China to Korea

[Mengxin]

I will be taking a trip to Korea soon and would love it if Lao Po could come with me. She talked to her friends about it and they told her only for business. The ticket isn't a problem, but the visa is. Is Korea naturally a difficult place for Chinese citizens to aquire thier visa for.

 

Isn't a little funny how Chinese citizens can go to HK, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Malaysia....but NOT Taiwan.

What up wid that? I know it's political.

[NY-Viking]

One way to get the visa would be to go with a Chinese tour group. But DO NOT actually go with them. She'll need to enter Korea with the group, but provided the group knows she'll be joining them to exit the country on exit again, they will probably be willing to let her travel with you instead.

 

The benefit of actually going with the group is that it will take you around to places that you'd have to arrange on your own (like a normal tour group). The problem is that they'll give you limited time at sites and take you around to a LOT of tourist trap official shops (that they get a cut of, of course) to make the fee lower.

 

I went to Korea with my fiancee a few years ago with a tour group. Because we were entering and exiting through different cities, we decided to join the group. We got to see a lot, but I got really upset with the amount of time we spent at certain shops, like one selling amethyst. Not exaggerating, we spent like twice the amount of time we spent looking at the presidential palace at that amethyst shop. Honestly. I'm not against making shopping part of the trip (and my fiancee requires it generally), but I want it to be shopping I WANT to do, not where I'm taken. Par for the course for most Chinese (internal or external) tour groups. But parts of the trip were good fun.

 

Anyway, the guide said that if we wanted he would let us take off on our own, but we had to promise we'd come back so my fiancee would exit with the group. We considered it, but the trip was short, so we decided to suck it up.

 

One woman in the group was with us the first day and kept asking the guide for her passport (the guide kept them except when needed for changing money, checking into hotels and entry/exit). The guide knew what she was up to and said that he was sorry, but he couldn't. Anyway, the second day she was gone. She left without her passport. Just packed up and took off. Must have been really early too, since we left by around 8:00 AM. So anyway, I guess Korea is about as concerned about "runners" as is the U.S.

 

But I do seem to remember my fiancee saying that if we had looked into things earlier, she could have got a visa so we could have gone on her own. I'll try to ask her later on.

[Mengxin]

Thanks, She mentioned that. The group would only be 4 days. We'll see.

[beijingjenny]

My first thought would be contact the Korean embassy to see what would be required. If some people can get to the US as tourists, surely Korea wouldn't be impossible...

[NY-Viking]

My first thought would be contact the Korean embassy to see what would be required. If some people can get to the US as tourists, surely Korea wouldn't be impossible...

Or so one would think ...

[corvette]

My first thought would be contact the Korean embassy to see what would be required. If some people can get to the US as tourists, surely Korea wouldn't be impossible...

Agree!

 

Check the Korean embassy/consulate website and see what doc you need to provide. It shouldn't be a problem since the Chinese RMB debit card can also be used in Korea now, which means they welcome Chinese ppl. When I was about to apply for a tourist visa to Europe, I went through the French/German consulate website which contains tons of info and I got all the visa doc prepared by myself simply following the checklist on their websites. It's not as difficult as you assume. Just try. Good luck!