Chinese tours to N. Korea back on track after Ebola ban lifted

Tours by Chinese people to North Korea have been showing signs of getting back on track after Pyongyang lifted its months-long entry ban on foreign travelers imposed as part of efforts to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus, Chinese tour firms said Saturday.

North Korea is half a world away from Ebola-hit West Africa, but the reclusive regime closed its doors to foreign tourists last October. The ban, which took a toll on Chinese travel firms specializing in tours to the North, was lifted earlier last week.

A rail tour between Dandong, a border city in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning, and the North Korean border town of Sinuiju resumed on Monday. Two days later, a group of 97 Chinese tourists took part in a one-day bus tour to Sinuiju from Dandong.

"We have received bookings from about 20 Chinese nationals for a four-day tour to North Korea that departs on March 19," said an official at a Dandong-based travel agency, who asked not to be named.

"The number of customers is expected to grow ahead of the Labor Day holiday season," he added.

Another tour route linking Hunchun, a border city in the Chinese province of Jilin, to North Korea's Rason special economic zone is set to be restarted, Chinese travel agents in Hunchun said.

About 60,000 Chinese people are estimated to travel to North Korea via Dandong a year, with another 10,000 Chinese making tours to the North a year via Hunchun, according to Chinese industry estimates.

North Korea is one of the world's most secretive and isolated nations, but Pyongyang has stepped up efforts to attract foreign tourists, mostly Chinese, since last year by offering more tour routes.

Hit by decades of economic mismanagement and international sanctions over its nuclear weapons program, North Korea is desperately poor. The North appears to be promoting its tourism sector to earn much-needed hard currency to prop up its regime. (Yonhap)