Category: Korea-General Topics

If you want to go to Jeju on a budget, now is the time to go:

Three bucks may be all you need to get yourself from Seoul to Jeju Island.

Local budget airline T’way Air on Tuesday afternoon started offering one-way flights from Gimpo International Airport to Jeju International Airport and vice versa for as low as 3,000 won ($2.50), as the continuing spread of the Wuhan coronavirus drives customers away from air travel.

Counting taxes and airport usage fees, the ticket price goes up to 12,500 won, but it’s still the cheapest for anytime of the year. Even for plane tickets over the weekend, which are typically in higher demand than weekdays, the air carrier is offering one-way tickets with price tags as low as 7,900 won. That’s less than 19,500 won, no matter what, to get a traveler from Seoul to Jeju.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The way I look at this is that by releasing the locations the government is putting pressure on these businesses to disinfect their buildings. After being cleaned these businesses are probably the safe place to go visit afterwards:

Doctors from the Korean Society for Preventive Medicine and the Korean Society of Epidemiology said Monday in a joint statement that the government’s disclosure of places visited by people later diagnosed with the new coronavirus had “zero effect” on public health, saying it only aroused unnecessary anxiety.

The two groups said members of the public shouldn’t worry about contracting the disease by visiting the establishments or passing by areas where infected patients went – as long as those areas have been disinfected. 

“The biggest obstacles for overcoming the new coronavirus crisis are fake news and disinformation, excessive anxiety, groundless ‘solutions’ constantly raised by non-experts, stigma against patients and people who contacted them and a lack of voluntary help from people with symptoms of the virus or those who are subject to epidemiological investigations,” read the joint statement.

“In terms of public health, there’s zero effect in shutting down schools and stores near places infected patients visited,” the statement continued. “Such acts only cause unnecessary social costs.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

At least it appears that Korean traditional markets are not selling bat meat which is what is believed to have caused the coronavirus outbreak in China:

The Seoul Metropolitan Government conducted a rare inspection of restaurants in the city’s three major traditional markets, Wednesday, for the possible illegal consumption of bat meat, as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of a coronavirus, according to city officials.

On Wednesday, three additional cases of infection were confirmed here, putting the total number at 19. 

The inspection team consisting of city officials overseeing hygiene matters, police and consumer rights activists looked into restaurants in Daerim Central Market in Yeungdeungpo, Gyeongdong Market in Dongdaemun and Joyang Market in Gwangjin; areas that are frequented by Chinese immigrants and tourists.

The selling of bat meat is illegal here, but the inspection was carried out on suspicions that small quantities could potentially be brought to those venues from China. The officials said that so far they had not found any irregularities. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It took long then I expected, but here is the inevitable article about how racist Americans are towards Koreans because of the coronavirus:

Koreans in US discriminated over coronavirus

Starting last week, Kathy Yang has been getting a weird feeling while carrying on her daily business. 

”At work, at Costco, at the doctor’s office…I keep getting this odd feeling that people are looking at me in a way unlike before,” said the 41-year-old, who works as a bank teller in the Bay Area. ”Their facial expression looks as if they’re trying to decipher if I’m sick or not.” 

So far, only 11 cases of the China-originated coronavirus have been confirmed in the U.S. But fear and racism over the new and unpredictable virus appear to be spreading faster than the virus itself. 

”I’ve lived in the U.S. for more than 15 years and this is the first time I’ve felt discriminated to this level on so many occasions in such a short period of time,” said Yang. 

Many others living in the U.S. say they’ve also been racially victimized because of the virus. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If you ever wanted to visit Jeju Island without crowds now is the time:

Jeju Island has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus outbreak since its economy relies to at least 70 percent on tourism, mostly from China. 

The government is halting visa-free entry of Chinese tourists from Tuesday, and Koreans are shunning the southern resort island because they are afraid of running into infected Chinese tourists there. 

Last year 1.73 million foreigners visited Jeju, 62.5 percent of them from China, but since late last month, when the new coronavirus started spreading throughout China, Chinese visitor numbers have plunged. 

Flights between Jeju and China dwindled from 24 a day on Jan. 21 to just seven on Sunday. There are 18 direct routes to Chinese cities, and 15 of them are currently on hold while the remaining ones are only 44 percent full, compared to 90 percent in boom times.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It is not even safe to visit Thailand now:

South Korea on Tuesday confirmed its 16th case of the novel coronavirus infection, with the latest patient having recently visited Thailand, as more stringent quarantine measures are being taken to stem the spread of the virus.

The patient, a 42-year-old South Korean woman, returned from a trip to Thailand on Jan. 19 and started feeling chills on Jan. 25, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Her condition did not improve despite receiving treatment for several days, so she was tested at a general hospital in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, on Monday, with the test results coming back positive. Thailand has reported 19 cases of virus infections.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The calls to stop Chinese nationals from entering South Korea is growing:

South Korean websites have been flooded with comments calling on the government to block or expel Chinese and racist remarks about Chinese eating habits and hygiene. A popular Seoul seafood restaurant frequented by Chinese tourists posted a sign saying “No entry for Chinese” before taking it down Wednesday after an online backlash.

About 600,000 South Koreans have signed an online petition filed with the presidential Blue House calling for a temporary ban on Chinese visitors. Some conservative opposition lawmakers publicly back these steps, and about 30 people rallied near the Blue House on Wednesday demanding the government immediately ban Chinese tourists.

“Unconditional xenophobia against the Chinese is intensifying” in South Korea, the mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial Thursday. “Infectious diseases are a matter of science, not an issue that can resolved through an emotional outpouring.”

Associated Press

You can read more at the link.

It is currently probably not a good time to be a Chinese exchange student:

 South Korean universities are taking various measures to halt the spread of the new coronavirus, including the separation of Chinese students deemed at risk of the viral disease, officials said Monday.

A recent decision by Seoul National University (SNU) to assemble all Chinese students who have recently visited China in one dormitory building appears to be the most radical of them all.

Under the decision announced by SNU’s Global Residence, all Chinese students who have visited China’s Hubei Province, the epicenter of the coronavirus, in the past month or who have been to other parts of China in the last two weeks, will be sent to one dormitory building on the university’s Gwanak Campus in southern Seoul. People currently living in the dorm building can move into other buildings, if they want.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

More cases of the coronavirus are identified in South Korea:

Concerns are growing over further spread of the new coronavirus here, especially person-to-person transmission, as South Korea reported five more cases in just one day on Friday, bringing the total here to 11 despite stepped-up quarantine efforts.

Of the confirmed cases, four are presumed to be potentially human transmissions as they had not traveled to China and other nations recently.

According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the country’s seventh case involves a 28-year-old South Korean man who visited Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and returned via the Chinese port city of Qingdao on Jan. 23.

He did not show any related symptoms upon arrival at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.