Adventures in Asia: Pyongyang, DPRK

We arrived in Beijing from UB yesterday evening, and stayed over at the same airport hotel we had stayed in the night before going to Mongolia.  Today we flew from Beijing to Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

It was a stressful morning, and not just because we were flying to one of the most repressive and isolated countries in world history.  In order to visit DPRK, tourists need to arrange a tour.  The tours are generally led by state-owned tourism companies, but are sold by agents based outside of DPRK.  In our case, we were using a China-based company called Explore North Korea.

Explore North Korea arranged our visa, and had told us via email that we would meet our guide at the Beijing airport.  We attempted to check in at the Air Koryo check-in counter when we got to the airport, but we were told we could not do so until we had our visa.  So we waited and waited, unsure exactly what we were waiting for.

We were amazed at how many people, including how many white people, checked in for the flight to Pyongyang.  According to Wikipedia, only about 1,500 Western tourists visit DPRK annually, but there seemed to be over thirty Westerners on this flight alone! (later we realized many of them were not tourists, but diplomats and business people).

Around 11:00 (our flight was at 13:05), after waiting for about an hour, a Chinese man approached us, looking very relieved.  Presumably he had been looking for us, and I assume we were waiting in the wrong place.  Anyway, he spoke no English, so we remain confused.  He handed us a package that included our visas, and then gestured for us to check in.

We did so without difficulty, and then passed through passport control and headed to our gate where, we were now sure, we would be meeting our guide.  We looked around a little bit, but assumed that we were more recognizable than he would be.

Soon, however, the plane began boarding, and we had not yet been approached by anyone.  As the queue dwindled and departure time approached, we went to the counter with the telephone number Explore North Korea had provided us and tried to ask the man there if we could call it.  He looked at the email I showed him and he smiled and looked very relaxed and confident and urged us to board the plane.  In retrospect I think maybe he was simply picking up from the email that we were supposed to be on this flight, because he spoke so little English that I don't think he understood anything else.  Nonetheless his relaxed demeanor relaxed us somewhat, so we went ahead and boarded.

Now I figured our guide was on the plane, or would be on the plane, and might even find us while we were flying.  This did not happen, however, and instead we spent the flight reading DPRK propaganda magazines; watching a video from a recent concert put on by Kim Jong Un's favourite musical artists, the Moranbong band; and choking down a chicken sandwich we were fed.

We landed in Pyongyang, and walked into the gorgeous, brand new airport.  We were some of the first people through passport control, and both Andrea and I were very impressed with the border guards' English.  We had no difficulty getting our visas stamped, but there was one more step before we were through security.  After getting our bags, we queued to have our luggage examined.

We were asked to hand over our phones, computers, and any reading material.  Our phones and reading material were handed back without too much hassle, but my computer was turned on, a guard asked me to login, and then he attempted to find out if I had any movies.  Eventually he asked me, and I said I did not, and that was that.  Certainly I have never had my belongings so carefully searched (at least not in front of me), but on the other hand it really was not as intrusive as stories about North Korea might lead you to believe.

With our luggage searched, we were done, and it was through a gate out into the airport lobby.  I barely had time to get the words "now what?" out of my mouth before a twenty-something, gaudily dressed Korean woman was saying "hello, I'm your guide."

And so we met Choe Eun Mee, our guide (or "minder," if you prefer).  Had we known we would meet her here, the last few hours would have been much more enjoyable, but I suppose these are the types of stresses you deal with when you opt for cheaper tour agencies.

The tour itself was run by Korea International Youth & Children's Travel Company and, while we were the only English-speaking tourists, there were six Chinese tourists as well, who had their own guide.  The eight tourists, two guides, and a driver traveled together the entire time in a small bus.

Eun Mee was with us every minute of every day we were in the DPRK, except for when we were in our hotel.  I am not sure if she would agree that we became friends, but Andrea and I feel like we did.  As far as North Korean guides go, I don't think we could have asked for a better one.  Her English was good enough, and her knowledge of Korea adequate, but it was her attitude more than anything that made her especially excellent.  Almost immediately, for example, she told us to feel free to take pictures unless she told us otherwise, except pictures of soldiers were a no-no.  She continued to defy expectations as we got to know her, and her curiosity about Canada and about our lives was very surprising.  She may have asked us as many questions as we asked her!

From the airport we drove about half an hour into Pyongyang city.  For about half of the way we drove along rice fields, such as this one:

Agriculture is obviously enormously important in DPRK, and twice a year people from the city "volunteer" to go help with planting and harvest.  Eun Mee explained that they begin doing this in junior high, and continue most of their lives.  She herself had one more tour after ours, and then would be going with her friends to plant peanuts and beans (although usually people help with rice farming, such as was happening in the picture above).  

Eun Mee said the rationale behind this is that people should be connected to their food and their farming past, but it seems clear that it is also necessary because without fuel, farming becomes very labour intensive (after six plus hours of driving in the countryside, I only saw two tractors operating, compared to literally hundreds of people working and maybe a dozen oxen).  In any case, Eun Mee genuinely seemed excited for her time planting, and certainly, as far as I could tell, the people we drove by seemed to be having a good time.

Just as we entered Pyongyang, we passed the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery, built to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Korean War.  Unfortunately we did not get to stop here, but it seems like a very nice spot.  This was my second clue that Pyongyang would not appear as poor as I expected (the first was how clean the highway was!).

Another thing that you can see in the picture above is that there are bike lanes along the highway, with a good divider separating them from the car lanes.  This superb bike infrastructure was evident elsewhere in Pyongyang (see below, along the river), and also impressed me a great deal.  

Of course, far more people cycle than drive in DPRK, again due to poverty/lack of fuel, so even the roads themselves are pretty empty.

The poster below greeted us at the first major intersection in Pyongyang, but we probably saw at least half a dozen like this during out trip at various intersections.  Most of them (like this one) feature both Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il (who is the father of current leader Kim Jong Un).

Kim Il Sung is the "Eternal President" of DPRK, and also played a major role in liberating the Korean peninsula from Japanese occupation.  He governed DPRK into the 1990s, and I assume few leaders have had such an impact on their nation.  My sense is that someone like him would be considered a genuine hero in most countries, but obviously DPRK has gotten carried away in terms of the cult and propaganda (which actually began as early as 1949) surrounding the Kims.

Our driving tour of Pyongyang continued along Ryugyong Street (ryugyong means "willow") past this unique apartment building;

the Eternal Tower built by Kim Jong Il in honour of his father;

the TV tower, and a monument built to honour Chinese participation in the Korean War;

DPRK's incredible Arch of Triumph (bigger than Paris's, because DPRK likes doing things big, apparently);

the Chollima Statue (Chollima is a mythical Asian horse which was adopted into DPRK mythology to motivate rapid development);

the approximately four hundred year old Taedong Gate (the Taedong River is Pyongyang's main river--and also the name of the most popular DPRK beer);

the as-yet-unfinished, but nonetheless impressive Ryugyong Hotel (begun in the 1980s, it would have been the tallest building in the world had it been finished within its original timeline; now, Eun Mee says it should be done in a couple of years);

the Mansudae Assembly Hall (national legislature);

a new theatre (not clear what the name is);

and the largest Children's Palace in the country (and the one Eun Mee went to as a child).

Children's palaces are where children go for after school extracurricular activities, which are taken very seriously in DPRK, as we would learn later.

Most of these sites we would drive by multiple times during out visit to DPRK, so we got to know some of them quite well.  Others, including many I did not get a chance to photograph, we simply saw once and barely had time to take in.  Andrea and I were both stunned at the size, impressiveness, and sheer number of public buildings, from monuments to theatres, to libraries, to sports venues, and so on.

Our first chance to get out of the little bus that was taking us around was at Mansudae Hill, quite close to the Mansudae Assembly Hall.  Mansudae Hill is where enormous statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il stand, and prior to visiting we were encouraged to buy flowers.

My bouquet included a Kimjongilia (the red flower), a hybrid cultivated by a Japanese botanist and obviously named after Kim Jong Il.

We then walked up the hill to see the statues, and "pay our respects."

There used to just be the Kim Il Sung statue on Mansudae Hill, but soon after Kim Jong Il died, they added his.

From the hill we had a view across the Taedong River; 

the Chollima Statue;

the Workers Party Monument across the river (which you can see in the picture below, which I took closer by; unlike in other countries, the Communist Party's symbol includes a "writer's brush" as well as a sickle and hammer);

and an open-air stadium in which thousands of school children were sitting.

Apparently this was some normal after-school event for children, although it was not explained to us in more detail than that.

From Mansudae Hill we drove a short distance along the river to Kim Il Sung Square, Pyongyang's massive main square, which hosts parades and celebrations, some of which include parading missiles and tanks.

We were dropped off right by the river (next to the nice bike lanes), across from the Juche Tower.  

We were to learn more about "juche" in the coming days; in Eun Mee's words: "man is the master of his destiny, and also the driving force of his destiny."  Andrea wonders if Eun Mee (who would later tell us that in DPRK "the burden on the women is very great") would like a paraphrase that says "woman is the master of her destiny, and also the driving force of her destiny."

Juche is ostensibly a philosophy developed by Kim Il Sung to replace communism, and is more often simply explained as "self-reliance."  To some extent DPRK's attachment to juche explains its self-isolation in the world, and particularly its refusal to fall in line with either the USSR or China.  

Eventually I asked Eun Mee if we could walk further into the square on our own, and she said go ahead "but don't cross the road."  

There were two roads, so we opted for a more conservative interpretation of her instructions (i.e., don't cross any road), but once she realized we had understood her in this way, she told us we could cross the first but not the second.  

You can still see the paint on the square and road from a recent parade and assembly.

While walking in the square I was passed by a group of school boys, who were eager to say "hello" to me.  Throughout our time in DPRK we found that school children were very excited to see us and alternated between bravery and shyness in terms of interacting with us.  Later a bus full of children passed us, and kids leaning out the window yelled "hello" and waved enthusiastically.

From Kim Il Sung Square we drove past Pyongyang's main train station to the Puhung metro station on the Chollima line, one of Pyongyang's two, 1960s-era metro lines.  

In the past tourists have only been allowed to ride the metro from Puhung to Yonggwang station (one stop away), which are the most recently-completed stations (added in 1987), but apparently recently these restrictions have been lifted, and some tourists have ridden both lines from start to finish.

Nonetheless, we just did the "classic" two-stop trip, from Puhung (the uppermost left station on the map), to Yonggwang (one to the right). 

The Pyongyang metro was built to double as a network of bomb shelters, so it is the deepest metro system in the world (over 100 metres underground).  The escalator down was the longest I have ever ridden on, and took about three minutes to descend.  Meanwhile, patriotic music played over speakers.

The metro stations are each decorated according to a patriotic theme, and some say the Puhung and Yonggwang stations are the most lavishly done (although photos I have seen suggest they may just be typical). In any case, the chandeliers, elegant staircases, and gorgeous paintings and mosaics were stunning.  

I was also intrigued by the newspaper stands, which contained pages of the newspaper that passengers could read while waiting.  

But really the metro is amazing in an antique way, and certainly not in a "I can't believe how efficient and modern this system is" way, as elsewhere in east Asia.  As an example of this: I was excited to get to manually open the metro car doors, rather than have them open automatically or at the push of a button.  Nonetheless, old or otherwise, the metro system is obviously "real," despite comments I had read previously suggesting that it might consist of only a handful of stations and be solely to show off for tourists.  I am embarrassed now, feeling like I was the victim of American or Western propaganda.  Of course, the metro itself is not free from propaganda; as elsewhere, smiling portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il watched over us.

After our metro tour we ascended to street level, where we met the bus.  

Then it was off to dinner.  Unlike the metro, our restaurant did seem to be just for tourists.  

We ate at a table with the Chinese tourists, while the guides ate in a separate room.  The food was delicious, although unmemorable, but what was memorable was how quickly the Chinese ate!  I think I was halfway done eating and they were already up and outside waiting.  Eun Mee felt bad and told us "Chinese always eat fast, take your time." But of course we felt pressured to hurry, and I learned a lesson for the rest of the trip--skip the soup, it takes too much time to eat!

From the restaurant we drove to a hotel nearby, where we dropped off five of the six Chinese tourists, plus their guide.  We had not expected that we would be staying at different hotels, but apparently the Chinese tourists had the option of choosing a cheaper hotel, which five of the six had.

The bus continued back through Pyongyang, past the train station and over a bridge to a small island in the Taedong called Yanggakdo, which means something like "ship's horn."

There are several buildings on Yanggakdo, including, on the island's northern tip, the Yanggakdo International Hotel.  

Internet consensus seems to be that this is the second nicest of the hotels Westerners can stay at in Pyongyang.  Somewhat like the metro system, it had a tired elegance about it, and I can imagine Westerners on business here might be unimpressed.  For us, however, it was one of the nicer places we stayed in Asia.

Our room, on the 44th floor, was perfectly adequate, although the phone looked somewhat out-of-date.

After checking in, we wanted to tour the hotel a bit, so we headed back down to the main floor.  The main floor and basement are full of various shops, restaurants, bars, and other amenities.  We visited one shop where we could buy bottled water; window shopped in the souvenir store; and bought an English language newspaper in the bookstore.  We went down to the basement, and saw the very dilapidated casino, but there was not much down there to look at, so instead we headed to the very top of the hotel, where there is a revolving restaurant.

There we sat, drank a beer, and looked out over Pyongyang.  It was well after dark now, and while some buildings were lit up, and some street lights were visible, it was still obvious that DPRK does not use electricity to the extent that most large cities in the rest of the world do.  We would notice other signs of this over the next couple days.