Exploring Incheon: A York St John Student’s Guide to Songdo, Wolmido and Hidden Gems in South Korea
Hello! Just to introduce myself a little bit, I’m currently a third year Korean, Intercultural Communication and Linguistics student at York st john, and as of right now I am studying abroad at Incheon National University in South Korea. My favourite part about being at INU is the location, I really like the fact that I’m both in the middle of a big city and also right by the ocean. As I’m not a big fan of crowds, part of what makes Songdo so great is that even though it’s a large city, it’s a lot less crowded than Seoul, allowing you to enjoy all that this new metropolitan area has to offer. Just a short walk from the university campus is Timespace, a social space full of restaurants, cafes and arcades for students to go, grab food and hang out with friends. A little further afield in the opposite direction is Songdo’s famous Central Park. Here you can view the Tri-Bowl Art Centre, take a tour boat up the canal, visit the National Museum of World Writing Systems, or simply take a walk through Central Park itself. There is also an observation deck located at the G-Tower where you can learn all about how the new city of Songdo was built whilst looking out over the vast cityscape.
Just over an hour outside of Songdo, is one of my favourite places to visit for a day trip in Incheon: Wolmido. To get there you take the metro all the way to the end of the line terminating at Incheon Station, the oldest train station in the metropolitan area. Immediately after exiting the station, you are greeted by the gate of Wolmido’s famous Chinatown, where you can sample some traditional Chinese and Chinese Korean fusion dishes. Right next to Chinatown is Songwol-dong Fairytale Village where various well-known, as well as lesser known, book characters are brought to life in the architecture and artwork of the buildings. Alternatively, there are many local bus routes which can take you all over Incheon and Wolmido, for example you can take a bus to the seafront where you will find multiple small scale theme parks with various rollercoaster rides, as well as restaurants and food stalls offering different kinds of Korean foods and snacks to try. From the harbour you are also able to take a ferry across to visit the surrounding islands. During the ferry ride many of the locals bring shrimp crisps to feed to the seagulls from the top deck. Last but not least, my final recommendation for Wolmido would be to hike up Wolmisan where you will find an observatory at the peak overlooking the entire area.
These are just a few of my suggestions for exploring the ever-evolving city of Incheon. Located just a couple of hours outside of Seoul many people dismiss this area as nothing more than the location of Incheon International Airport, but in doing so they miss out on all the wonderful places, activities and opportunities it has to offer.
Find out more about studying abroad at York St John
