hankyoreh

in which no tourist destinations were included.

Some local media have picked up on complaints voiced by a Chinese official who recently visited South Korea. He came as part of a program designed to help China understand the Saemaeul movement, South Korea’s name for its drive for industrialization that led to rapid economic growth, but felt disappointed with his itinerary, which was sightseeing-focused. However, investigation by the Hankyoreh found that the heavy dose of sightseeing came at the request of the Chinese group that spearheaded the program.

Under the program, led by a Chinese city, local officials were sent to South Korea on a series of five-day tour programs between April and June. A total of 128 officials visited the country to get a glimpse of the secrets behind its astounding economic growth. The tour schedule was organized by a tour agency in China, which later asked another agency in Korea to arrange detailed itineraries for the groups.

A changed itinerary.

At first, there were no plans for the Chinese officials to visit tourist destinations during their stay in the country. However, the travel agency in Korea altered the tour schedule to include sightseeing, after a request from the Chinese officials upon arrival. Under the new tour schedule, the Chinese officials spent some of their time on visiting tourist destinations, which are quite unrelated with what they were supposed to do here.

"It is unfair to blame us, since we [reworked the itinerary] at the request of the Chinese officials and the main tourism agency in China," the official said. He said the main tourism agency told him that while the original itinerary was the official one submitted for the trip, the company should alter it anyway to honor the officials’ request.

Responding to media reports that the Chinese officials were overcharged for the tours, the official said, "We were also shocked by reports that we ripped off the visitors by charging 1.2 million won (US$1,300) per person for the tour. We charged only 600,000 won per person."

The National Council of the Saemauel Undong Movement in Korea, which promotes the merits of South Korea’s economic drive, took offense with reports that the Chinese visitors expressed displeasure with their program on the tour.

"All we did was to show a 23-minute promotional video clip, followed by a Q&A session," one of the council’s officials said. "We also made it clear that it would be impossible to understand the spirit of the Saemaeul movement in an hour. We advised them to use a training program specially tailored to meet the needs of foreigners."