Text/Mo Wang Editor/Octopus The cover of this article is byAIPainted
On September 29th, the Korean government's temporary visa-free policy for Chinese group tourists came into effect.
Xiao k, a colleague who has always been too lazy to apply for a visa, began to plan his first trip to South Korea as early as the beginning of September. After all, having been "pickled" by Korean dramas and kpop for many years, Xiao k has countless beautiful fantasies about South Korea. Seoul, Busan, Jeju Island... these place names grew up with Xiao k and were once the fashion frontier in her mind.
But she never thought that the moment she landed in Incheon, her own filter for South Korea would be shattered.
Other friends who are also new to South Korea are also complaining on social platforms-
Between Seoul in the comedy and Seoul in reality, ten layers of filters are separated.
In South Korea, driving, eating bills, and street fines are enough to make those who just made a little money go bankrupt.
It is no exaggeration to say that travel to South Korea is the biggest "online dating rush" during the National Day holiday. When I was in love, I thought that love could defeat everything, but only after seeing each other did I realize:
Love without material things is a loose sand.
visa-free middle class
Travel to Korea?
It is said that South Korea does not spend too much on overseas trips, but only those who really go to South Korea know:
How expensive is traveling in Korea。
The starting price of bus and subway in Seoul is 1,400 won (about RMB 7 yuan), and the starting price of taxi is more than 4,800 won (about RMB 26 yuan).
Yes, South Korea’s transportation costs two to three times as much as the country’s. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you’ve taken a taxi in South Korea, then you’re sure you know how awesome the pricing numbers are to scare people up.
From the airport to the hotel, spending more than 300 yuan is normal.
〓 Source Xiaohongshu user @ Miss Iz's nonsense
Even if you are smart enough to never take a taxi, use public transportation and walk around Korea all the way, sometimes it is inevitable Pay a "transportation tax".
Baojian Road on Jeju Island is a famous online celebrity check-in point.
The game here is not a red coffee shop or an idol, but a traffic fine.
〓 Red Book user info.
The street of Baojian Road is very narrow, and there are two huge shopping malls on both sides.
Chinese travellers who choose to cross the road instead of the Zebra line will be arrested by a sudden appearance of the police, receiving a 2w yen fine.
Just walking, I lost 200 yuan.
And transportation expenses are only the least expensive part of Korean tourism. As long as you have eaten a few meals in Korea as a part-time worker, you will immediately realize:
Those "Ouba" and "Ouni" who frequently go out to restaurants in Korean dramas may have mines at home.
In Minghua, netizens who randomly drilled into a bakery meat store, looking at the amount of baked meat in China, when they closed the account, found:
She received a $16,000 invoice that reduced the RMB to $1,000.
〓 Tuyuan Xiaohongshu user @kinkin
And netizens who know the price of dishes are not so good.
For $300, you can buy a total of 4 pieces of meat.
Watching the pigs simple and roughly pressed on the barbecue rack, people fell into a difficult situation:
It is not known whether it is better to eat dry meat to stop the damage in time, or to continue to shed blood for a few more meals.
〓 Tuyuan Xiaohongshu user @ Handsome SpongeBob
Internet celebrity's military hot pot for many years is also a typical case of money wasted.
Every store visited by netizens was filled with Korean friends at a table of four people laughing and laughing.
You can look at the whole pot, it is not difficult to find the most expensive meal material is thin meat that can write the pen.
〓 Image Source Red Book User @ Nuclear Peas
Ribs cost 100 yuan each and eggs cost more than 50 yuan. Two starting points are needed for in-house meals.
If you want to add something else to the pot, it starts at ten thousand yuan.
Remember the ticket issued by Jeju Island? I can only afford a piece of rib when I get to Seoul.
〓 Tuyuan Xiaohongshu User @ Not Hungry
Even if the meal is expensive, it is not necessarily delicious.
Speaking of the taste of some Korean restaurants, here's a golden sentence from a netizen:
One smell, two smells, three waves and a splash.
〓 Source Xiaohongshu user @ tendering 💗
All the expectations of the Korean meal, until the moment of entering the mouth, all turned into ashes.
The beer fried chicken that has been blown up to the sky is no different from the level of ordering takeout in China.
The national delicacy pickled crab seems to be inferior to Zhejiang's "raw pickled crab".
〓 Image source Red Book user@Yuuun
Travellers are stuck in these red foods with hesitation:
No spotting, shame on the digestive system that has accompanied itself for so many years;
To be honest, it hurts the friendship of the two peoples.
As a result, after returning to China for a month, I still couldn't swallow this anger and left four big words on the Internet:
"Unpalatable, stepping on thunder".
〓 Image source Red Book user @ Zayer
Even after having experienced so much, the last grass of the many middle-aged could be crushed, but it was something else.
The first impression most Korean drama fans have of South Korea is that in the yellow and clean city, the male and female protagonists glanced back at the end of the alley, then shouted each other's names, ran and hugged each other and cried. After the camera rises, the towering Seoul Tower in the background silently watches all this in the bustling skyline.
It seems that this kind of story is happening in every corner of this romantic city.
So, when the small K exchanged more than 4,000 dollars to buy a return ticket, bite the teeth 1000 yuan / night to book a hotel, carrying a suitcase to go out of the subway gate, her heart was filled with pure doubts:
Is there a city centre in Seoul?
〓Photo by Red Book user @Rock Yan
The lies of a scumbag are all intertwined. When you expose one of them, the others will immediately fall apart.
The same is true for South Korea.
Those who travel to Korea for the first time find it difficult to remain indifferent to the gap between webmaps and reality.
Coming to the legendary Seoul Night of the Pearl Pearl Tail – the first non-night city in the three countries of East Asia, take a look at:
It's all heads, it's all telephone poles.
Myeongdong, which is known as a shopping paradise, is evaluated by netizens as a good sale version of "Confucius Temple in Kuanzhai Lane, Nanluoguxiang".
The biggest difference is that there are no good-looking refrigerator stickers in Myeongdong.
〓 Source Xiaohongshu user @ choo choo jojos
And the moment that most Chinese tourists who went to South Korea to break away, must also be when the photo was taken on the beach side of Jeju Island, being bitten by the commentary area:
People are in Weihai, Shandong.
In just five days, I have experienced all of these things over and over again, little K how can I understand:
Clearly a long-planned trip to Korea, why is it like a well-planned "no hard eating"?
Even so, Little K has to admit:
I will not go to Korea once.
Behind the shrinking power of Korean-style brigade
The “Dream Force”?
South Korea is probably one of the most polarized places in terms of overseas travel evaluation.
Although most of this "new" Korean tourists played until their filters were broken, they felt that South Korea was full of "travel shrinkage".
But as many people love it as they hate it.
In the eyes of veteran Korean street luos, South Korea's charm has never been the same as those traditional "foreign destinations" that view the scenery and eat delicious food. The reason why they came to South Korea is more to pursue a new way of life:
Either more beautiful or more romantic.
Behind this way of life, there is a Korean-specific “dream tension” opposite to the “traveling force”.
The popular three-piece suit of Korean women on social platforms is the best example.
Friends who are familiar with the three sets of Korean women know that although traveling to Korea is expensive, it is cheap to get beautiful in Korea.
In 24 hours, go to Korea for hair, make-up, and photograph documents, enough to make a quick transformation from amateur to idol.
〓 The Red Book of the User. :)
South Korea's tourism foundation is not the foundation for South Korea to become beautiful.
Netizens who are well versed in the Korean beauty industry have lamented the price of Korean medical beauty on the Internet more than once.
* Warm tip: medical beauty fish dragon is mixed, if the issue of exotic defense is very difficult.
Cheap, not the only factor that impressed the girls.
After experiencing the "Hungarian three-piece suit", Little K honestly said that choosing to go to Korea to become beautiful not only likes the Korean aesthetics, walking in the streets of Korea, she does not feel a bit of sophisticated shame.
The sophisticated atmosphere of the people of Korea makes her daring to show herself. In the small k's view, beauty requires money, but also environmental and atmospheric support.
This atmosphere of mutual support is no stranger to people who go to South Korea to chase stars.
No matter whose fan you are, you can see posters of your favorite beans on the streets of South Korea.
〓 Tuyuan Xiaohongshu user @ Noriki
As long as you walk a few steps, you can meet the same coffee shop where your own "Aidou" has punched in.
The poster wall is full of photos and blessings from "sharing responsibilities" who came here.
〓 Source Xiaohongshu user @ Is mutton not delicious?
Together with so many people, supporting the same idol is easy to create a sense of belonging.
“Seoul disease” is a generic term on the Internet for astronauts who fall into the symptoms of happiness in Korea.
Patients with this disease “do not feel alien to humanity too” feel happiness, only they themselves understand.
The surrounding disc stores that ordinary tourists can't understand are actually Kpop people's album paradise.
The seemingly ordinary 711 on one side of the road is actually the most common scene in surrounding materials.
〓 Tuyuan Xiaohongshu user @ Aah Ayun🍪
For them,"extreme travel contraction" and "Seoul Disease" can coexist.
There are many places to travel, but few to dream about.
When you walk by yourself and watch the idol walk through the screen countless times, can it be considered to walk in the footsteps of the idol?
〓 Source Xiaohongshu user @ Lising
In fact, it feels the same as those old Korean powders.
The main force of South Korea's tourism industry has always been these friends who come to South Korea to feel the cultural atmosphere.
According to a report by South Korea’s tourism organization “Revitalizing South Korean Tourism Comprehensive Strategy” in December, 86% of foreign tourists arriving in South Korea would prioritize concerts, filming pilgrimages or pop culture exhibitions.
In 2023, South Korea's tourism export revenue directly related to the "Korean Wave" will reach US$2.42 billion, because the number of foreign tourists who follow the Korean Wave (Korean dramas, idol groups, etc.) to South Korea has also surged from 63,000 in 2020 to 176,500.
Foreign tourists have also climbed to $9.9 billion in spending on Korean shopping, food, beauty and cultural experiences.
Look back at the Chinese travellers who came to Korea during the National Day. Their experience, in fact, compared with the regular year-on-year idol concert and large music festivals "tracking fans", has been very "delicate".
The BTS concert in 2022 once broke the defense of many netizens who went to South Korea from the United States. The reason is simple:
The hotel price is too high.
One fan said he ordered for $260For a four-person room during the concert, the same price can't even be booked for a double room the next day.
Last year’s survey by the Consumer’s House of Korea also showed that during the 2024 South Korean Water Bomb Festival and Psy concert, the average increase in neighboring hostels and hotels exceeded 50%, from 140,000 to 21,8,000.
Xiao k's best friend, who has been to South Korea n times, saw the one-way air ticket of about 2,000 during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, but just snorted coldly: "It's the air ticket level of the first-line group on-site meeting".
Although Korean machine wine has risen like today's gold, as long as you hesitate for a second, you will never have a chance to enter the market again.
But for them, the Korean culture itself is a short “dream” in learning and working life.
The Middle East is increasingly diversified.
Looking at the overseas travel market in recent years, there are more and more tricks:
Lie down and go to South Asian islands, want to go shopping and go to Japan and Singapore.
If you want to go to South Korea, if you want to experience exotic temperatures at a low price, Thailand Malaysia is also very capable of fighting.
In addition to a Russian that has verbally promised to be visa-free, how many Hainanis shake their hands: they crushed us, we also rushed to their Moscow.
〓 Store signs for Russian tourists in Sanya
As more and more visa-free policies are introduced, people who want to travel abroad have more options:
From "go wherever you can" to "go wherever you want".
In fact, South Korea has already begun preparations to welcome Chinese visa-free tourists.
The street shop prepared Chinese signage and Chinese product introduction before the eleventh.
The "speaking Chinese" shopkeepers have also become the most sought-after high-tech workplace in major shopping streets.
According to the Beijing Business Journal, within half an hour after the release of the visa-free news, the search volume for South Korea's Seoul as a destination instantly increased by 7%.
Travel data also showed that since this year, the number of Chinese mainland tourists ordered to South Korea has increased by 30% compared to the same year.
Meanwhile, Korean people who took their parents to climb the family, go to Salt City to play golf, and the “long ago” dried sheep-meat string also let everyone see the other side of their sweetness.
Despite the fact that she had just returned home for two days and was still drinking pork blood, little K would not be going to Korea for a short time, she still thought:
Experiencing other cultures is a valuable life experience.
Although the travel process is not perfect, her requirements for traveling abroad are becoming more specific and diverse from "fun".
After all, the world is such a wonderful place.
Exploring the Earth is not just a trip and a trip.