Korea's international gateway and futuristic city-within-a-city — where Incheon International Airport has been rated the world's best airport by ACI for 12 consecutive years, the entirely planned Songdo International Business District (built on reclaimed tidal flats from 2003) is the most ambitious smart city experiment in Asia, Korea's only official Chinatown (established 1883 by Chinese merchants when the port opened) is the oldest in the country, and the Korean War's decisive Incheon Landing (September 15, 1950) was Douglas MacArthur's greatest tactical gambit
Incheon (3 million; metro part of the Seoul Capital Area, 26 million) is South Korea's third-largest city and the country's principal port — for most international visitors, their first experience of Korea is Incheon International Airport (opened 2001, consistently ranked the world's best airport by Airports Council International). The city is divided between its old historic core (the Chinatown area and the Incheon Open Port area, preserving Korea's first foreign concession architecture) and the entirely new Songdo International Business District (built on 600 hectares of reclaimed tidal fla…
The Incheon area (historically Jemulpo, then Incheon-bu under Japanese colonial administration) was a fishing village until Korea was forced to open it as a treaty port in 1883 (the Treaty of Jemulpo with Japan) — the first Korean port opened to international trade, triggering the construction of foreign concession districts. Chinese merchants arrived immediately (1883) and established Korea's first Chinatown in the Seongnae-dong area; Japanese, American, and European concessions followed, creating the Incheon Open Port Area whose neoclassical Japanese colonial buildings (1883–1945) still sta…