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 hanbok (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.