Does China need a visa to go to North Korea? Do Chinese people need a visa to go to North Korea?

North Korea is the most mysterious country to people all over the world. It is the only completely closed country in the world. It is precisely because of North Korea’s closure that the outside world is more interested in everything about North Korea. To know what the inside of North Korea is like, here is a detailed and professional answer to whether China needs a visa to go to North Korea.

Does China need a visa to go to North Korea?

If you want to go to North Korea, you must explain your purpose. The following are three situations:

1. If you are going to North Korea to discuss business matters, you must use a visa

2. If it is official business for a high-level country, this visa is exempted

3. If you If you are just traveling, you can apply for an individual visa, or you can go to a travel agency to apply for a group visa. This is the most mainstream and popular way

4. Of course, you can go to a place closer to North Korea. In cities such as Dandong and Yanbian, travel agencies here can easily apply for North Korean travel passes, so no visa is required.

What should Chinese people pay attention to when traveling to North Korea?

1. Expenses in North Korea

When I traveled, I chose the round-trip train from Dandong. Four days trip. The route is "Pyongyang - Myohyangsan - Panmunjom - Kaesong". The total quoted price is 2,560 yuan. I just checked the travel agency where I submitted my registration. The current quote is 2,890 yuan, and the price has increased. The travel agency I signed up for pays on the spot, so you don’t have to remit the money in advance. You just need to pay the full amount before departure, so you won’t be cheated. If you watch Arirang's performance, you have to pay 800 yuan at your own expense, and there are no other self-funded items. Of course, if you want to buy some ginseng, books, stamps, souvenirs, mail postcards, etc., you have to spend your own money.

2. Problems with carrying items

Can I carry mobile phones, cameras, laptops, USB flash drives and other items? General card cameras and mirrorless cameras are definitely fine, as are SLRs with not too big lenses. Can also be carried. Please confirm with the tour guide in advance about what you can bring. In addition, try not to bring any English newspapers or magazines with you as much as possible. I saw a bunch of confiscated English newspapers and periodicals at the customs. If you are not allowed to bring your mobile phone, it is recommended to bring a watch to record the time.

3. How to arrange the itinerary

If possible, it is strongly recommended that you choose the round-trip train method, because the aircraft owned by Air Koryo are all from the former Soviet Union, and the safety of the aircraft is really worrying. Besides, the main reason for going to North Korea is to see people. Taking a plane is faster, but you won’t be able to see anything. When I took the train back, I witnessed the low-altitude flight of the MiG-19. In broad daylight, the MiG-19 was as bright as the stars. My jaw almost dropped. I wonder which crazy person opened the museum exhibits!

In addition, "Pyongyang-Myohyangsan-Panmunjeom-Kaesong" is just a reference route. If there are particularly major adjustments, tourists will be notified in advance. For example, when I went there due to flooding in North Korea, the road to Miaoxiang Mountain was washed away and has not been repaired for more than a month (I personally seriously doubt it). The Chinese travel agency will notify you before leaving the country. Inform tourists that Miaoxiangshan will visit Nampo West Sea Gate instead. On the first day of the four-day trip, we gathered at 8:00, slowly passed through the Chinese border inspection, and then transferred to a car to cross the bridge. Then slowly pass through the North Korean border control and take a bus to Sinuiju Railway Station. This is usually around 12 o'clock. The train should leave at 12:00 and arrive at Pyongyang Railway Station around 18:00, but in fact it is always delayed. When returning, we basically arrive at Pyongyang Railway Station around 10:00 am and return to Dandong before 17:00 pm. How to arrange the intermediate itinerary will be decided by the North Korean side at the last minute. The schedule provided by the Chinese travel agency is for reference only.

4. Passport issue

At the border, Chinese customs will check your passport and stamp it with an exit stamp, but North Korea will not leave any traces, including the owner’s name, passport number and other information. They are all signed on a collective visa, which can be discarded after use, so that tourists entering North Korea will not encounter trouble when entering or leaving other countries.

5. How to consume

Theoretically, foreigners can only consume in government-run "foreign stores" in North Korea. Although all price tags indicate the price of North Korean coins, there is no North Korean coin exchange. The North Korean coin price tags are only for exchange reference. If you really take out the North Korean coins, he will not let you use them. I will explain the reason later. The currencies commonly used in all North Korean foreign stores are yuan and euro. Because the official exchange rate of North Korea's RMB:DPRK currency is 1:14 or 1:15, this exchange rate is extremely cheating, and the goods are not cheap after conversion at this price. For example, a popsicle costs 5 yuan, and a bottle of yogurt costs 10 yuan.

6. Who can travel to North Korea?

Anyone can go, including foreigners (it’s hard to say Koreans). In fact, I am in this big group of Dandong News. Spaniards, Australians and overseas Chinese in Malaysia can all pass the border inspection smoothly. However, if Koreans want to travel to North Korea, they need to inform them one week in advance and submit more materials to the North Korean side for review.

7. Will you be hungry?

Although North Korean civilians are all lean and lean, the group meals provided are still acceptable. There will be chicken, soy products, white meat slices, fried fish, etc. as well as various vegetables, beer, carbonated drinks, etc.

Ordinary people will never go hungry, so there is no need to carry instant noodles, pickled mustard, bread, and lunch meat across the border.

8. How is the hotel accommodation environment?

The TV station of Yangjiao Hotel broadcasts 9 channels, namely Central 1, Central 2, Phoenix News Channel, Phoenix Chinese Channel, Xinjiang Station, and BBC , French channel and a Russian channel, as well as a Korean channel. However, these channels are only open to tourists, and even the room where the tour guide is located cannot watch these channels. There are four local broadcast channels in Pyongyang, namely Pyongyang Channel, Mansudae Channel, Youth Channel and College Student Channel. There is hot water for bathing, but it is said that the floor drain is not good. The standard of hotels in Yanggakdo is average, not exceeding the level of domestic three-star hotels.

9. Can I send a postcard?

The postcard you posted in North Korea can be sent back to China. The girl who was traveling with you successfully sent the postcard back to China. You can mail postcards in Pyongyang or Panmunjeom, but the delivery time is longer and there is a risk of them getting lost.

Real precautions

The above mentioned are all common goods, travel agencies will tell you, and they are of no use.

The following things I said are the real precautions:

1. You can prepare a few packs of cigarettes. If you make a mistake, you can take out the cigarettes to bribe the North Korean staff.

2. Starting from Sinuiju Railway Station, the North Korean tour guide will come to pick up the group and help lead the group. However, the North Korean tour guide disappears as soon as he gets on the bus. Everyone sits in a small box for 6-8 people. . Taking pictures while the train is in motion is prohibited, but because tourists sit in compartments isolated from North Koreans, they can take pictures secretly, as long as they pay attention to safety.

Don’t be discovered by the gray flight attendants patrolling back and forth. If caught, the camera will be temporarily confiscated and all photos will be erased. This is no joke. The little girl in the box next to ours was caught because she was not careful when taking photos, and the DPRK confiscated her SLR camera.

Fortunately, the elder brother who was traveling with me took out the cigarettes in time, but all the photos were cleared.

3. Because of reasons 2, it is recommended that friends who travel bring an extra SD card.

3. Do not throw candies, stationery and other things at North Korean children when taking a train. The North Korean reception staff will consider this an insult. Of course, if the North Korean reception staff is not there, it is recommended to throw more. The Korean uncle who was traveling with him threw it all the way, and the children on the roadside were very happy.

4. The China-North Korea Friendship Tower is a place that North Korea will definitely take Chinese tourists to visit. It is recommended that you bring something with you. When I passed the customs, I brought 3 apples and a bottle of wine. I placed the apples under the monument and sprinkled the wine among the pine trees, so that the soldiers could taste the fruits and wine from their hometown.

5. The people in your group are all people who like to travel. You can learn a lot by communicating with them more.

PS: Add a paragraph about exchanging North Korean coins and buying souvenirs:

As for the black market, it is said that someone has exchanged it at a place selling barbecue in Pyongyang. I have searched many state-owned stores and have not been able to exchange it. , so whether you can switch to another depends entirely on luck.

Souvenirs are relatively expensive, stamp albums cost 100-300, but they are definitely real. In addition to tobacco and alcohol, North Korean official stores mainly sell bear bile, tiger bones, bezoar detoxification pills, ginseng, etc., but some of them seem to be fake.

The tour guide does not recommend buying this kind of thing, because it may be confiscated if picked up by the border inspection. But when we came back, it was an international train. There was no ticket check at the station, and no one was in charge.

Stamps and coins are available on this side of the Yalu River, but it’s hard to say whether they are genuine or not. Just buy and play with the coins sold by the Yalu River. They are old Korean coins that cannot be used in North Korea, and the small denomination numbers are all the same (from roadside stalls to large shopping malls and memorial halls), I suspect it's the print.

The selling price of a set of this kind of "Korean coins" varies greatly, ranging from 60 to 20 yuan. In addition, if you go to Dandong, you must pay attention! Personal! Safety!

I was almost robbed in the first hour of arriving in Dandong.

Dandong is much more dangerous than North Korea.

In fact, North Korea is not as scary as imagined. After all, others also need to survive and develop. It is impossible to struggle with money. As long as you spend money, others will not say anything about you, let alone It would be unfriendly to you, not to mention dangerous.