Cultural Mystery Tour : World Cup: Visiting journalists go off the beaten track to tour L.A.’s Eastside during a lull in soccer action. Koreatown, Pico-Union and other seldom-seen areas are coming up on the itinerary.

For the many journalists covering the World Cup, it was a chance to see a Los Angeles far removed from the stadiums, pressrooms and hotels where their time is normally concentrated.

For residents of the Eastside and other Los Angeles neighborhoods, it was an opportunity to show a different side of communities often viewed from the outside as caldrons of gang violence and ethnic tension.

On Wednesday afternoon, a group of visiting journalists, tourism industry representatives and others took a bus tour of eastern Los Angeles as part of a community-based effort to give the visitors a touch of Los Angeles distinct from the glitzy image prevalent on glossy tourist brochures and promotional videos.

Hollywood chic, beach cool and mall-scene acquisitiveness this was not.

Participants on Wednesday viewed murals, learned about the Chicano arts and rights movements and spoke to new Mexican immigrants and ex-gang members now gainfully employed.

In coming days, visiting journalists--taking advantage of a lull in the World Cup schedule--will take similar tours of Pico-Union, Koreatown, Hollywood and South-Central Los Angeles.

For weeks, residents of these neighborhoods have been devising itineraries designed to highlight their diverse communities, which are usually excluded from official promotion by the region’s $8-billion tourist industry.