Cheapest and Best Summer Vacation Package

Gyeonggi Province and GTO offer package tour of mud flats along West Coast and an extension of the DMZ bicycle tour

Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization (GTO) jointly launched on July 26 Gyeonggi Tour 2,?a smart phone application providing various tourism information about the province including eateries, tourist sites, lodging facilities and cultural assets, an upgraded version of the successful Gyeonggi Tour app, with a total of over 3,200 contents. The first Gyeonggi Tour app attracted some 160,000 users.
The information on dining will be very useful to the tourists as the 2,000 different choices were selected by government employees in the areas where those eateries are located including foods native to each area.
The selected restaurants are hoped to satisfy the palates and pocketbooks of tourists in general as they have been chosen by government employees who are very keen on food tastes and their prices.
The Gyeonggi Tour 2 app has three times as much content as the existing Gyeonggi Tour program and is available to Android-based smartphone users too, unlike the previous version which was limited to iPhone users. The tour program also supplies an upgraded design and UI, providing at the same time the locations of the users and how to get to their destinations. Users can also take advantage of features enabling the exchange of communications including comments on restaurants and other tourist facilities among the users.
Both the province and the GTO hope to provide the correct information on Gyeonggi tourism resources and boost the province's tourism competitiveness as well as upgrade the convenience of tourism facilities for its residents.
DMZ Bicycle Tour
The bicycle tour of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), which has been restricted to civilians for over 60 years, will be expanded to take place around the Imjin-kak Pavilion in Paju in the areas of the DMZ controlled by civilians.
The bicycle tour will start from Imjin-kak and head to the Tongil Grand Bridge, the crossroads of Tongil Village ― Triple Pass, Tongil Grand Bridge, Chopyeong Island, the 64T and return to Imjin-kak, for a total of 17.2 km. From this year, first-timers will tour a special course only 15 km long. Children and women will be allowed to ride only to the Chonpyeongdo vicinity, the area where rest facilities are in operation.
Officials of the GTO said the course has been extended to 17.2 km this year from 14 km last year in the DMZ area under civilian control, which will be further developed as a landmark tour program with more tourist resources aimed at attracting tourists and families from outside the area.
The tour takes place the fourth Sunday of every month and the participation fee of 10,000 won per person can be paid online at the websites of the GTO, the Imjin-kak Peace Homepage, Pyeonghwa Nuri Homepage and the DMZ site.
Applications will be accepted from February to November with participants limited to 300 per event, aged eight years and older. Participants will be given a memento from among the following choices: jangdan bean, rice from along the Imjin River, and acathopanax produced in the local area.
They said some 5 million foreign tourists visit the ceasefire zone near Imjin-kak every year, making it a favorite tourism spot in northern Gyeonggi Province.
From this year, foreign tourists will be able to tour the DMZ on KTX in groups and various comfort facilities will be expanded, along with additional signage along tour courses and sections in four areas. The number of toilets will also be increased, along with benches and installation pieces.
The use of power brokers will also be increased to publicize the event more widely and to more extensively use the media to support the organizations'own public relations work.
The organizers will strengthen the operational infrastructure for the bicycle tours. An electric car will be added to ferry riders in case of accidents or extreme fatigue and the number of bicycles on lease will be increased by 100. Also, binoculars will be installed along the route including ones used at military posts and 10 that can be carried around. There will also be benches for the comfort of tourists.
An event will be held at the starting point of the tour in which each participant will be introduced followed by limbering up exercises to prepare for the tour and the starting slogan. Events during the tour include quizzes and riding unique bicycles for fun.
Other events include writing and sending postcards, photo sessions and viewing a photo exhibition at the DMZ.
Participants should have group insurance and must bring safety equipment including helmets and gloves as well as resident cards or identification cards. An application paper must be submitted to military authorities. The applications should be emailed to the following addresses: www.ethankyou.co.kr, www.peace.ethankyou.co.kr, dmz. gg.go.kr, or phone 031-952-7805 for details.
The GTO also announced that it has started selling a summer tour package during the summer vacation for students and their families jointly with Ansan City and Korail dubbed Experiencing Clam Catching on the Mud Flat on Daebu Island. The tour package on the fifth largest mud flat in the world located along the West Coast in Gyeonggi Province, using an electric train, a low-carbon, green transportation means, began on July 23 and will continue until Aug. 15, more than 10 times during the period.
The participants will enjoy a variety of events on the moving train such as a magic show and balloons.
At Shingal Hot Springs Station they will listen to an explanation related to culture and tourism of the region and travel to a nearby village along the 12 km long Shihwa Tide Embankment and look at the Shihwa tidal water power generation plant, the world's largest.
An especially attractive point in the tour package is that tourists can buy the locally grown grapes on Daebu Island, noted for their sweetness, and wine made with the grapes at inexpensive prices, tour organizers said. The GTO recommends the tour package to families who want to take their children on a summer tour, especially those from such inland areas as Chuncheon and Wonju in Gangwon Province, the Seoul area and Daejeon and Chongju in the Chungcheong areas, as electric trains are available at Youngdeungpo and Cheongyangri Train Stations for them.
GTO President Hwang Joon-ki said the mud flat tour is the best summer vacation course and is one of the best tourist destinations in the country for getting out of the transportation hell where one can spend a summer vacation with one's family that will remain in their memories for a long time. He said the GTO will continue to make efforts to improve the mud flat package tour so that it will become the best family summer vacation tour product in Korea.
The mud flat tour costs 28,000 won for an adult and 26,000 won for a minor in general, but when they board the train at Shinkil Hot Springs Station, the charges will be lowered to 26,000 won for an adult and 21,000 won for a minor, inclusive of the fee for catching 1.5 kg of clams, riding a tractor and skiing on the mud flats, lodging and transport charges. The price also covers an insurance policy during the tour and lunch of clams, other seafood and noodles at a restaurant in town.
Contact www.korailtour.com or phone 1544-4590 for more information. nw

A scene of a bicycle tour of DMZ, one of many package tours offered by the Gyeonggi
Province and Gyeonggi Tourism Organization (GTO),
including mud flat tour of West Coast of Gyeonggi Province.

(from top) A number of tourists on a train to head to mud flats in the West Coast.A couple of tourists enjoy catching clams on mud flats during a tour of mud flats in West Coast of Gyeonggi Province.

Posters for various Gyeonggi Package Tours offered by Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization.

Photo on Courtesy of GTO