P'yongyang Things to Do

The tallest structure in P'yongyang has sat unfinished and dormant for nearly 20 years. The pyramid-shaped hotel, which would have rivaled any hotel in any major city, has been left as a shell for all to see. The 105 story building has sat dormant with rusting tower crane stuck in position since the Soviet Union disbanded in 1992, because they were the economic benefactor for construction.

Back in 1988, Seoul hosted the Olympic Games. P'yongyang believed that in good faith since they are also "Korea", that the South would have placed some of the events in P'yongyang's venues. This hotel was initiated to host the world for the Games. But once the government learned that the Games would not be shared, the project was put on hold.

To this day, the tower crane remains in position as it was 20 years ago. There are no windows, no utilities, no lights, nothing... It is a ghost structure. For that reason, it sometimes is called the "Ghost Hotel", or the "Hotel of Doom".

UPDATE: As of July 2008, reports are that an Egyptian company has begun renovating the upper floors of the building.

4 more images

This was originally not on our tour itinerary and having read about it on the net, I asked if we could visit it. I was told that it wasn't possible as some building works were being carried out on some steps nearby. I thought this was a pretty poor excuse and felt a bit hard done by. The following day, one of guides mentioned that it would actually be possible for us to visit the Pueblo and when we arrived, some steps did look like they had been worked on and were actually cordoned off. I thanked the guide for his work in getting us the chance to visit.

Basically the boat is here because it entered into North Korean waters in 1968 and was captured by them and her crew (of which were numbered 83) were kept imprisoned for nearly a year until Major General Gilbert H Woodward signed an apology on behalf of the American government. The crew were then released over the Bridge of no Return into South Korea at the DMZ. As part of the deal, the North Koreans also got to keep the boat as a trophy even though the Americans wanted it back. We got to see the whole boat, which still includes all of the spy equipment, and were treated to a 15 minute long film about the boats capture.

4 more images

This was one of the main things I was looking forward to in Pyongyang - a ride on the city's metro. Firstly, we entered down some steps off a street into Yonggwang station which is located just to the north of the main overland railway station. We hung around by some ticket barriers waiting for our guides to get coin tokens which cost 5 won each (about 4 US cents). We were shown an electrically operated map on the wall which showed us 2 lines - the north-south Chollima line (named after a mythical flying horse, the Korean Pegasus) and east-west Hyoksin (Renovation) line. When you pressed a certain button at the button of the map, the relevant station would light up to tell you its location - futuristic stuff! There are 17 known stations altogether, although it is believed that more lines and secret stations exist for military and government officials. Stations have names like Paradise (Rakwon), Triumph (Jonsung), Renovation (Hyoksin) and Reunification (Tongli) which beat our boring station names like Baker Street and Paddington on the London Underground! The whole metro system is entirely underground and is the world's deepest with many stations being more than 100 metres below the surface. We were lead down a step, long escalator with no advertising on the walls unlike any other metro system I've been on and reached the platforms which features lovely wall murals and sculptures. The best thing at this particular station are the enormous chandeliers which are coloured pink, green and yellow. A train came in to the station whilst we were taking everything in and taking photo's and a whole crowd of well dressed people got off and walked past us without taking much notice of us in jeans, t-shirts and shorts! It is said that all of this is staged for each tourist visit and it did have a Trueman Showesque about it. Make the most of this as it'll be your only time that you get to mix with 'everyday' North Koreans. Yonggwang station features columns that are shaped like Olympic torches with arches sprouting out of the top, which look like flames. After spending about 10-15 minutes on the concourse, we got on a train which had the portraits of the Kim's looking down on you and then got off at the next station. I've added a short video taken by our tour cameraman. More excellent information can be found by visiting the website below.

4 more images

Mangyongdae is a suburb about 12km south-west of the city centre and is famous for being the place where Kim Il Sung was born on April 15th 1912 in a simply straw thatched house. The jury's out whether or not he was actually born here at all and our guides really emphasised on his humble origins. When I was in China, I visited Mae Zedong's birthplace and that house is very similar. Mangyongdae also has a Kim Il Sung theme park but we didn't visit it.

This was one thing that I didn't want to see in Pyongyang - an advertising billboard. Knowing too well that North Korea has one of the most strict communist regime’s in the world, the last thing you'd expect to find is one of them as it's straight out of the capitalist book. This particular one is in the square outside the main train station but I also spotted one along the road from the airport. As you can see, it's for some car company - which one, I don't know.

We didn't actually visit this children's palace on our itinerary but instead visited another one in the centre of the city. This huge children's palace lies along Kwangbok Street, in the western suburbs of the city and we passed by it a couple of times when we visited the circus and a couple of restaurants. The palace was built in April 1989, has a total floor area of some 103,000 square metres and contains a theatre with 2,000 seats, a gymnasium and a swimming pool. It is said that some 12,000 students attend here every day.

4 more images

The Arch of Triumph was built to commemorate the Korean resistance to Japan from 1925 to 1945 and the triumphal return home of Kim Il Sung after hiding in exile during the 2nd World War. It was unveiled in April 1982 to mark his 70th birthday and was built out of 25,500 blocks of finely-dressed white granite - one for each day of his life up until that point. The structure is modelled on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and was deliberately built to be slightly larger. It is the world's tallest triumphal arch, standing 60 metres high and 50 metres wide over a 4 lane road that we could stand in the middle without fear of getting run-over. Inscribed on the Arch is the "Song of General Kim Il-sung", a revolutionary hymn, the year 1925, when North Korean history states that Kim set out on the journey for national liberation and the year 1945, the end of World War II, which ended the Japanese occupation.

1 more image

This site, by the Arch of Triumph, was completed in 1987 and marks Kim Il Sung's October 14, 1945 speech in which the population got their first real look at him. A mural illustrates the event (though no depictions of the Soviet sponsors are included), and a stone slab quotes Kim's remarks on rebuilding Korea.