Incheon

Introduction

Incheon is the soon to be the second largest city in South Korea, expected to surpass Busan by 2012. It is seved by train, subway, and buses, and the relatively new (2002) Seoul Incheon International Airport|Incheon International Airport]]. This is the city where General McCarthur directed the landing of Marines during the Korean conflict of 1950-1953. There is a huge park and monument dedicated to the General not far from the landing zone. On the beach front there is a boardwalk offering entertainment, food, lounge chairs and amusement rides. Do not count on going swimming there. There are serious rip tides.

Incheon City has everything you could ask for, but nothing special. Take away the historic attraction of the McCarthur landing and it is just another big city. South of Incheon is different. Anmyeon-do is a small island connected now by a bridge and road. Here, you have beaches, magnificent flower shows, and on the beach road you can see camping areas. Between Incheon and Anmyeon-do is Taebu-do where you can get the best clam, cuttlefish, crab and other seafood dishes on the west coast.

Getting There

By Plane

Seoul Incheon International Airport (ICN) serves as the gateway to Seoul and South Korea. It is one of the busiest airports in the world, located around 70 kilometres west of the capital and has been ranked one of the best airports in the world, together with the ones in Hong Kong and Singapore. Korean Air serves dozens of destinations in Japan and China, as well as other cities and countries in Asia. It also has connections to about a dozen cities in North America and even more to European cities. It has flights to Australia, Sao Paulo and Pacific destinations like Fiji and Guam on top of that.
Another big airline is Asiana Airlines with just slightly less destinations further away but even more in both China and Japan.

Sleep

Budget

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet is widely available in South Korea. The country is the sixth highest user of Internet in the world and there are internet cafes around the country in public places such as airports, train stations and bus terminals in South Korea. ‘PC bangs’ are rooms full of computers, predominantly started for people to play games. They are cheap and many open 24-hours with snacks available.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

Korea Post is the national postal service and has fast, reliable and well-priced services. Standard letters and postcards start at 400 Won for domestically send ones. On their website you can find more about pricing details, as there are many different rates, depending on the zone (which country) you want to send it to, how much it weighs, wether it is air or ground service etc. Generally, post office hours are from Monday to Friday 9:00am to 6:00pm, though the larger central post offices tend to be open until 8:00pm and sometimes also on Saturday or even Sunday, usually only mornings.