The urban rail carriage from Seoul begins to pipe music as you reach the end of the line – Incheon – and then says good-bye to the last passenger or two in Korean, English, Japanese and Mandarin. It’s a multilingual sort of rail carriage. The last of these tongues is perhaps the most fitting: after the rain-plastered platform, you emerge from Incheon Station to be confronted by the ornamental gates of Chinatown, complete with ferocious carved lions, and with writhing dragons twisting up its thick grey columns.
The bright lights and abundant, auspicious red of Incheon’s Chinatown (easily accessible by subway from Seoul). Finding authentic Chinese stir-fried dishes at these restaurants can be problematic, though…
A carved stone lion guards the gateway into Chinatown, Incheon
A dragon carving coils around a column on the ornamental gate that leads into Incheon’s Chinatown
This historic corner of Incheon – it usually out-Chinas China – has today been subdued by rain (even as Independence Day fireworks illuminate the skies over America). The first time I checked out this particular Chinatown, I was startled by the abundance of red lanterns, then horrified by the scarcity of authentic Chinese food; when I finally convinced a Shandong couple at a run-down eatery to stir-fry home-style tofu, we ended up saying good-bye at the restaurant door like long-lost relatives. The last time I showed up in Incheon’s Chinatown, nearly a year ago – can a year really have passed? – it was to find out whether I could catch a boat towards Mount Baekdu in northeast China, thinking I might simultaneously help save the planet and have an interesting voyage. (In the end, I flew to Shenyang instead, then took the train.)
A Three Kingdoms Photo Zone at the start of the Three Kingdoms Mural Street, Incheon’s Chinatown
Three Kingdoms film fans can pause for a picture in the Three Kingdoms Photo Zone at the start of Three Kingdoms Mural Street, Chinatown, Incheon
Golden dragons (East Asian-style) flank the title ‘Three Kingdoms Record’ at the start of the mural street, Chinatown, Incheon
Now I’m back in Chinatown to learn about the ‘Red Cliff Song’ (a sung folktale in the pansori tradition, known to Koreans as the Jeokbyeokga). Turning right at the top of the road, I’m assailed by moon cakes – which flood Chinese supermarkets around Mid-autumn Festival, but are plentiful year-round in Incheon’s Chinatown (with assorted fillings). Then, turning left, I find just the thing to add a theatrical brightness to a dreary evening and get me hooked on my last one-person musical: a whole street of murals dedicated to the Three Kingdoms Record (on which the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is based). Illustrated episodes from the beloved Chinese epic line both sides of the slope uphill, and at the end – which turns out actually to be the beginning – I find a Three Kingdoms Photo Zone (now locked for the night) followed by a pair of golden dragons roaring silently but majestically at the Chinese characters for ‘Three Kingdoms Record’ between them.
A statue of General MacArthur surveys Freedom Park in Incheon’s Chinatown
A statue of Confucius, the ancient Chinese sage, gazes out to sea in Incheon’s Chinatown
Wonders of Chinatown beckon on all sides. To the left, in Freedom Park, a statue of General MacArthur tempts (the plaque beneath it, erected in 1957, uses Cold War-speak to refer to Communism as a “malignant infection”). If you turn right, as I do, and head downhill, you pass a stone statue of Confucius looking out to sea down a stairway flanked by stone lanterns. Incheon’s Chinatown, then, is as good a place as any for a historic jaunt – a setting to rival many stops on my Great Wall Tour of South Korea.
China’s Great Wall twists about this mural in Incheon’s Chinatown, South Korea
Speaking of which, I pass another mural – for Incheon’s Chinatown has more than its share – showing China’s Great Wall (another of the earth’s many walls that are not visible from the moon). At this Great Wall mural, as I hold my umbrella over his head, an affable engineer from Australia tells me the mural style reminds him of the decoration at a Japanese bathhouse; which is all very engaging, but all I can think of at this hour, approaching eight p.m., is whether I’ll be able to find authentic Chinese cuisine for dinner: preferably the stir-fried home-style tofu I mentioned earlier.
This advert snapped in Chinatown shows former presidential contender Ahn Cheol-su sampling Chinatown’s food. Korean-Chinese specialties, such as jajangmyeon, are easy to come by – but mainland Chinese-style stir-fried dishes can be hard to track down!
Showing up and speaking Mandarin as well as Korean at a restaurant in Incheon’s Chinatown can win you a warm reception – and for me, too, tucking into a hearty plate of home-style tofu is a form of homecoming, opening a familiar door to memories and sensations from my years in China. As I eat, I recall how touched I was on that first evening in Shenyang, en route to Mount Baekdu, when Chinese tea was supplied with my evening meal: the waitress, perhaps noticing my moist eyes and how I relished more than the tea itself, put the whole jug on my table. Here in Incheon’s Chinatown, though, the tofu comes with those quintessentially Korean side-dishes of diced radish and sliced radish, while superstar Psy grins at me from the walls (as he advertises soju liquor and the Dry Finish brand of beer that he’s apparently paid to prefer).
A drizzly, misty night adds to the mystery of this ornamental gate in Chinatown, Incheon, South Korea
Burning ships, anguished expressions, an ornamental gate ablaze: this is the Battle of the Red Cliff (as depicted on Incheon’s Three Kingdoms Mural Street)
Incheon’s Chinatown is marvellously illuminated and pleasantly mysterious as I go for my after-dinner stroll, full of precisely the stir-fried tofu I craved. Confucius looks especially pensive now that the harbour is veiled by thin drizzle and darkness. As I study the Three Kingdoms mural for a second time, a particularly dramatic illustration catches my eye, blazing through the night: an ornamental gate (like the one I passed under when entering Chinatown) in flames; a burning ship; armoured warriors look on, perhaps in anguish. Peering closer, I notice the familiar Hangeul and Chinese characters for ‘Red Cliff’. It’s time, I think, to turn to our story…
Re-visiting Three Kingdoms Mural Street on a dark and mysterious evening, I spot the dramatic episode that inspired the ‘Red Cliff Song’ – and this spurs me to read the story
The Trek to Mount Baekdu 