Welcome to Wolmi-do – a great example of an island that reclaimed land off the coast of mainland South Korea, and is now connected to the mainland. It’s also a great time as a tourist. Incheon, while sometimes considered a part of the Seoul metropolitan area, is definitely a city separate from Seoul. With it’s own international airport (the one you’ll almost certainly fly into if you’re headed to Seoul or anywhere in South Korea), a new university opening in 2009, and a lot of future plans coming to fruition, Incheon may well be a future central city of Korea – serving Seoulites, South Korea, and perhaps the rest of the world in one way or another.

This particular trip to Incheon started out with my friend Jennie wanting to see some of the sights of Incheon. After stopping at the Dongincheon subway station (one stop down the line), we concluded there wasn’t much to see there, and proceeded back to the Incheon subway station.

Incheon is the end of the subway line – literally! Where at most terminal stations the subway cars will disappear elsewhere when the subway shuts down for the night, the subways make their last stop in Incheon, then go elsewhere to rest apparently.

Peppers laid out to dry – a rather common sight on hot, sunny days.

After walking around the aforementioned Jayu Park, we took a taxi to the nearby Wolmi-do area. While walking around Jayu Park (Freedom Park), I snapped a few pictures:

A panoramic of the coastal view. Note that you can’t see anything that resembles a beach – they’re either out beyond the horizon or I’m looking the wrong way.

A slightly irritating sign – promoting ‘health walking’, but those are the only two words in English! You can guess from the bottom that walking for X number of minutes will burn Y number of calories, which is how many calories Z food or drink has.

A tribute / statue of General MacArthur, dedicated to him just after World War II as thanks for his brillance in defending Korea.

The view up while looking at a U.S. / Korea friendship area. These several-story structures come to a point high in the sky, and were very photogenic even if I had no idea what they were designed to represent.

After the nice tour of Jayu Park, we hopped into a taxi and headed down to Wolmi-do. It’s either a 2-3 kilometer walk or a 10 minute taxi ride from the main road nearest to Jayu Park.

A good start just after getting out of the taxi – an amusement park / carnival that seemed permanently placed amidst the streets and roads of the area.

A batting cage surrounded by green netting to ensure those home runs you crushed don’t end up in a neighbor’s window. Actually, it’s really done to keep the structure within its property lines, but still… I’d like to think I could hit a ball that hard!

The highlight of visiting Wolmi-do is a several-block-long stretch I want to call a boardwalk, despite the fact there are in fact no boards. Plenty of small fountains curve their way through the area, though:

A look down at the shore, which the ‘boardwalk’ was typically 10-20 feet above.

The seagulls were out in full force – at least a couple dozen lazily laid on the sandy beach, relatively safe from humans.

An interesting-shaped arch near one end of the ‘boardwalk’

Just a few meters past the arch was the lighthouse, which essentially signified the end of the ‘boardwalk’.

Wolmi-do is a beautiful place, although it’s beginning to look as though it’s seen better days. More than a few places were ‘closed’ or boarded up near either end of the strip. At first I was surprised to see so few people out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Eventually, though, people seemed to come out in streams; while the area was never packed, there was enough people around that allowed you to feel their energy. While the several-block-long strip that overlooks the water has no beach, you could walk down some large rocks to approach the water’s edge. While no one seemed to be dipping their feet in the water, more than a few people admired the area or took photos.

A ferry offered to take us to Yeongjong Island (15,000 won for the round-trip, per person), which has some beach areas. This island is where I arrived in Korea, at the Incheon International Airport. There are several other islands off the Korean mainland, including Jangbong Island (including Jinchon, Handle, and Eungam Beaches); Mo, Si, and Sin Island, all connected by a common road. While these islands aren’t particularly far away from each other, it looked as though you would have to ‘daisy chain’ your trip with the ferries – take ferry A from the mainland to island A, take ferry B from island A to island B, and so on. Perhaps there’s a more organized system in place than the tourist map showed. Interestingly enough, many Korean TV shows are produced on these islands, with their exotic / less populated look likely a reason.

‘Slices of raw fish’? Sure, um, why not… Actually, I think I’ll pass – but seafood was obviously the most common meal available in the area. We passed by more than a couple nicer-looking western restaurants, although we didn’t patronize any of them.

Looking down at the water from one end of the boardwalk – the sun reflecting off the water was beautiful – but wreaked havoc with the camera! It couldn’t decide how to set itself, prompting me to try a manual mode…

Fishing is reasonably popular here, as the water is cleaner and more accessible for fish. That the industrial side of things is a few kilometers away helps as well 🙂

Wolmido has a lot going for it, although it is a bit more trouble to get there than other destinations. That it’s next to the coast but lacks a beach was a little disappointing, although beaches aren’t too hard far away. Plenty of restaurants / bars are around, and while I wasn’t specifically looking for a hotel, I’m sure there’s at least a couple around to choose from. Go to Wolmido if seeing the shore and feeling the breeze is nice, but you don’t need a beach (or don’t mind a multi-leg journey to get to a beach).