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Photos from inside North Korean Ryugyong Hotel
- angdis 14y agoFoursquare: 0 check-ins
- relix 14y agoSome interesting tidbits from wikipedia [1]: Construction began in 1987 but was halted in 1992 [...] resumed in 2008 [to be completed this year]. The unfinished building was not surpassed in height by any new hotel until the 2009 completion of the spire atop the Rose Tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel
- michaelwascher 14y agoThe travel site associated with this photo creeps me out...
- tomrod 14y agoWow. So it's mostly unfinished inside?
- aiurtourist 14y agoMost undoubtedly. Given my non-expert outsider cursory knowledge of North Korea, the hotel will likely never be finished and will remain for show. They'll probably finish the main lobby and a handful of rooms — just enough to give the impression of how grandiose it is. Keeping up appearances. Also, consider what happens to concrete being exposed like that for two decades. The concrete isn't meant for decades of weather, it's meant to be enclosed. The concrete degrades and becomes unsafe. Same thing has happened with a lot of the Dubai skyscrapers whose construction was halted, and they were only exposed for a few years (so says a Dubai contractor friend).
- rolux 14y agoJust some background info: The new contractor, Orascom [1], has been issued a licence to operate the North Korean 3G Network [2]. Orascom is both a telecommunications and a construction company. I doubt that their plan is to use the hotel exclusively as a giant antenna, but it's not unlikely that finishing the facade was a political priority, while operating the hotel is not. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orascom_Group http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orascom_Group [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel#Construction_resumes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel#Construction_res...
- hevyw8 14y agoIf you find this interesting, it will be worth your time to watch the series Vice did on their visit to North Korea. http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3 http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-n...
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoHuh, Koryo Tours. I knew you could get to North Korea from China, but I didn't know there were dedicated tour companies!
- iloveponies 14y agoYou have to use either Koryo or another government approved/run organisation for tourism inside the DPRK. http://wikitravel.org/en/North_Korea http://wikitravel.org/en/North_Korea
- tryitnow 14y agoThis got me reading up on buildings with 100+ floors. It's interesting to note how the US basically just gave up in the early '70s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_buildings_with_100_floors_or_more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_buildings_with_100_floo... What happened in the early 1970s? It seems like that was the beginning of the decline of American power. Tall buildings construction seems symbolic of that.
- jakeonthemove 14y agoIt's the same thing as with aircraft carriers - today, smaller, more maneuverable ships (hence the focus on VTOL, as well) and drones are favored over the huge floating islands that are basically sitting ducks. I think the reason for no more tall buildings is the lack of space in the big cities - nobody's going to build a skyscraper in the middle of nowhere, after all :-)...
- PakG1 14y agohttp://www.wired.com/design/2012/09/broad-sustainable-building-instant-skyscraper/all/?pid=917&viewall=true http://www.wired.com/design/2012/09/broad-sustainable-buildi... edit: found the HN discussion. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4574100 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4574100
- jakeonthemove 14y agoOh God... not that I don't trust the Chinese (they do tend to overpromise, though), but I really hope that building doesn't come down at the first earthquake or fire. Plus, building it in the middle of nowhere almost guarantees that it will become yet another abandoned property like the famous Chinese "ghost cities" and malls...
- PakG1 14y agoWell, the founder apparently was motivated by the whole Sichuan earthquake thing. Article says he wanted to figure out a way to cheaply and easily build tall buildings that were both environmentally friendly and earthquake safe. FWIW, the article says: Broad's design has aced 9.0-magnitude earthquake tests.
- chippy 14y agoSorry, but I cannot see any photos of inside the Hotel. Have they been taken down?
- chippy 14y agoahh, I can see one photo, a singular photo of the inside.