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If you’re reading this, I’ll assume that you already know about the closure of the border between China and North Korea, which means absolutely no travel at all to North Korea for the time being. A pain for you and us both – this is our bread and butter!

Whilst we appreciate that nothing can quite compare to a trip to North Korea, we do have a decent contingency in place for such situations: our famous Borderlands Tour.

I personally designed the Young Pioneer Tours Borderlands trip around 5 years ago. This was partly because I simply wanted to see it myself, but also because I felt it would provide a unique insight – not only into North Korea itself, but into the many Korean-Chinese communities that flourish along the border. 

This trip has us doing a really cool road-trip-type experience from Dandong right up to the border between North Korea, Russia and China, with stops at all the major Chinese border towns along the way. We also visit the Chinese side of Mount Paektu (Changbaishan in Chinese) – the purported birthplace of not just General Kim Jong Il, but of the Korean people themselves (n.b. this has not been scientifically verified).

It’s hard to define what makes this trip so good, but one of the reasons is that it’s a look at North Korea that you can’t really get from going to North Korea. We’ll see villages and settlements that we never visit from the North Korean side, and sometimes we’re as close as 10 metres to North Korean soil.

The trip includes boat rides, opportunities to witness China-DPRK trade interactions, and jaw-dropping scenery on both the Chinese and North Korean side.

Our suggestion? Give one of our most underrated tours a chance; you might even enjoy it…

Get in touch with us for more information,