Fifty photos from
Barbara Stein's group tour to
Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
September 1-3,
2011
On September 1, 2011 Ted and I
began our three-day/two-night tour with a two-hour flight on an Air Koryo
Russian-built Tupolev 204-300 jet
from Beijing to
Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, the capital of the
Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The first evening, after
checking in at the Yanggakdo International Hotel, we attended the Arirang Grand
Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance. More commonly known as the "Mass
Games," according to Guinness World Records, these are the world's biggest
choreographed spectacle, with over 100,000 performers (80,000 on the field and
20,000 in the grandstand) . The games are held at the Rungrado May Day Stadium. See www.pbase.com/bolla49/arirang for more photos.
About 20,000 participants in the grandstand manipulated flash cards (R) in order to display various images
such as this portrait of Kim Il-sung
(L) and the various landscapes and exhortations shown above.
On the morning of September 2 our tour began with a visit to the
Monument to
the Victorious Fatherland
Liberation War, otherwise known in the West as the Korean
War.
L & center: We continued to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, which features a large wall mural of Kim Il-sung.
R: A female museum guide lectured to our group about the War.
The museum contains various U. S. and Korean war materiel from the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War ...
... and also a Russian-style
circular panoramic painting (L) of the Victorious Fatherland War.
Afterward we drove to the USS
Pueblo (R). Captured in 1968, the U. S. naval vessel is now a museum. These bullet holes (center) on the USS Pueblo are highlighted with red paint.
L: Ted and I posed across the
river from the Tower of the Juche
Idea ("self-reliance"). Center: Ted snapped me sitting with fellow
participants on our tour bus. R: A
policewoman directed Pyongyang's very sparse traffic near Kim Il-sung
Square downtown.
L & center: A bulgogi (Korean
BBQ) lunch was served to our group on a riverboat. R:
Afterward we drove to Mangyongdae Native House, Kim Il-sung's
birthplace.
Then we rode on the Pyongyang metro, passing through five stations. Open from 6 AM to 9 PM, this is the
world's deepest subway system (the stations
can double as bomb shelters), with two intersecting lines.
Pyongyang's buildings: L:
Pyramid-shaped Ryugyong Hotel and office building (under construction),
Center: Arch of Triumph, R: TV
Tower.
We ascended the 150-meter-high
Tower of the Juche
Idea ("self-reliance"), which
commemorates the 70th birthday of Kim Il-sung.
Although we had to pay EUR 5 (about USD 7) each to ride the tower elevator, at
least the panoramic city views from the top were superb. L: The Yanggakdo
International Hotel, where we stayed,
is the tower at the tip of the island beyond the bridge. Center: Pyongyang is compact, with little urban sprawl. Agricultural fields begin just beyond the built-up area.
R: From the Tower of the Juche Idea we spied these older, single-story buildings tucked in between residential towers near the city center.
L: From the Tower of the Juche Idea we could see Rungrado May Day Stadium where the Mass Games are staged. The final destination on our tour with a political message was the Party Foundation Monument (center and R). Erected in 1995, this sculpture celebrates 50 years of rule by the Workers' Party of Korea.
Pyongyang's buildings: L:
Pyramid-shaped Ryugyong Hotel and office building (under construction),
Center: Arch of Triumph, R: TV
Tower. We ascended the 150-meter-high
Tower of the Juche
Idea ("self-reliance"), which
commemorates the 70th birthday of Kim Il-sung.
Although we had to pay EUR 5 (about USD 7) each to ride the tower elevator, at
least the panoramic city views from the top were superb. L: The Yanggakdo
International Hotel, where we stayed, is the tower at the tip of the island beyond the bridge. Center: Pyongyang is compact, with little urban sprawl. Agricultural fields begin just beyond the built-up area.
R: From the Tower of the Juche Idea we spied these older, single-story buildings tucked in between residential towers near the city center.
L: From the Tower of the Juche Idea we could see Rungrado May Day Stadium where the Mass Games are staged. The final destination on our tour with a political message was the Party Foundation Monument (center and R). Erected in 1995, this sculpture celebrates 50 years of rule by the Workers' Party of Korea.
The hammer, sickle and writing brush represent
the worker, the peasant and the intellectual.
In the early evening, after
stopping at a department store, we were given some free time at Pyongyang's
Gold Lane Bowling Alley, where we wrote a few
postcards.
After dinner at the Hot Pot Restaurant, we drove to an amusement park where non-Koreans were charged EUR 2 or EUR 3 per person (USD 3 or
USD 4) for most rides. During our 75 minutes there I took a number of photos of locals. This was the final stop in our 14-hour day of touring, which
included three meals, two of which were taken
outside the hotel.
Early on our final morning Ted
took this photo of Pyongyang
from our room on the sixteenth
floor of the Yanggakdo International Hotel. The Tower of the Juche Idea is visible in the
distance, to the right of the bridge. After breakfast our group took a bus to Pyongyang's
floor of the Yanggakdo International Hotel. The Tower of the Juche Idea is visible in the
distance, to the right of the bridge. After breakfast our group took a bus to Pyongyang's
To book this and other exciting tours and
cruises, please contact:
Barbara Stein, Senior Agent
Post Haste Travel Virtuoso
4415 Sheridan St., Hollywood, FL 33021-3513
Tels. 800-881-7690, 954-966-7690. Fax
954-966-7706. worldcruisers@gmail.com
December 30, 2011
