Incheon Chinatown

Incheon Chinatown grew up after the port of Incheon opened in 1883 and a Qing Chinese concession was set up the following year, making it the oldest ethnic Chinese neighbourhood in Korea. It is known as the place where jajangmyeon, the black-bean noodle dish now eaten all over Korea, was first sold, so a walk through its lanes combines treaty-port history with food. It sits right opposite Incheon Station on Seoul Subway Line 1, an easy day trip from Seoul.

History: a neighbourhood born in a treaty port

The Qing concession was fixed on the site of today's Chinatown by an agreement signed in 1884. Early merchants came mostly from Guangdong and Hong Kong, but people from Shandong gradually became the majority, followed by labourers for the port's building boom, cooks to feed them and farmers to grow vegetables for the cooks. Around 1905, jajangmyeon, based on Shandong home cooking, began to be sold here. In the 1970s, rules limiting land ownership by foreigners and other restrictions pushed many ethnic Chinese to leave Korea, and the area declined as port functions moved away. It revived as a destination in the late 1990s as ties between Korea and China grew.

What to see

• Jjajangmyeon Museum: housed in the old building of Gonghwachun, the restaurant credited with first selling jajangmyeon, which traded in this red-brick building until 1983. Look for the recreated reception room and kitchen and the display of delivery boxes through the decades.
• Boundary stairs: a stone stairway up the hill once divided the Qing concession on one side from the Japanese concession on the other. Compare the architecture on either side.
• Uiseondang: a shrine built by the Chinese community in the 1880s. It fell into disrepair and was extensively restored in 2005 with funds raised by local Chinese residents.
• Chinese school: the school that began as a Chinese primary school in 1901 is still running.
• Three Kingdoms mural street: a lane lined with murals of scenes from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Good to know

Many of the Chinese residents are second- or third-generation descendants of the first settlers, so the food here differs both from mainland Chinese cooking and from Chinatowns elsewhere. The simplest way to enjoy the area is to try Korean-Chinese classics such as jajangmyeon and tangsuyuk (sweet-and-sour pork) in the neighbourhood where they took shape.

The neighbourhood in numbers

In 1883, before the concession existed, only 63 Chinese lived here, but the number rose to 235 the following year, 637 by 1892 and about 1,000 in the early 1900s. A regular shipping service between Shanghai and Incheon began in 1883, and trade grew quickly. In 1910, of roughly 11,800 ethnic Chinese in Korea, about 2,800 lived inside this concession. The Chinese school once had as many as 1,500 pupils, and even after Korea established relations with the People's Republic of China in 1992 it has continued with support from Taiwan (the Republic of China).

When fried rice had no rice

In 1973 the government, keen to promote wheat-based food, banned Chinese restaurants from selling rice. Cooks had to make "fried rice" from little grains of wheat dough, and only after petitions from Chinese associations was rice allowed again three months later. Around the same time, laws restricting foreign ownership of land and buildings forced large Chinese restaurants to close, and Gonghwachun finally stopped trading in 1983. A restaurant using the name Gonghwachun opened in Chinatown in 2004, but the original Gonghwachun family does not recognise any link with it.

Street landmarks

At the entrance to Chinatown stands an 11-metre Chinese-style paifang gate, a favourite photo spot. The Korea–China Cultural Center opened in 2005 and introduces exchanges between the two countries.

When the first Chinese settlers arrived

Chinese people first began staying in Korea for long periods during the military mutiny of 1882, when the Qing sent some 4,500 troops under Wu Changqing from Shandong. About 40 merchants came with them and set up shop near the army's camp at Yongsan. As they moved to the newly opened port of Jemulpo, the story of Chinatown began. Uiseondang is now Cultural Heritage No. 1 of the Incheon Chinese Association.

Tripto tips

• Getting there: get off at Incheon Station on Seoul Subway Line 1; Chinatown is just across the road. There are public car parks, but they fill up at weekends, so the subway is easier.
• Jjajangmyeon Museum: 09:00–18:00, closed on Mondays. Tickets are KRW 1,000 for adults and KRW 700 for teenagers; children aged 11 and under enter free.
• Time needed: allow two to three hours for a walk, the museum and a meal.
• Combine with: Jayu Park on the hill above and the former Japanese concession streets beyond the boundary stairs are right next door. Incheon's Jung District became Jemulpo-gu in a July 2026 reorganisation, so addresses now use the new name.
• Watch out: queues outside popular restaurants are long at weekend lunchtimes, so eat early.