As there was still rain and the tail end of the monsoon for most of Saturday decided to switch the island of Ganghwa which would all be all outdoors for Incheon which is more urban so I can hide indoors. Most people know Incheon as the site of Koreas International Airport and thats their only reason for going, and the only part of Incheon they ever see. However, Incheon is an interesting day trip out of Seoul.

Technically Incheon is Gyeonggi-do Province, the same way Mississauga is not part of Toronto . There are three subway lines that end at Incheon. The airport line which everyone uses when travelling, the old downtown with chinatown and other museums, and the new downtown area Songdo which is a massive sea conversion project creating more land, and rises from the sea like Atlantis with distinctive hong kong style skyscrapers.

Today I was going to take line 1 to the old downtown. The subway ride would take over an hour so will keep me out the rain for a while, hopefully giving it time to die down. The forecast said the rain was supposed to clear after lunch but I would later find out that was completely wrong.

The first thing you see when you leave Incheon station is the massive gate to chinatown across the road. But dont get excited and cross the road like I did. The tourist info office is to the left of the station so go there first and get directions and a map before you wander around.

Chinatown was quite nice and a larger version of Busans chinatown which was a russian/chinese hybrid . This one is pure chinese. Aside from the many restaurants, there is a sidestreet you can take which has many tiled murals on both sides of the street showing different events in chinese history. The mural is quite long with many illustrations.

Near the top of the hill is Jayu park. Unfortunately the rain decided to hit again and I had to wait under a pagoda for about 20 mins. When the rain wasnt calming I started to walk about the park in the rain. At the summit is the Korea/USA Centenniary friendship monument which looks like something out of a scifi tv show.

A little further over is a statue of General MacArthur in a nice park setting. Incheon is where he landed with his troops so it played an important role in the Korean War. As the rain was pounding reminded me of a donna summer song mcarthur park where she also talked about the rain! Then there was another large chinese gate leading down a long staircase back into chinatown . On the reverse the steps had other murals painted on them

I then ducked into a restuarant for a noodle vegetable stir fry with rice for lunch. The rain seemed to be dying down. Turned out it was waiting for me to come out and started pounding again. Then I made it to the China Korea cultural centre to hide out.

This is another interesting free museum showing ceramic vases, jade sculptures, jewellery, and other items of chinese culture. Beside it was a converted brick warehouse district now used as art galleries and exhibition space. Turns out this area had a lot of period colonial restorations.

They also had the Japanese consulate, several Japanese banks, and early post office. Like my visit to Kobe Japan, Incheon was a free port and different countries set up trading posts. There are a Russian, British, Chinese and Japanese Consulates from this era. The Russian is now the train station I think, the British is now the Paradise Hotel, while the Japanese now serves as City Hall .

One of the converted Japanese buildings was a museum of the historical buildings in Incheon from the era, with english style homes and churches. Sadly, outside next door was one of the buildings so proudly displayed in the museum in a state of derelict disrepair. Museum entrance fee was a surprising 500w (only .50 cents)

A few doors down was the Japanese bank which is now a post office museum. Again entrance was only 500w (.50cents). The lady asked me if I saw the safe, which I didnt. She showed me a large steel door leading to another room. I told her that was a vault not a safe and tried to teach her the word. As they dont have a "V" in hangul she kept calling it a 'fault' and got me tongue tied so I started calling it 'fault' also!

As I came out surprisingly the rain had stopped. I had planned on turning round and going back to Seoul, but since it had stopped in the afternoon as the forecast had predicted I decided to wander a bit further . Big mistake.

I had wanted to goto Wolmi Park which had a new monorail and a large glass observation building from which to see the 22km Incheon harbour bridge. Unfortunately the monorail is still not open. Also you are walking thru an industrial port area so there were no people only freight trucks passing by.

The rain was also coming heavy and I had walked too far to turn around so I tried to go quickly into the park to get to the observation building and get a cab home. Somehow I got lost in the park and ended up walking 2km roundtrip. The rain was hammering down with a force, there was nobody in the park and there was no way to get back to the road to get a cab or bus without retracing my steps for about 20 mins.

My rain jacket was soaked thru, my umbrella was leaking water, my pants were soaked up to my knees, and the handle from my new umbrella which I had only bought two days earlier came off in my hand .

Eventually I made it out and tried flagging cabs but they wouldnt stop. A guy at a bus stop spoke some english and helped me onto the right bus and paid the 1000w fare for me on his card, which was nice of him. On the metro home I started shopping and gave the 1000w bus fare I saved to a handicapped lady, then bought a flashing bouncing ball for another 1000w from a vendor selling in the train car as a present for my nephew back in toronto.

Back in Seoul the clouds were holding but when I checked the forecast again it had changed and was now saying rain again all thru the night. I rested for an hour in the hanok home before heading out later to my bellydance dinner show.

I wont goto wolmi park again and suggest people wait till the monorail is built for an aeriel tour first to avoid a lot of aimless wondering, especially in the rain. You can follow the train route here all around the park to see the various destinations : http://english.visitincheon.org/new/utourpia/Monorail_2.jsp

Old Incheon however is definately worth a visit and you can spend a good few hours in chinatown and exploring the colonial past. If you are a history buff and like lots of european colonial period architecture you wont be dissapointed. The rich heritage of chinatown gives you another dimension to your visit. This is all easy walking distance from Incheon Station.  

Songdo the new downtown area on a different subway line is also worth a seperate trip which I hope to do sometime