Chinese city opens train travel to Pyongyang

A group of 32 Chinese tourists on Sunday took a train from Ji'an City in northeast China's Jilin Province for five-day trip to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The opening of the train route makes Ji'an, the second city after Dandong in neighboring Liaoning Province with service to DPRK. The train from Ji'an can take tourists to Pyongyang, Kaesong and Panmunjom in DPRK, according to Liu Jun, deputy manager of the Ji'an International Travel Agency. Both Ji'an and Dandong face DPRK across the Yalu River. The distance between Ji'an and DPRK's capital of Pyongyang is 400 km, while that between Dandong and Pyongyang is about 200 km. Chinese visitors with ID cards and passports can apply for the 2,980 yuan(480 U.S. dollar) visit in Ji'an. The trip is organized every four days. Zang Wanghong, director of the Ji'an Tourist Board, said Ji'an will open a one-day tour to Manpo, a port city on the western coast of DPRK before May 1. Ji'an which boasts a UNESCO world heritage site of the Ancient Koguryo Kingdom hopes to develop tourism based on its own resources and its adjacency to DPRK, said Zang.