A group of 19 Chinese tourists were missing for almost a week after they arrived in South Korea last Saturday, the Chinese Embassy confirmed in Seoul Friday.

The group took a cruise ship from Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province on Dec. 28 and arrived in Incheon Port in South Korea the next day.

However, they were reported missing after spending one night in a local hostel, South Korea's Yonhap News reported.

Online reports said all of them are male and from Shanxi Province, but the provincial tourism authority denied it yesterday.

It is reported that this is their first visit to South Korea, and their visas would allow them to remain there for up to 15 days.

South Korea's exit-and-entry department is investigating whether any middlemen were involved in the group's disappearance.

South Korean officials also have started tracing the group's whereabouts and have banned them from leaving South Korea.

Earlier media reports said some Chinese travelers abandoned their tour groups and worked illegally in South Korea where one could earn up to 11,700 yuan per month.

On Oct. 17, 2010, a total of 44 Chinese tourists, from Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and other provinces, deserted the Italian cruiser Costa Classica upon arriving at South Korea's Jeju Island.

Twelve of them were later repatriated to China while the rest were missing.

On May 14, 2012, a ring of five people who had arranged their smuggling and earned around 510,000 yuan (US$81,855) from it received jail terms from two to 10 years in Beijing.

(Shanghai Daily contributed to the story.)

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