Historedia
Episode 3 of 3

Opening of the Gyeongin Railway

When
1899-09-18
Where
Chemulp'o
Part of
Opening of the Gyeongin Railway, Korea's first railway, 1899

The first railway line on the Korean Peninsula was inaugurated on September 18, 1899; sources describe the initial segment as running between Noryangjin and Geumchon, or between Chemulpo and Yeongdeungpo.

The Gyeongin Line was opened by the Keijin Railway Company on September 18, 1899. Sources disagree on the endpoints of the initial segment: one describes it as running between Noryangjin, on the shore of the Han River across from Seoul, and Geumchon in Incheon; another describes it as inaugurated between Chemulpo and Yeongdeungpo on the south bank of the Han River. The section to Seoul opened on July 9, 1900, after the construction of a bridge across the river.

Sources

  1. Gyeongin Line Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-02
  2. Rail transport in South Korea Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-08

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.