A major Chinese city on Thursday lifted its suspension of package tour programs to South Korea which was imposed amid a diplomatic feud between the two countries, sources said.
The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism held a regional meeting in Wuhan, the sprawling capital of the Hubei province, earlier in the day and approved the decision, according to sources in Beijing.
"In a meeting in Wuhan, Chinese group tours to South Korea were permitted," one of the sources said, adding the city of Chongqing may follow suit in the near future.
Wuhan became one of the first Chinese cities to allow the Chinese sales of tour packages to the South. The bilateral rift over the deployment of the U.S. defense shield, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), in South Korea has brought Chinese group tours to the South virtually to a halt since 2016.
Following President Moon Jae-in's summit with President Xi Jiping in December, the neighbors started to recover bilateral exchanges in affected areas, including tourism, entertainment and other commercial sectors. (Yonhap)