The red gateway
11 metres by the station.
Riodamascus — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mar del Este This photo was taken with Samsung Galaxy S4 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jordi Sanchez Terue — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Mobius6 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Korea's only official Chinatown and one of its oldest, formed in 1884 after Incheon port opened to foreign trade, when part of the city became a concession of China's Qing dynasty and merchants settled there. You enter through an 11-metre red Chinese gateway directly opposite Incheon Station. The streets climb the hill between ornate red buildings, restaurants and lanterns. The quarter has a museum of jajangmyeon, noodles in black bean sauce, a Korean-Chinese dish born here in the early twentieth century, in an old restaurant turned museum. There is also a long tiled mural telling the Chinese tale of the Three Kingdoms. Next door is Fairy Tale Village, lanes whose walls are painted with characters from well-known stories, good for children. Above the quarter is Jayu Park, the oldest Western-style park in Korea, looking over the port. The Chinese restaurants here are mostly not halal and many dishes contain pork, so ask carefully or choose seafood and vegetable dishes. The quarter is an hour from Seoul by metro.
11 metres by the station.
A dish born in this quarter.
Painted lanes for children.
Bukseong-dong, Jung-gu, Incheon; opposite Incheon Station (Line 1)
By metro Line 1 to Incheon Station, the end of the line, about an hour from central Seoul. The gateway is opposite the station.