The port city of Incheon is an excellent destination for nature lovers. Its beautiful coasts and mud flats offer hands-on experiences for all visitors.
Sorae Ecology Park may be the best place to learn about the city's ecosystem. Just 15 minutes from Soraepogu subway station, the park boasts wetlands, mud flats and a salt farm that can't be found in city areas.
Visitors can walk barefoot on vast mud flats. It's even easy to clean up at nearby facilities.
The area was once home to the country's largest salt farm, created during the Japanese colonial period. Though it halted commercial operation in the 1970s, the farm is preserved in the park.
It consists of wide rectangular salt ponds. It still produces salt as souvenirs and is a great place to learn how salt is produced.
Visitors can see how salt is made in varying sizes and qualities across the different ponds.
The park is also a good place to enjoy a stroll. A walk across the wetlands takes about an hour and passes a range of freshwater and saltwater marshes.
There is a forest of reeds in the freshwater area, and a variety of fish and birds can be seen in the area where saltwater and freshwater merge.
Three 7.5-m windmills in the park make a great photo spot as they turn and reeds shake with the wind.
A 15-minute drive from the park takes visitors to Incheon Grand Park. As the city's largest park, it attracts 550,000 people each year to its nature and zoo.
There is an arboretum with a forest of tall trees at the entrance. It houses 200,000 trees and rare plants in three botanical gardens. The zoo is filled with gentle animals perfect for petting and feeding, a sure treat for children.
For more information about Sorae Ecology Park call 032-440-5892 or visit www.incheon.go.kr/sorae.
