Korean Job Discussion Forums

endo · Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Location: Seoul...my home

Hi, I have some time off and I would like to visit the DMZ. There are several tours operating and I was wondering if any of you could recommend a specific one?

Thanks

kangnamdragon · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Location: Kangnam, Seoul, Korea

I think the one with the USO is the only tour that can take you to Panmunjeon. That is the best part of the tour and a must see!

tardisrider · Joined: 13 Mar 2003 Location: Seoul

I don't know if anything has changed, but I took a tour several years ago from the Shilla hotel, and we went to Panmungeom. I think that most of the ones for foreigners go there, because it is only S. Korean citizens who can't go into the DMZ proper. Probably all tours which operate in the DMZ are pretty much the same because at a certain point, the U.S. forces (ahem, U.N. forces) take over and guide the whole tour. I liked going from the Shilla because there was only a handful of English speakers and the rest were Japanese. Because of this, they basically split us up into two groups: those of us to whom the U.S. soldier could speak and those who had to listen to their interpreter in Japanese. We got a lot more attention than the Japanese and were able to talk to the guide relatively informally and ask questions. In any event, the trip is well worth taking.

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

I was really lucky. My classmate at Sogang was a lieutenant colonel in the Canadian army and he brought me up there once and got me onto a special tour with the Canadian embassy another time. I have a picture of me on the bridge of no return (and a rock from it, somewhere).

I_Am_Wrong · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: whatever

adventure korea is offering a "different" tour of the dmz that is farther west I believe. I was looking at it and thinking about doing it. But I was also told I would probably get to go for free on a school field trip. hmm.

kermo · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:08 am Post subject: Try this one..

I went to the "2nd Tunnel", which was fascinating. My co-teacher drove me, and we joined another group of tour buses and cars, and we were guided by the Korean army.

We saw a tunnel apparently dug through a mountain by the NorKs, revealed in 1972, and a couple different observatories with a cool diorama of the surrounding area, and some fascinating "relics" recovered from the other side.

We also saw the wreckage of a train on a track that once ran between the two countries (built by forced Russian and Korean labour under the Japanese occupation), and this was a touching scene.

There wasn't anything offered in English, so you might want to go with a Korean friend.

J.B. Clamence · Joined: 15 Jan 2003