Incheon Chinatown

Come out of Exit 1 at Incheon Station and a red paeru gate stands directly in front of you. The street climbing the hill beyond it is the only officially recognised Chinatown left in Korea. When the Qing concession was laid out in 1884, people from Shandong settled on this slope, and the noodles they sold to dockworkers became one of the dishes Koreans eat most. Walking between the red lanterns and the smell of black-bean sauce, you begin to see that this street is a 140-year-old immigrant community before it is a tourist attraction.

📖 The Story

✦ Highlights

• ›The First Paeru Gate
  The red gate across from the station plaza, bearing the name Chinatown in Chinese characters. Pass under it and the colour and sound of the street change completely.
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  A paeru is the gateway architecture of a Chinese city. Several stand at different points along this quarter, and they work as markers for how far the old concession reached. This first one, met straight out of the station, is the most photographed spot here, so an early morning shot before the crowds is worth taking.

• ›Jajangmyeon Museum (former Gonghwachun)
  The Gonghwachun building of around 1908, restored and opened as a museum in 2012. It recreates a 1960s Chinese restaurant kitchen, and the building itself is registered national heritage.
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  It began as the Shandong Guild Hall, became Gonghwachun in 1912 and closed in 1983. The displays use a single bowl of noodles as a window onto Chinese immigration and the eating-out culture of Korea's industrial decades, with delivery bicycles, wooden bowls and old menus moved in whole. Best done in this order: see the museum, then eat a bowl on the street outside.

• ›Boundary Steps of the Qing and Japanese Concessions
  The stone steps dividing Chinatown from the open-port district. Chinese-style buildings stand on one side and Japanese-style on the other, so the old boundary is still visible.
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  This single flight of steps was a border between two countries. The Qing concession of 1884 and the Japanese concession of 1883 faced each other across this line, and the lanterns and building styles on either side still testify to it. Climb to the top and you reach Jayu Park, laid out in the general foreign settlement. One short slope holds three concessions in sequence.

• ›Three Kingdoms Mural Street
  A red wall carrying some eighty scenes from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in tile murals, running in order from the oath in the peach garden so you can follow the story as you walk.
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  Each panel carries a caption in Chinese characters and Korean, so the sequence can be read even if the novel is unfamiliar. Benches are set along the climb, and the far side of the wall is shaded by trees, which makes it walkable even in summer. With children, this is the stretch of Chinatown where you will linger longest.

• ›Uiseondang Shrine
  A Chinese shrine founded by the community in 1884 and reopened in 2005, honouring Guan Yu alongside the sea goddess: the faith of an immigrant community.
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  This is a living place of worship rather than a visitor attraction. People who had crossed the sea prayed here for safe voyages and good trade, and the combination of deities enshrined says a great deal about their lives. Notices about photography and etiquette are posted inside and worth following; on some days the doors are closed.

🚶 Self-Guided Walk

1. 1Incheon Station Exit 1 and the first paeru
   Leave the exit and the red gate stands across the plaza. Passing under it begins the street.
2. 2Jajangmyeon Museum
   The former Gonghwachun. Visiting before you eat changes the context of the bowl that follows.
   💡 Closed on Mondays, so check the day before planning around it.
3. 3The eating street
   The main run of restaurants and bakeries: noodles, hollow sugar bread, mooncakes. At lunchtime the queues at the best-known places are long.
   💡 Going in around 11:30 cuts the wait considerably.
4. 4Three Kingdoms Mural Street
   The mural wall with its eighty-odd scenes in sequence, followed on the way up the slope.
5. 5Uiseondang Shrine
   The community shrine of 1884. It remains in use, so look around quietly.
6. 6Boundary Steps of the Qing and Japanese Concessions
   The end of Chinatown and the start of the open port. Check how the building styles part to left and right, then continue up.
   💡 Above the steps is Jayu Park; back down and to the side is the modern architecture street.

🧭 Visitor Info

💡 Good to Know

• Weekend lunchtime is the busiest. For a calmer visit come on a weekday morning or after three in the afternoon; if you do not insist on the famous names, plenty of places have no wait at all.
• This is a residential quarter as well as a destination. The Overseas Chinese Jungsan School, founded in 1901, is a working school, and Uiseondang is a place of worship. A little care with photography and noise goes a long way.
• Chinatown and the open-port district are joined by a single stairway, so walk them together. Half a day covers both comfortably, and the pair make the densest route in the city.
• There are slopes. The mural street and the way to Jayu Park climb steadily, so wear comfortable shoes; with a pushchair or wheelchair, the level stretch along the eating street is the easier circuit.

🗺 Pair Your Visit