According to Yonhap:
China has launched the second train service to North Korea, state media reported Monday, a move expected to boost travel between the two nations.
The Sunday opening of regular rail services from China’s northeastern city of Jian to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang (via Manpho) makes Jian the second city offering such service after another Chinese border city of Dandong, Xinhua news agency reported.
North Korea is one of the world’s most secretive and isolated nations, but Pyongyang has stepped up efforts to attract foreign tourists since last year by offering more international and domestic flights.
In Jian, Chinese tourists can apply for a one-day round trip, which is available once every four days, to North Korea for US$480 per person, the report said.
Zang Wanghong, director of the Jian Tourist Board, said the tour agency will begin selling the tour package to the North’s western port city of Manpo before May 1, according to the report.
According to Xinhua:
A group of 32 Chinese tourists on Sunday took a train from Ji’an City in northeast China’s Jilin Province for five-day trip to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The opening of the train route makes Ji’an, the second city after Dandong in neighboring Liaoning Province with service to DPRK.
The train from Ji’an can take tourists to Pyongyang, Kaesong and Panmunjom in DPRK, according to Liu Jun, deputy manager of the Ji’an International Travel Agency.
Both Ji’an and Dandong face DPRK across the Yalu River. The distance between Ji’an and DPRK’s capital of Pyongyang is 400 km, while that between Dandong and Pyongyang is about 200 km.
Chinese visitors with ID cards and passports can apply for the 2,980 yuan(480 U.S. dollar) visit in Ji’an. The trip is organized every four days.
Zang Wanghong, director of the Ji’an Tourist Board, said Ji’an will open a one-day tour to Manpo, a port city on the western coast of DPRK before May 1.
Ji’an which boasts a UNESCO world heritage site of the Ancient Koguryo Kingdom hopes to develop tourism based on its own resources and its adjacency to DPRK, said Zang.
Read the full story here:
China starts 2nd rail travel service to N. Korea
Yonhap
2014-4-14
Another Chinese city opens train travel to Pyongyang
Xinhua
2014-4-13
