Sorae Port Seafood Market

Some of the seafood you can enjoy at Sorae Port Seafood Market, Incheon City

Sorae Port Seafood Market

Sorae Port Seafood Market is a trendy to-go place in the Incheon area to enjoy shopping or eating seafood. Yes, it is not just a market for bulk buyers but also where you can purchase the freshest seafood and enjoy it there.

Sorae Port is a fishing port on the west coast in Namdong-gu, Incheon City, South Korea. Its original place name was Sorae (蘇萊), which means to wake up.

Eating Fresh Seafood

Since Sorae is where the fresh catch is shipped directly from the sea, you can see them still kicking wildly. You can purchase any fresh fish (and even kimchi) and consume them within the area.

After choosing your chosen seafood, you will be assigned a table that owns the store where you bought the seafood. You can ask them to prepare it the way you want, or they usually prepare your dish in the most delicious state.

Since many people come from all over the Peninsula, the price is not really that low. However, if you come to enjoy the fresh ones and see how people enjoy around, it is worth your time and effort.

I have been there and 'done that'. Yes, I have tasted the seafood (fish and shrimps) with my friends and enjoyed looking at the live sea animals inside the huge tanks!

The Sorae Port area began to be known when a salt field was created in the 1930s. During the Japanese occupation in Korea, they built a narrow-gauge railway (Suin Line) between Suwon and Incheon in 1937.

Since they built Sorae Station to get sea salt, Sorae Port has become more dynamic as workers and ships carrying salt anchor.

After completing the Incheon Inner Port in 1974, small shrimp fishing boats moved their port to Sorae, where they could be anchored, and developed into a shrimp market area.

Suin Line narrow-gauge train and Sorae Railway Bridge are now a place where an average of 3 million consumers and tourists visit each year.
'Incheon Soraepogu Festival' is being organized.

They selected it as a preliminary festival for cultural tourism from 2007 to 2009. Again, the festival was chosen as a promising festival in 2010 and 2011.

Sorae Wetland Ecological Park

The salt field that started the Sorae Port was closed in 1996 and is currently transformed into Sorae Wetland Ecological Park.

Transforming into such a park, Sorae Port has been used to a remarkable degree through various development projects to the extent that Sorae Port is almost forgotten that it once existed.

It has grown from a shelter for the citizens of Incheon in the past to a resort in the metropolitan area and as a fishing port that brings seafood.

As it became famous as a tourist attraction with good accessibility in the metropolitan area, the number of visitors to buy salted fish, crab, shrimp, and other raw fish increased.

Due to the fire and some unscrupulous business people, the number of visitors dwindled in the past few years. Incheon Namdong-gu Office and Merchants Association plan various events such as festivals and year-end evening events to improve its image.

They also plan to open a skating and sledding range and create a tourist belt in Incheon Grand Park - Sorae Wetland Park-Sorae Pogu, expansion of public parking lots, modernization of fish market, and building a shrimp tower.

Even though the number of visitors has decreased, there is an advantage of good accessibility, so visitors are increasing rapidly on weekends and holidays. After the opening of the Suin Bundang Line Soraepo Station, the Suin Line can be easily accessed.

Near the Sorae Railway Bridge is Jangdo Podaeji, a modern cultural property. Besides, you will also enjoy the Sorae History Museum, near the Sorae Railway Bridge.

And if you go along Dulle-gil, you can visit Sorae Port Wetland Ecological Park, where you can see old salt fields and salt warehouses. You can see the statue of a crab at Haeoreum Square outside the market. If you walk a little further along the well-maintained seaside road, you can see be the shrimp tower.

If you stay until the end of the bright day, you can see the setting sun over the sparkling blue sea of Incheon.

Getting to Sorae Port Seafood Market

The easiest way to get to Sorae Port Seafood Market in Incheon is via public transportation, specially by subway.

You can take the Suin Bundang Line Soraepo Station. Since this Line is outside of Seoul Metro Line, you need to transfer one or more lines depending on where you start your day's trip to this nice place!