A fellow teacher told me about Unique Travel. He used them to book his airfare and get his visa. The website is uniquetravel.co.kr. It's not the best website but their phone number is there and they do speak English. I bought my airfare from Incheon to Beijing on orbitz.com but I am using Unique Travel to get my Chinese travel visa.
Here's a quick description of the visa process. I called Unique Travel and told them I would be sending my passport. They told me to include one color passport photo. I also included a photo copy of my ARC, but they didn't tell me to do that. There is a form for a Chinese travel visa but the people at Unique Travel said they would fill it in for me so I did not send one. They emailed me their physical address. Their email address is uniquetravel@korea.com and the woman I emailed used the English name Judy.
Unique Travel
1st Fl. 131-34
Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu
Seoul, South Korea 140-200
A Korean from one of my schools then took me to the bank and post office. I withdrew cash from the ATM and had it wired to Unique Travel (their bank account information is on the website). Unfortunately for me, the price of the visa just went up. It cost me 195,000 Won. I'm pretty sure this was 170,000 to China and 25,000 to Unique Travel for the service. It also cost me 2,000 Won for the wire transfer. My Korean friend showed me the bank receipt which had my transfer name (my full name didn't fit) and the transaction number. Later when I got back to school I emailed this information back to Judy and she then wrote back saying that the money had arrived.
Next we went to the post office. My Korean friend wrote the address in Hongul. We used a simple envelop and put my passport, the color photo, and the copy of my ARC inside. I asked them to add a tracking number so the postage came to 1,860 Won. I left with a receipt that had the tracking number on it. Unique Travel emailed me the next day and told me that my passport had arrived.
My passport came back 12 days later with my visa inside. They sent it through the Korean postal system with a tracking number. I'm all set for China.
Two fellow teachers gave me the contact information for the tour companies they had used.
China Tour
E-mail: tour@chinatour.net (Tony)
Website: http://www.chinatour.net
China Tour Select
E-mail: peter@chinatourselect.com
Website: http://www.chinatourselect.com/
Both companies have standard travel packages. They are pricey, but I've heard from several people that having a tour guide is money well spent. You can save money by downgrading your hotels (to 3-star), traveling by train, reducing the number of meals included, and traveling with a friend. As it stands right now China Tour has given me a slightly better price for the tour I want. I'll report back when I return.
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