Sunday, October 7, 2012

Incheon International Airport (ICN)

The scariest part for me when traveling to any country is what to do as soon as I arrive at the airport. Although all airports have the same procedures for non-citizens, it's always good to have a heads up on what to expect.

First of all, Incheon International Airport, or ICN, is fairly new. The airport is very clean and looks very modernized. One cool thing about ICN is that it has been rated the best airport worldwide for several years. According to my dear friend Wikipedia, it has one of the fastest departure and arrival procedures in the world. 
Like any major international airport, ICN also features a lot of culture within the airport. Along with pictures, you will also find live performances, such as a lady in a traditional dress playing an authentic Korean instrument.
I guess the most important part of this blog post though is what happens once you arrive in the country. You go through immigration, of course!
Call me inexperienced, but if you actually have a VISA to enter the country or an Alien Registration Card, you don't need to fill out the immigration sheet!
Once you're stamped into the country, you'll find yourself waiting for your baggage with hundreds of other people entering the country.

The coolest thing (at least I think) about the airports in Korea is the super accessible transportation. Not only do you have the taxi and train option, but you also have buses that take you all over the Kyunggi Province, as well as others!
Bus tickets are really cheap (~12,000WON) and you can either buy it at the kiosk or now you can self purchase it with the new touch screen machine. Buses come around as often as every half hour (depending where you're going) and you will even have people helping you put your heavy luggage under the bus.

Incheon International Airport also has rooms filled with beds and showers in the case of layovers. From my understanding, it used to be free but now they charge. 
Having been stuck in many airports (delay, layover, etc), I've become more adventurous in exploring airports and Korean airports have been the most impressive so far.

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