaches of Muuido and Silmido, and Wolmido's rides and sunsets. Fish markets, Sinpo market's sweet fried chicken and the free airport transit tours for layover passengers round it out.
Songdo Central Park, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, Incheon, 22004, South Korea
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the airport never closes; the AREX runs from about 5:30 am to about midnight. Museums in the Open Port area and the Jajangmyeon Museum open about 9 am to 6 pm and close on Mondays; the Landing Operation Memorial Hall also closes on Mondays. Songdo Central Park is open around the clock, with boat hire by day. Markets run from morning into the evening. Traps: the Monday museum closures; the transit tour desk full or suspended; tides cutting off Silmido; the last AREX; island bridges or ferries closed by fog or wind; Chinatown lunch queues at weekends.