South Korea’s travel spat with China

It has been tough these past few years for the shopkeepers around Gyeongbokgung Palace, once home to Korea’s Joseon dynasty and now the most prominent tourist attraction in Seoul. In 2019 6m Chinese tourists visited South Korea, filling the cash registers of local restaurants in the South Korean capital and the shops that rent out (traditional Korean garb in which tourists pose in the palace grounds as if in their favourite historical drama). With the pandemic, Chinese visits fell to nearly nothing. So when the government in Beijing suddenly abandoned its draconian lockdowns and tight restrictions on foreign travel, Chinese snapped up tickets to South Korea. Expectations in Seoul soared. Now a spat between the two countries has left Chinese tourists grounded—along with shopkeepers’ hopes.Worried about the Chinese government’s reluctance to publish accurate covid-19 data, and fearing a fresh outbreak seeded by Chinese visitors, South Korea ruled late last year that travellers from China must test negative both before and after arrival. (Like much of East Asia during the pandemic, South Korea followed strict visa controls and quarantine requirements.) Then on January 2nd it stopped issuing short-term visas to Chinese nationals. This week China responded in kind, refusing to issue even transit visas to South Koreans merely passing through the country.