Tourism « North Korean Economy Watch

Archive for the ‘Tourism’ Category

Hoeryong: New Chinese tourist destination

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Pictured Above (Google Earth): Two Google Earth satellite images of Hoeryong (L: 2002-4-27, R: 2008-12-25) which show the construction of residential apartments buildings as well as the town’s new main market.

Hoeryong is a town in North Hamgyong Province that lies across the Tumen (Tuman) River from China. According to North Korean political narratives it is also the childhood home of Kim Jong-il’s mother, Kim Jong-suk. It has been the the site of a large construction boom in the last five years, and now, according to the Daily NK, Chinese tourists are being brought in on very limited itineraries. According to the article:

The Hoiryeong source explained, “North Hamkyung Province ‘shock troops’ and military unit construction teams have been here for three years on Kim Jong Il’s orders for the construction, and now it is finished.” Local households were asked to contribute 12,000 North Korean Won each to the construction effort, he added.

Hoiryeong used to have few buildings with five floors, but now it has a considerable number of new four and five floor apartment buildings built around the center of the city, as well as a number of newly built commercial facilities. Buildings in the downtown core have also been spruced up with external lighting, a project that began last April.

There are a number of new restaurants in the area. One, ‘Hoiryeonggwan’, has been decorated in the style of Pyongyang’s famous ‘Okryugwan’, something that Kim Jong Il is said to have ordered in December 2010 when he visited the construction site. Elsewhere, restaurants serving spicy marinated beef, duck, dog and Chinese food have also opened their doors.

However, these restaurants only currently open on the weekend or when Chinese tour groups make an advanced reservation, according to the source, who revealed that local people regard the construction effort more as an attempt to generate tourist revenue than to make it a real ‘model city’, as the official propaganda claims.

“Chinese tourists come, then they visit the statue of Kim Jong Suk and the place where she grew up, and then they are taken to one or other of the restaurants,” the source said. “They drink and make merry then go, all without visiting any scenic spots; thus, the authorities make money.”

As with other tourist operations, it is possible that this small step will lead to a softening of restrictive tourism regulations and potentially the arrival of Western tourists. But don’t hold your breath! Chinese tourists have been visiting Sinuiju on a regular basis, but westerners are generally still prohibited from touring the city

Additional Information:

1. On the opening of Hoeryong’s “Food Avenue”

2. Succession not popular in Hoeryong

Read the full story here:
Model City or Tourist Trap: Hoiryeong Sparkles
Daily NK
Choi Song Min
2012-10-15

Posted in 2012 Strong and Prosperous Nation (Kangsong Taeguk), China, Construction, Food, Real estate, Restaurants, Tourism | 1 Comment »

Koryo Tours visits the Ryugyong Hotel

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

The most recent Koryo Tours newsletter contains the first photos of the Ryugyong Hotel (inside and from the top)!

See the newsletter here. It contains some useful information on the project:

On Sept 23rd Koryo Tours’ staff were taken to the top of the enigmatic and oddly iconic 105 storey Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang – we were the first foreigners allowed to take pictures there and are able to print a handful of shots of the ground floor and the open air viewing platform more than 300 metres up.

The view was incredible and breathtaking indeed! The inside of the building still has substantial work to be done but the structure of the lobby and dining area and conference room (all on the ground floor) were visible, sources at the site suggest 2 or 3 more years until projected completion at which time hotel rooms, office space, and long term rentals will be available.

Amazing photos!

Koryo Tours also just finished a film in the DPRK: Comrade Kim Goes Flying.

You too can join the Koryo Tours email list by sending them your contact info: [email protected]

Posted in Construction, Koryo Tours, Orascom Telecom Holding, Tourism | 3 Comments »

Some stuff from Koryo Tours

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

Comrade Kim Goes Flying…a film by British entrepreneur and Koryo Tours founder Nick Bonner (who also did The Game of their Lives, A State of Mind, and Crossing the Line) and a North Korean film production team.

See the film’s official web page here (includes screening dates and cast/crew).

See the film’s Facebook Page here.

See a film clip on YouTube here.

See CCTV coverage here (in English).

BBC coverage here.

See Nick Bonner talking about the film at the Toronto International Film Festival here.

More on the Pyongyang Film Festival here, here and here.

Also…

Love North Korea Children Charity Event in Shanghai
On September 25th, the UK-based charity Love North Korea Children will hold an event in Shanghai. Hannah Barraclough from Koryo Tours will also attend this event and will be able to answer any questions you may have.

Location: The Public
Address: Sinan Mansions Block 2 4/F, 507 Fuxing Zhong Lu, near ChongQing Lu
Date: 25th September
Starting time: 7PM (19:00)
Entrance: 150 CNY

For more information, please contact: [email protected]

*Love the North Korean Children’s official web page is here. I have previously blogged about their bakery in Rason here. LNKC recently build a bakery in Sariwon.

Posted in Art, Film, Food, International Aid, Koryo Tours, Love North Korean Children, Tourism | 1 Comment »

Chinese customs confiscate North Korean wildlife products

Monday, September 3rd, 2012

By Michael Rank

Pictured above: North Korean tiger bone wine in Rason tourist shop (Source here)

Chinese visitors to North Korea are increasingly bringing back endangered wildlife products, a Chinese website reports (http://www.#removed-for-malware-warning-external-site#idprkorea.com/news/news/view.asp?id=2446).

Between January and July this year Dandong customs have confiscated 137 bottles of tiger bone wine, five bears’ gall bladders weighing 172 grams and five boxes of powdered bears’ gall bladders weighing 50 grams.

It gave no further details but said such confiscations have increased with the growing numbers of Chinese tourists visiting North Korea. It noted that under China’s law on trade in endangered species traffickers can be fined or in more serious cases face criminal proceedings.

North Korea is known to have been involved in rhino horn smuggling in Africa and tiger bone wine is available in tourist shops in North Korea where it is popular with Chinese visitors on account of its alleged aphrodisiac properties. But it is not clear how much, if any, tiger bone the wine actually contains, or where it is derived from.

There is strong demand for bile from bears’ gall bladders throughout East Asia, with large numbers of bears being farmed for this purpose in China and South Korea, although the governments of both countries say the industry is coming under increasingly strict control. Little is known about bear farms in North Korea.

Posted in China, Environmental protection, Illicit activities, International trade, Tourism | Comments Closed

North Koreans visiting China rose in 2011

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

According to Yonhap:

The number of North Korean visitors to China increased drastically since then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s tour of the North’s biggest communist ally early last year, Chinese government data shows.

The data on the entry of foreigners obtained Sunday by Yonhap News Agency showed that 152,000 North Koreans entered China in 2011, a sharp rise from 116,000 the previous year. Out of the total, 114,000 were businessmen and laborers.

The comparable figures were 116,000 in 2010, 103,000 in 2009, 101,000 in 2008, 113,000 in 2007 and 110,000 in 2006.

The sharp rise is attributed to the visit to China by late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in May last year, apparently to enhance bilateral economic cooperation.

The Beijing government said at the time that Kim was invited “so he could have the chance to grasp the developments in China and make the most of them for the development of North Korea.”

The number of North Korean visitors to China will likely increase further this year as China has received 88,000 North Koreans for the first six months this year alone.

Read the full story here:
N. Korean visitors to China rise drastically since last year: data
Yonhap
2012-7-29

Posted in China, Tourism | Comments Closed

Comrade Kim Goes Flying

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

The first collaborative film project between the DPRK and western producers, Comrade Kim Goes Flying, will premier at the 2012 Pyongyang International Film Festival.

If you would like to attend the film festival with Koryo Tours to see the film, click here.

Yonhap reports:

As the North’s first romantic comedy feature film, the movie was produced by the communist country in partnership with Belgian producer Anja Daelemans and British-run travel agency Koryo Tours’ official Nick Bonner. The film was shot in Pyongyang with North Korean cast and crew, according to the report.

The biennial festival also plans to screen feature films including “Mr. Bean,” “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” and a South African movie titled “Cry, The Beloved Country,” the report said, citing Koryo Tours, which runs tour programs to the North for the film fest.

Without giving too much away, the plot of the film revolves around the daughter of a coal miner who wants to be a gymnast in Pyongyang.

UPDATE: This story was picked up in the New York Times on 2012-7-30.

Posted in Art, Film, Koryo Tours, Tourism | Comments Closed

Inter-Korean visits drop 7% in 2012

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

According to Yonhap:

The total number of South and North Koreans visiting each other’s country fell nearly seven percent in the first five months of 2012 from a year earlier, the Seoul government said Tuesday, as tensions persist over the North’s deadly attacks on the South in recent years.

A total of 47,432 South Koreans visited North Korea in the January-May period, while no North Koreans visited the South, according to data from the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs. The figure is down 6.9 percent from the same period last year, when the number of inter-Korean visits reached 50,925, including 13 North Koreans who visited the South.

Read the full story here:
Inter-Korean visits drop 7 pct this year
Yonhap
2012-7-10

Posted in Demographics, International trade, South Korea, Statistics, Tourism, Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

DPRK tourism estimates

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Koryo Tours reports:

Last year, around 3,500 Western and 40,000 Chinese tourists traveled to North Korea, according to Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which accounts for about 50% of the Western tourists each year. That total includes American citizens.

“We would estimate that around 500 or 600 American citizens visit every year,” Nick Bonner, a Brit who founded Koryo in 1993, told Ad Age in an email interview. “There is a lot more to the country then you hear about from either North Korean or Western press.

Read the full story here:
Curious Westerners Making North Korea a Vacation Spot
AdAgeGlobal
Rupal Parekh
2012-6-12

Posted in Koryo Tours, Tourism | Comments Closed

Visa-free Rason tourism for Chinese citizens

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

According to Choson Exchange:

Chinese tourists will have visa free access to the border regions linking Yanbian Autonomous Region, Rason Special Economic Zone and Russia, according to a report originating with Jilin Radio that surfaced in South Korean media today.

The report doesn’t give an date for implementation, but does state that the previous tourism agreement governing the border region (signed in 2010) will be streamlined. It still takes 10 days for a Chinese traveler to get permission to visit Rason. This process will drop to 2-3 days.

If accurate, this could go a long way towards boosting tourism in the SEZ. After all, a Beijinger or Shanghaiian might well be more willing to spend the money to visit the region if they can get two countries in the same trip. At the risk of overgeneralizing, Asian tourists seem eager maximize passport stamps above all else on international tours. This desire could be effectively exploited if Rason and Russia’s Primorsky Krai province coordinate their marketing.

Also, now that the road to Rason is paved, the ease with which Chinese gamblers can reach the Emperor Casino and Hotel greatly increases and arguably makes the destination seem more normal and therefore attractive. One wonders if the casino’s fleet of crimson humvees, once needed to whisk high-rollers along the laborious dirt road from, will now be replaced by Mercedes or Lexuses. (Lexi?)

Last year, the SEZ experimented with self-drive tours for Chinese citizens, though there has yet to be any follow-up on it.

For westerner tourists thinking of visiting Rason, we recommend Krahun, a company that has had a presence in Rason for over a decade and know the region exceptionally well.

Read the full story here:
Visa Free Rason Tourism for Chinese Citizens
Choson Exchange
Andray Abrahamian
2012-5-29

Posted in Automobiles, China, Gambling, Rason Economic and Trade Zone (Rajin-Sonbong), Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Sports, Tourism, Transportation | Comments Closed

KPA Exhibition of Arms and Equipment

Saturday, April 28th, 2012

Rain ruined my plans this Saturday morning, so I thought I would play around on Google Earth. Today’s target: the newly completed KPA Exhibition of Arms and Equipment in Pyongyang.

Pictured above (KCNA): Kim Jong-un formally opens the exhibition. Pyongyang Times coverage here and here (PDF).

It is located in Mangyongdae-guyok and is sandwiched between the Kim Il-sung Military University and the Sosan Sports District. The Google Earth imagery of the facility is too old to show the completed structure, but there is enough construction to be positive about the location. Below, I have used Google Earth to draw out more of the facility using North Korean video footage:

The work I did on the image above is based on video footage of Kim Jong-un’s visit. You can see the video footage here. If there is anyone out there who is trained to identify North Korean military equipment, I would like to know more about what is on display here.

Visitors to the exhibit can peruse all sorts of armored vehicles, airplanes, artillery, and navy equipment. There is space for an open air orchestra and choir to perform. There is also a small train ride that travels around the exhibit giving riders the chance to get a quick glance of the KPA’s military machines as they pass by.

The video taken of the facility shows that at least some foreign visitors were welcomed to see the museum. This begs the question of whether foreign tourists in general will be allowed to inspect the KPA machinery and whether they will be allowed to take pictures of it. Maybe there is even a bar?

According to the Google Earth calculations, the main exhibit hall is 117m x 73m. The second exhibit hall is 77m x 60m.

Previously, this plot of land was occupied by a football field and the remains of the long-defunct Pyongyang Baseball/Softball stadium.

Posted in Military, Tourism | 4 Comments »

North Korean Economy Watch