'Live king crab for 3,000 won a pound — worth it just for the seafood': Chinese tourists flock to North Korea's Rason

Chinese travel agencies are marketing "business inspection" tours to North Korea's Rason Special Economic Zone as de facto tourism products, luring customers with promises of cheap seafood — including live king crab at around 3,000 won a pound.

According to Yonhap, travel agencies in border areas including Dandong in Liaoning Province and Yanji in Jilin Province's Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture are promoting packages that combine factory and commercial facility tours in Rason with sightseeing, advertising them both online and offline.

Interest in the tours has grown alongside rising expectations for resumed North Korea-China exchanges following the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge. The four-lane, 3,026-meter bridge opened officially on Thursday after more than 12 years of delays caused by slow infrastructure development on the North Korean side and a cooling of relations between the two countries.

One Yanji-based travel agency recommended a five-day, four-night business inspection package priced at 5,999 yuan ($897) to a customer inquiring about visiting North Korea.

Participants gather in China's Hunchun on the first day, then cross into Rason through the Quanhe border crossing the following day. The itinerary includes a roundtable discussion with government officials, visits to a beer factory, a paper mill and a shoe wholesale market, followed by sightseeing.

The agency has also been actively promoting the package on social media. One representative highlighted Rason's seafood prices, saying, "Seafood in Rason is particularly cheap — live king crab runs about 15 yuan, or around 3,000 won, per pound. Even if there's nothing else to do, it's worth the trip just for the seafood."

Applicants must prepare a passport, a medical certificate and a business license. Some documents can be handled by the agency, and the fee includes the cost of obtaining a North Korean invitation letter.

However, the invitation letter comes with conditions. The agency said it can only be issued to holders of mainland Chinese passports who are between 18 and 65 years old and have no record of traveling to any African country within the past six months.

"You can skip any part of the itinerary you don't want to join, and individual consultations are available for industrial or tourism-related products," the representative said, adding that North Korea has tightened its screening criteria for business inspections and that invitation letter fees have been rising.

Departures for October are already fully booked; those who apply now may be able to depart in early November, depending on demand, the agency said.

The Chinese travel industry, however, says it has no clear timeline for a full resumption of North Korean tourism. A representative of a Dandong agency said the firm had received no notification on when tourist visa issuance would resume. "Processing a business inspection currently takes up to 20 days, so once tourist visas become available again, travel demand will surge significantly," the representative said.