Friday May 3 2024 – According to our travel partners based along the North Korea border in Dandong, China – the North Korea border city of Sinuiju may be the first area of the DPRK to open to tourists.
YPT managers recently met with representatives of the China International Travel Service in Dandong, who confirmed were in discussion with both senior Chinese and North Korean officials about the reopening of tourism to North Korea.
Dandong – Sinuiju Border Tourism
Dandong is famously the busiest trade and tourism route between the two countries, with over 300,000 Chinese tourists visiting annually prior to the pandemic.
These visitors mostly consisted of day trippers, as well as those staying overnight in Sinuiju, with under 50,000 going further onto Pyongyang. For the most part though, tourism was largely serviced by a Chinese built and funded tourist zone with restaurants within the border city of Sinuiju and a hotel located in the outskirts of Dongrim. In this case, it largely acted as a self-contained tourist zone, with little interaction with everyday North Koreans.
Yet while predominantly used by Chinese tourists the city was indeed open to foreigners, with YPT arranging both day trips, as well as overnight Sinuiju tours as part of our DPRK travel program.
When will Sinuiju open?
According to our sources Sinuiju may open as soon as next month, with our local partner stating “We have been told that tours to Sinuiju, but not Pyongyang will resume soon. We think this will probably not happen until it gets a bit warmer, so likely end of May, or June”.
Will foreigners be allowed to return? It was further stated “we don’t see any reason why non-Chinese would not be included to visit”.
Of course this is as things stand, speculation, with our opinion being garnered from an actual visit to Dandong and meetings with our local partners. Others may not have been told the same thing, neither makes this more, or less likely.
Much like travel to Pyongyang though, things are moving in the right direction, and should Sinuiju reopen to foreign guests, YPT will be there ready to arrange your tour.
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