NEARLY 70 years ago, in October 1950, hundreds of thousands of Chinese young men and women in uniform crossed the northeastern border to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), fighting in the Korean War alongside their Korean comrades.

Nowadays, hundreds of Chinese people cross the Yalu River from Northeast China’s city of Dandong — by train or by bus — to the DPRK for sightseeing. Others seek to uncover wartime stories.

Panmunjeom, located in DPRK-South Korea’s border town of Kaesong, receives international tourists every year. The village, which witnessed the signing of the armistice agreement that halted the 1950-1953 Korean War, or more recently the historic summit of the heads of the DPRK and South Korea, is now crowded with curious visitors interested in gazing over parts of South Korean soil from inside the DPRK.

Zhang Runfu runs a travel agency in Dandong, China’s northeastern Liao-ning Province. Of the roughly 200,000 annual Chinese visitors to the DPRK, his agency sends over 3,000 of them.

He said the tourists — most of them elderly — go to the DPRK not only to sightsee, and they also want to have a close look at where their parents’ generation had fought.

Zhang said travel to the neighboring country has been thriving, especially since Kim Jong Un, top leader of the DPRK, visited China in March 2018. Still, tourism to the DPRK was hit hard by U.N. sanctions despite no mention of international travel to the country.

The top places to go for foreign visitors include Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, the Tower of the Juche Idea, and the Mansu Hill Statues.

Most Chinese visitors said they are satisfied with the DPRK’s tourism offerings including hotels, guides, transport, and cuisine.

“My impression of the the DPRK is that it is clean and neat,” said Wang from China’s Jilin Province, who chose not to disclose his full name.

(Xinhua)