Incheon
— — a port city the tide has always answered to.
Not only on a wall.
“Incheon sits on the west coast of the Korean peninsula, the harbour that has carried Seoul's traffic to the sea for more than a century. The opening of the port in 1883 brought the first foreign settlements to Korea, and the lanes of the old concessions still climb the hill above the docks. Songdo, the planned district built on reclaimed tidal flats, sits a few kilometres south, all glass and water. Between them is the airport that connects the country to the world, set out among the islands at the mouth of the bay. from the studio
Incheon, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Incheon is the third-largest city in South Korea, with a population of just under three million, on the west coast of the peninsula at the mouth of the Han River basin. It serves as the principal seaport and aviation gateway for the Seoul Capital Area. The city's port was opened to foreign trade in 1883 under the late Joseon dynasty, and the surviving Chinatown and old open-port district above the docks date to that period. Incheon International Airport, on Yeongjong and Yongyu islands west of the city, opened in 2001 and handles the majority of South Korea's international air traffic.
The open-port district of Jung-gu preserves the foreign settlements established after 1883. Korea's only official Chinatown climbs the hill behind the harbour, with the Samkuk Jiui mural staircase and Jajangmyeon Museum marking the dish that originated here. The Japanese-era banks along Jung-ang Daero now serve as museums of the open-port years. South of the old city, Songdo International Business District was built on more than fifty square kilometres of reclaimed tidal flats from the early 2000s onward, planned around Songdo Central Park, its seawater canals, and the cable-stayed Incheon Bridge that crosses the bay to the airport.
Incheon is reachable from Seoul in about an hour on Line 1 of the subway, or roughly forty minutes on the AREX express from the airport. The open-port walk through Jung-gu, the Chinatown lanes, and the Wolmido waterfront together make a good half-day on foot. Ferries from the inner port serve the West Sea islands, including Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong, several hours offshore. Songdo Central Park is a short metro ride from the older city and best visited late in the afternoon when the light turns on the towers and the canal.