Incheon Transit Tour (Songdo City)

Incheon Transit Tour (Songdo City)

Highlights

• Half-day private tour from Incheon Airport to Songdo City.
• Incheon Airport pick up and drop off included.
• Notable parks in Seoul’s neighboring cities.
• Compact Airport Transit Tour.
• A new smart city or ubiquitous city.
• Discover the modern aspects and landmarks of Songdo.
• Enjoy a characteristic aspect of Incheon: Songdo New Town with the futuristic vision of Korea.

Minimum travelers 1     Duration Half day

Overview

A 4-5 hour layover tour in the modern city of Sof Sofongdo. Songdo district is the largest private real estate development in history. It features the Northeast Asia Trade Tower and Incheon Tower. Visitors could enjoy the modern view of Songdo Central Park, visit the real historic Korean buildings (Hanok), take photos outside the unique style of architecture Tri-bowl, or shop at the European-style street mall NC Cube Canal Walk.

Description

Night view of Songdo Central Park

We start our tour to overview the whole Songdo New Town and Incheon-daegyo Bridge from the G-tower. The home of the IFEZ(Incheon Free Economic Zone) Authority is an international building that is a landmark of Songdo International Business District, occupied by international organizations such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and some United Nations agencies. The “g” in G-Tower stands for “green, growth, and global.” So, G-Tower is also an eco-friendly facility that is self-sufficient for 17.8 percent of its energy use through solar heat and geothermal heat. We can learn a little bit of Incheon’s history as the main gateway to Korea old and now.

Songdo Central Park, surrounded by skyscrapers of office buildings, shopping malls, educational facilities, and private apartments, covers an area of about 100 acres in the middle of the IBD(International Business District) and features a number of different yet interesting characters. The park was completed in 2009 with the aim of being the central part of the Songdo area. It’s easy to approach from any direction and is set along a canal with urban water leisure facilities, Hanok (traditional house) Village, observatories, performance & exhibition halls like Compact·Smart City and Tri-bowl. We can enjoy some water leisure activities (Own expense) at the West Boathouse of the park. Water taxis provide a shuttle service on an artificial seawater flow, taking about 20 minutes. From the taxis, visitors can comfortably enjoy the charm of Central Park, such as Rabbit Island, Deer Farm, and Manneken Pis. In addition, at the East Boathouse are other leisure programs such as canoeing, kayaking, boating, and bicycling. This place is one of the sought-after venues for shooting dramas and movies such as the K-drama ‘Descendants of the Sun(2016). Next, we will visit a traditional house. Hanok Village offers a counterweight to the ultra-modernist architectures of Songdo with many replicas of real historic buildings. The complex sections offer restaurants, a cultural space, a cafe, and a Hanok hotel, enabling visitors to experience the Korean traditional things in a seemingly non-traditional location.

Compact·Smart City or Incheon City History Museum is an exhibition center that shows the history of Incheon and the developmental process of Songdo International City at a glance. The center shows the past, present, and future of Incheon through the Ancient & Modern Times Exhibition Hall, Incheon Miniature Hall, Experience Exhibition Hall, 5-D Theater, and 4-D Theater. At the Ancient & Modern Times Exhibition Hall on the first floor, visitors can learn about the origin of the name Incheon, while at the Incheon Miniature Hall on the second floor, they can see the city shrunk down to a scale of 1/1,200. Images are also offered of Songdo’s development phase through videos.

Tri-bowl is a geometrical architecture with the shape of three bowls being put together without straight pillars. The structure resembles a cone hat upside down and is also the world’s first construction built in an inverted-shell structure, where its breadth widens from bottom to top. Tri-bowl symbolizes ‘sky (airport)’, ‘ocean (seaport)’, and ‘land (metro transportation)’. It also represents the Incheon Free Economic Zone, comprising 3 international business districts of Cheongna (mainly for leisure), Yeongjong (for distribution), and Songdo (for business). Tri-bowl is also used for performances, exhibitions, and educational purposes. That is why Tri-bowl received the Architecture Culture Grand Prize at the Korean Architecture Awards in 2010. Especially the night view at this 3-dimensional monument, based on the aesthetics of curves, is a beautiful structure, luring many visitors.

Before going back to Incheon airport, you can purchase some goods. NC Cube Canal Walk is a European-style street mall where visitors can walk along the canal and enjoy shopping and relaxing. Built under the four themes of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the walk is lined with commercial facilities. Also, the long central canal that runs between buildings and artistic sculptures creates an avant-garde atmosphere to savor.

Tour Review:

https://www.onedaykorea.com/tour-blog/incheon-airport-transit-tour/