Natural Scenery

I had originally signed up for the tour just to attend the Arirang games and I must admit I didn’t think there would be anything much to see beyond that. My preconceptions of a grey, dreary place like that of many descriptions of former communist countries turned out to be completely incorrect. For better or for worse, the lack of development means that there is no pollution and a lot of beautiful unspoilt landscapes.

http://picasaweb.google.com/stngiam/MtKumgangLakeSijung

Inner Kumgang

Mount Kumgang is divided into Inner Kumgang, Outer Kumgang and Sea Kumgang. Outer Kumgang and Sea Kumgang are accessible from South Korea (or used to be, until tours were suspended following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist). The Singapore tours via Pyongyang go to the Inner Kumgang region.

Opening the economy ?

One of the many surprises of North Korea was the number of blue-and-white stalls selling drinks, snacks and other tidbits set up by the roadside. According to our Singaporean tour leader, these were new, as she had not seen them in her previous trips to North Korea including one as recently as Spring 2007. Our Korean guide told us that these were state-owned and it is true that all of them did follow the same blue-and-white colour scheme and many of the ones we saw in the towns did seem to be extensions of existing state-run stores. In the smaller villages outside Wonsan, however, several of the stalls  looked more like they were independently-run outfits.

Pyongyang

Wonsan outskirts

Drive-in beer stand !

Setting up shop seems to be a family affair

The density of stalls seemed to be higher in Wonsan than Pyongyang despite much higher population density in the latter. A sign of looser ideological control in the provinces, or just a natural consequence of Wonsan being closer to the farms ?

Cityscape Wonsan

After spending 3 nights in Pyongyang, we moved on to Wonsan for another two nights. Wonsan is a port and according to Wikipedia, has a population of 330,000 compared to Pyongyang’s 2.5 million. The interesting thing about Wonsan is that the buildings actually have lights ! The bright line running diagonally across the bottom are the headlights of a car.  They still don’t turn on their street lights, though.

More photos of Wonsan by day are at http://picasaweb.google.com/stngiam/Wonsan. Wonsan looks like it could be a very pleasant seaside town if (when) they open up to the outside world.

The beaches are gorgeous and for now, completely unspoilt.

The Hotel Songdowon is definitely not a modern hotel and has the feel of a 1960s Soviet-era Beach Resort. We were told that the hotel had just been renovated and while that wasn’t obvious from the condition of the bathrooms, some construction work was still going on (see workmen in photo below).

There is a fairly large ball-room and many other function rooms with table settings fully laid out but while we were there I didn’t see any other paying guests besides our two Universal Travel tour groups (~60 people/35-40 rooms out of “more than 100 rooms.” On the other hand, it’s pretty late in the season for a beach hotel and we foreigners are probably paying many times their normal rate too, so perhaps they are doing ok after all. [Another foreign tourist, Eckart Dege was also there, but in early September. Compare his 1988 picture of Wonsan from almost the same vantage point in Hotel Songdowon.]

Another interesting thing about this hotel is that there is a sign at the reception desk apparently offering currency exchange service. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to actually try exchanging any money. It’s still illegal to take North Korean Won out of the country but I don’t think they are as strict any more on prohibiting locals from using foreign currency.

Cityscape Pyongyang

 

 

 

The Yanggakdo Casino Hotel (left) where we stayed in Pyongyang, is located on an island in the middle of the Taedong river, together with the Pyongyang International Cinema House and the Yanggakdo football ground. Depending on how paranoid one is, I suppose one could view this as a shrewd way of keeping decadent foreigners isolated and safely away from the general population, or one could view this as picking a scenic location for a downtown hotel.

Either way, the Yangakdo Hotel’s location makes it an ideal site from which to take panoramic views of the city, such as this one, facing North, towards the May Day Stadium and Tower of Juche.

This view, facing South shows the International Cinema House and football ground.

Sunrise over Pyongyang was surreal. Admittedly, this image is what I got after clicking “Enhance” in iPhoto, but even the original was very nice, with light just breaking over a mist-shrouded city.

Visiting North Korea Fall 2008

I went on a 7D6N tour to North Korea organized by Universal Travel in the last week of September 2008. My primary aim in going was to see the Arirang Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance but impressive as the Arirang games were, it was the rest of the country which made a greater impression on me.

Getting There

The first challenge is getting there. No free-and-independent travellers; strictly group tours only, and flights to Pyongyang are limited to say the least, but it turns out that Singapore is now the third largest source of tourists to North Korea and Universal Travel managed to charter two direct flights on Air Koryo between Singapore and Pyongyang for the Arirang season. Not SQ for sure, but we made it.

Arirang Games

  

I’ve put some more photos up on Picasa  but my pictures really don’t even begin to do justice to the show. When they say it has a cast of 100,000, I can definitely believe it ! The obvious comparison would be with the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies. Both were dazzling, but I think the difference is that while the Beijing ceremony impressed by juxtaposing China’s long history with modern special effects and very polished artistry, the Arirang Performance was very much a demonstration of physical conditoning, teamwork and discipline on the part of the North Koreans. The Koreans also had to repeat their performance every night for two months ! 

The Arirang performance was previously staged in 2002, 2005 and 2007. Regrettably for those who have missed it, the games will not be held again until 2010 at the earliest. The Rungnado May Day Stadium has a capacity of 150,000 but somewhat more than half of the seats were occupied by flash-card performers or closed off for other reasons, which still leaves space for almost 70,000 people. So even half-full, the stadium seats more than Singapore’s National Stadium, or even the proposed Sports Hub. One interesting observation that our Singapore tour leader, who had been to North Korea 12 times previously, made was that there was now lighting outside the stadium. 

 

In 2007, the grounds surrounding the stadium had been pitch-black. This year, they were still pretty dimly lit by foreign standards, but far better than last year. It would appear that either foreign aid oil shipments have increased or the economy has improved since last year. Still no street lights in Pyongyang, though, and I must admit several harrowing moments when the bus driver seemed about to run into a pedestrian or cyclist on the road at night.  One of my fellow tour group members has posted some photos of Pyongyang at night on flickr. Other than monuments and billboards of the Great Leader which are lighted, everything else is pitch-black, including the apartment buildings.