Songdo Central Park

송도센트럴파크

The water is the park. Everything else here — the gardens, the deer, the boathouses — is arranged along 1.8 km of seawater canal, and the walk is decided by which bank you pick and which bridge you cross.

Language

Canoes and boats on the Songdo Central Park waterway with the IBD skyline behind

Place information

Korean name: 송도센트럴파크
Address: 160 Convensia-daero, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon (Songdo-dong 24-5)
Opening hours: not published by the operator
Closed: Not published by the operator
Hours notes: No admission charge is published for the grounds either. The clocks that exist here belong to the paid concessions on the canal — the two boathouses running the water taxi, canoes and family boats — and the concession publishes no working website, so confirm its hours and fares on the day. The summer water playgrounds the same operator runs in Songdo are not here: they are at Landmark City No. 1 Sports Park and Global Park District 4, and they close every Monday.
Time needed: 2 hours

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Nearby

National Museum of World Writing Systems

It is free, it is eight minutes from a subway exit, and it holds a leaf of the 42-line Gutenberg Bible. The building was designed to lie flat against the park rather than stand apart from it, which is why it does not look like a museum from outside.

Incheon Urban History Museum

A museum on how Incheon was built and reshaped as a city. It is 300 m from the National Museum of World Writing Systems, but the two keep different Monday closing rules, so check those first if you plan to visit both.

Incheon Chinatown

The Chinese quarter on the old treaty-port hill, and where jajangmyeon is held to have been invented. The streets themselves never close and each shop keeps its own hours, so aim for lunchtime rather than for an opening time.

Incheon Port seen from the Wolmi observatory: mural-painted grain silos, a red cargo ship and quay cranes, with the city stretching away beyond.

Wolmido

The seaward edge of Incheon beside the working port, and the city's oldest day-out strip. Wolmi Culture Street runs 600 metres along the shore, lined with raw-fish restaurants, cafés, fairground rides and portrait artists, with the Moonlight Music Fountain playing on the waterfront in front of it. Behind that, Wolmisan was shut for fifty years as a military post until the city bought it and opened it as a park in 2001; it now holds an observation deck, a reconstructed Korean traditional garden and the Korean Emigration History Museum.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Songdo Central Park cost?

Nothing. The Incheon Facilities Corporation publishes no admission charge for the grounds. The boats on the canal are a separate paid concession.

Is the water in the canal really seawater?

Yes. Yeonsu-gu describes it as Korea's first seawater park. The canal runs 1.8 km, is 12 to 110 m wide, covers 63,390 m² and holds 90,000 tonnes.

Can I bring a dog?

The dog park in Songdo is at Moonlight Festival Park, not Central Park. The operator's Central Park facility list does not mention one.

Where is the night view from?

Songhwajeong, the pavilion on the high ground at the east end of the Walking Garden. The operator names it as the spot, and the same garden is where the deer are.

Stories about this place

Songdo Central Park and Two Museums: Closing Days, Hours and Order
Songdo Central Park, the Incheon Urban History Museum and the National Museum of World Writing Systems, compared on what you see, how long each takes and when they close, with the order to visit them in. All three are free and walkable from one another, but the museums' rules differ when a Monday is a public holiday, so only one of them opens the day after.

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