After an extremely early start to the day, years of hard work paid off as YPT became quite the first western tourists to enter the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea since it closed due to Covid-19 over 5 years ago now.
Until just a few days ago, this trip had been hanging in the balance until some frantic letter writing, emails and meetings finally persuaded the Rason Economic Zone to allow us in on business visas. Our mission – to see how things were on the ground in Rason, and more importantly to pave the way for us bringing tourist groups to the zone.
Crossing The Line
Despite staying in Hunchun the night before we still needed about an hour to get to the border which opened at 8 am. The Chinese side were extremely friendly, if somewhat intrigued by why four Lao Wai wanted to cross into the DPRK. The initial assumption had been that we must be Russian. This was to prove to be the quick part…
On the DPR Korea side, things were a little more bureaucratic with one needing multiple stamps, as well as providing a full inventory of our cache of electronics before being allowed in. This is not to say they were not friendly though, with the overall tone being very welcoming. It did though take take about four hours to actually cross.
Once through, we were met by our DPR Korean team, which included Mr Moon, one of my favourite guides in all of the country. Things were looking up…
The Pippa Hotel
The journey to our hotel from the border took about an hour with the views I had not seen in over 5 years feeling both familiar and, if I am honest, a little bit surreal. After all, this was something we have been quite literally dreaming about, so would it end up an anticlimax? This fear abated at least a little bit when we got to the Pippa Hotel, a place I initially stayed in when it first opened. Said hotel is located in Sonbong near the new disused Imperial Hotel and Casino. The rooms here are not just great, but so are the staff and amenities.
We were served lunch in the hotel where we were treated to classic Korean meat dishes, salad, vegetables and of course North Korean kimchi a far superior product to its South Korean cousin. What I also enjoyed about the lunch here, and in Korea in general, is that accompanying it with beer is not just socially acceptable, but expected. Yes, we were kind of at work, but hey who does not like the odd bit of day drinking.
Touring Rason
With our stomachs fed, we went straight out to do some classic Rason tourism stuff starting with a performance at a Taekwondo gym. Many might not know this, but a previous schism means that there are actually two world governing bodies of the sport, one by the north and you guessed it one by the south. I have been told that while the southern version is more “commercial” the one in the north is more “raw”. The performance though was outstanding and you can truly see why the DPR Koreans have such a fierce reputation.
This trip was followed by us heading to the Rason Schoolchildren’s Palace where the Young Pioneers of whom we get our name from come for extra-curricular activities. We saw some great musical performances, and even taking part in and impromptu English class. It is largely these small pleasures in the DPRK that we find guests truly enjoy.
Our touring was finished with some visits to hotels we may use for future tours, a visit to Rajin square and some important business chats. Obviously we cannot go into too many details about these, but suffice to say that tourism in the DPRK, or at least in Rason is looking good.
Dinner, drinks and internet in North Korea
Dinner was held at a new restaurant that none of the group had been to before and was frankly another slam dunk, It again included a lot of meat dishes, but also local fish and their version of a chip that I got to coat in vinegar. The vinegar in the DPRK is both strong and epic and something I may write about at some point. At this point at least we stuck to beer.
One of the reasons we had chosen said hotel was because they had promised internet, but being North Korea this was easier said than done, with it taking about 2 hours for us eventually to end up online. You will often hear that there is no internet in the DPRK, this is not true, but let’s just say it is not all that readily available. After sharing our story with the world we then decided to explore our hotel which not only took us to the sauna and karaoke rooms, but also into purchasing some local soju, after all when in Rome (or rather Rason).
Overall though it was not just a fun day out, or simply nice to be back in a country and region that we hold dearly to our hearts, but it was productive. OK, so we have not taken any tourists (yet), but while the door might not yet be fully open, it is certainly ajar.
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