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>So.. you guys were carefully corralled in the city? N Korea is mostly rural, with most of its population barely able to get enough calories to eat. My tour gr

>So.. you guys were carefully corralled in the city? N Korea is mostly rural, with most of its population barely able to get enough calories to eat. My tour group was driven through the countryside all the way to the border with South Korea, and I took the train all the way to China. I was very careful to get photos of as many villagers as possible during the whole length of the country. There was poverty, of course -they could hardly hide it - but to be honest, I've seen a lot worse even in rural China. The only thing that really set it apart from other 3rd world countries was the lack of vehicles. Buses between towns were sparse and incredibly overcrowded and a not-insignificant number of people appeared to be walking or cycling between towns. Ironically they had a gleaming six lane highway that the tour guide bragged about being built during the 'arduous march' (google it), killing a lot of the workers. With propaganda like that who needs lies?

EliRivers 11y ago
I took the train all the way to China. Pyongyang to Dandong? I did that. Did you stay in Dandong? The contrast was a real mind screw. I sat in my hotel room in Dandong, overlooking the bridge; beneath me, Chinese boom town. Lights, cars, noise, street-hawkers, adverts. The bridge extending over the river, and half way across the coloured lights on it just stop. After that, darkness. No lights on the bridge, no lights on the land, nothing. I went to the True Love nightclub in Dandong, with the lights and the bouncing floor and the kids with tall hair and a floor show that was translated for me by a Singaporean accountant and a Canadian (both of whom I'd met in the DPRK), and self-medicated.
- crdoconnor 11y ago
  I did not, no, but I've been to many other Chinese cities just like it. Sinuiju is still an industrial city, so I wouldn't describe it in quite those terms. Still, Dandong does provide a stark contrast, and goes some way to explaining why North Korea's list of "countries that have the best quality of life" has China at #1 and NK at #2. It's impossible to deny that China is getting rich.

EliRivers 11y ago

I took the train all the way to China. Pyongyang to Dandong? I did that. Did you stay in Dandong? The contrast was a real mind screw. I sat in my hotel room in Dandong, overlooking the bridge; beneath me, Chinese boom town. Lights, cars, noise, street-hawkers, adverts. The bridge extending over the river, and half way across the coloured lights on it just stop. After that, darkness. No lights on the bridge, no lights on the land, nothing. I went to the True Love nightclub in Dandong, with the lights and the bouncing floor and the kids with tall hair and a floor show that was translated for me by a Singaporean accountant and a Canadian (both of whom I'd met in the DPRK), and self-medicated.

crdoconnor 11y ago
I did not, no, but I've been to many other Chinese cities just like it. Sinuiju is still an industrial city, so I wouldn't describe it in quite those terms. Still, Dandong does provide a stark contrast, and goes some way to explaining why North Korea's list of "countries that have the best quality of life" has China at #1 and NK at #2. It's impossible to deny that China is getting rich.