From the bizarre to the bold, North Korea boasts some truly unique destinations for foreign visitors. Here are a few of our favourites:
Rajin Foreigners’ Clinic
This clinic, located behind the restaurant below the Rajin hotel, offers basic medical care and massage services to visiting tourists and business people. Consultations cost 20 RMB. The doctor here can put patients on a saline drip: a common catchall treatment in the DPRK. For more serious health problems, however, tourists are advised to visit a hospital. The clinic has a well-stocked bar, selling beer and a variety of spirits from around the world.
Yanggakdo Hotel
Over the last few years a great story has made its way around the internet regarding this hotel; namely that on the fifth floor surveillance of the guest rooms takes place. Sometimes it is even said that the fifth floor is actually a place of interrogation or a depository for the works of the leaders in the event of war breaking out. However, the truth is these claims can be traced back to one specific tour leader spinning exaggerated stories about why the elevators in the hotel have no button marked 5.
Youth Hero Highway
This vast 10 lane, almost entirely empty highway running between Pyongyang and Nampo was built under the direction of Kim Jong Il by ‘young people’ (ages 17-40, not child labor) and is considered to be one of the great feats of engineering of the modern state.
The highway is noteworthy for being constructed during the famine of the 1990s. The road is actually very bumpy and potholed and would benefit greatly from a total overhaul. And despite being under-used, it often seen being worked on by road construction workers. Still, this highway does make for good photos of a huge near-empty runway, so if you’re on a tour bus, go and sit at the front, this is where the best pictures come from.