Kanghwa Island

Kanghwa Island

Kanghwa Island, Korean Kanghwa-do or Ganghwa-do, island, Kyŏnggi do (province), northwestern South Korea. Kanghwa Island lies in the Yellow Sea just off the northwestern coast, northwest of Inch’ŏn. Roughly rectangular in shape, it lies at the mouth of the Han River and has an area of 163 square miles (422 square km). The land is hilly but fertile and produces rice and other crops; the island is one of the country’s leading areas for ginseng cultivation. The principal towns are Kanghwa, in the northeast, and Tongmak, in the south. The island was temporarily seized by the French in 1866 and by the Americans in 1871.