SEOUL, KOREA - The biggest reason for Chinese tourists to visit Korea was to experience the "Korean Wave" culture, with the most desired city to visit was Seoul. Two out of three Chinese tourists said they preferred visiting Korea by independent travel rather than group tour. The Beijing Office of the Korea Tourism Organization said this on June 16 based on a survey on 495 respondents who visited the Korea Tourism Exhibition held for five days between May 30 and June 3 in Beijing.

 

For the reasons they want to visit Korea, the respondents picked the Korean Wave (30%), followed by beautiful scenery (22%) and abundant shopping opportunities (22%). The places they want to visit most were Seoul (48%), Jeju (23%), Busan (11%), and Gangwon (7%).

 

As the average income of the Chinese rises steadily, the number of Chinese nationals visiting Korea is on the rise rapidly. According to the Korean Embassy in China, the total number of Chinese visitors who were given visas to Korea for the five-month period from January to May this year was 1,140,121, up 66.1 percent from the same period last year. The number of visas issued in cities such as Wuhan (298%), Qingdao (135%), and Chengdu (104%) has increased more than 100 percent.