Tours From China
In April 2010, the first tourist trains from Dandong, China brought visitors to North Korea for a four-day tour. Before that, the international train from Beijing to Pyongyang was used as tourist train.
In June 2011, Chinese citizens were allowed on a self-driven tour in North Korea for the first time in history.
As of January 2012, tourists are now able to bring their own mobile phones into the DPRK, although without a North Korean SIM card (which became available to foreigners) the phone will not be able to make or receive calls. Previously foreigners had to surrender their phones at the border (or airport) before entering the country.
The number of Chinese tourists visiting North Korea fell 70 percent from 2010 to 2011. One Chinese travel agency cited the limited number of packages and restrictions on where foreign tourists can travel as the main reasons for the lack of interest. Only the capital Pyongyang and Mt. Kumgang are available on Chinese itineraries.
Various places are available to the Chinese side, such as Namyang and monasteries in Chilbosan from Tumen, China. In 2011, a Tumen-Koran train service was scheduled to start.
Read more about this topic: Tourism In North Korea
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“Consider the China pride and stagnant self-complacency of mankind. This generation inclines a little to congratulate itself on being the last of an illustrious line; and in Boston and London and Paris and Rome, thinking of its long descent, it speaks of its progress in art and science and literature with satisfaction.... It is the good Adam contemplating his own virtue.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)