Young Pioneer Tours
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Welcome to the Young Pioneer Tours Blog, the place where we we keep you informed about everything YPT, from current tours, to future tours and a whole lot of eclectic stuff in between.
YPT first started blogging in 2008 and are considered the best North Korean Travel blog that there is.
But, as Young Pioneer Tours have expanded our locations, so have we expanded our blog. Now we have one of the best travel blogs in the world!
And while most of our content is about the numerous destinations we go, including travel guides and what to pack, we also delve into more serious subjects such as the safety of certain destinations, as well as how LGTBQ+ friendly the places we visit are.
While the vast majority of our content is produced in-house, we are always on the look-out for guest bloggers and writers. Want to write for us? Then simply get in touch.
You can also check out our sister publication YPT Life.
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What does DPRK mean? What does DPRK stand for?
1 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
What does DPRK mean? What is the DPRK meaning? What does DPRK stand for? So, you have North Korea and South Korea. Or the DPRK, and the ROK. For South Korea, ROK means Republic of Korea. So, what does the DPR bit of DPRK mean? When you travel anywhere …
Air Koryo and its fleet
1 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Air Koryo gets a lot of unwarranted crap: from being the “world’s only one-star airline” to their infamous mystery burger, the poor airline takes a licking but keeps on ticking. In actuality, not only do they have an excellent safety record, but flying …
Understanding the Juche Calendar
1 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
What is the Juche Calendar? Is there such a thing as a Korean calendar? What year is it in North Korea? Whilst the world mostly sets its clock to when Jesus was born, there are in fact a ton of other calendars used by people around the world. There’s t …
Day of the Shining Star
1 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
There are many special times to visit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, one of which is the Day of the Shining Star. The Day of the Shining Star (Korean광명성절) is a major public holiday in North Korea and falls on February 16th – the birthday of …
Traveling to Kaesong and the DMZ
1 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Kaesong was the ancient capital city of the Koryo dynasty that ruled the Korean Peninsula. Nowadays the historic city is a UNESCO world heritage site containing a number of historical relics from the 10th-14th century. Incidentally, had it not been for …
North Korean Traffic Girls
1 May 2019 / by Nicolas Platt
Introduction to North Korean Traffic Girls One of the most recognizable sights on the streets of Pyongyang is the cities, renowned traffic girls. The beautiful women dressed in crisp, stunning blue and white uniforms standing in white circles at the ci …
The Holy Korean Mountains
1 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Korean Mountains are an important sceneic and cultural element to both sides of the Korean divide. Officially there are 5 sacred mountains on the Korean Peninsula (although Kim Jong Il kind of added a 6th). Of the five, three are located in the DPRK an …
Hotels of North Korea: Pothonggang Hotel
1 May 2019 / by Rowan Beard
Introduction to Pothonggang Hotel The Pothonggang Hotel (보통강려관) or also spelt as Potonggang was built in 1973 as a joint-venture between the late Reverend Moon leader of the Unification Church in South Korea and North Korea. The hotel is well-known in …
Kenji Fujimoto: personal sushi chef to Kim Jong Il
1 May 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Kenji Fujimoto was the personal sushi chef to General Kim Jong-Il. There are many anecdotes that do the rounds about Kim Jong Il’s former sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto, but who was he and where is he today? We explore the mystery! Who exactly was Kenji Fu …
