Hoechang
I was proud to be part of the first Western tourist group ever to be allowed to visit Hoechang County north of Pyongyang, but the visit proved to be a mixed bag. Of course the ultra paranoia that comes with visiting a new place was entirely expected, but being unable to convince our minders to let us walk a couple hundred feet down the road to the main city square was disappointing to say the least, as was being physically imprisoned by padlock and chain inside the hotel at night lest we somehow try to escape to see anything unsupervised.
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The drive north of Pyongyang was interesting as high rises gave way to low rises, and city life definitely looked grittier. Of course even as the urban landscaped changed, the ubiquitous pictures of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il remained a constant presence.
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I liked the simplicity of this shot, a manual laborer walking home from work in front of a pretty blue building facade.
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Heading farther north outside the city, anti-aircraft guns ring the hilltops above apartment blocks.
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North Korean country roads always double as places to relax because there are so few cars. Here, a friendly work crew stops to enjoy lunch.
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In a place with almost no vehicular traffic, our bus attracted the attention of everyone we passed.
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The aforementioned Hoechang Guesthouse. Our tiny group had the run of the place, but we were never there except when we were physically locked inside at bedtime. As we watched the chains and padlock affixed to the front door, we took some solace in remembering that concrete and marble are not flammable.
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Hoechang's gorgeous town square. These pictures had to be taken from our moving bus because the city bosses refused to let us walk here freely, despite the fact that this square was literally just down the street from our hotel. The excuse given was that the local people were not used to seeing tourists. This was beyond ridiculous, given that our bus had "Korea International Travel Company" written in giant letters in Korean along both sides, and smiling locals often waved at us as we drove by.
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What was billed as the highlight of our tour to Hoechang (and indeed, the only reason we were allowed to see this part of North Korea), the vast system of caves and underground barracks that served as the Korean War headquarters of the Chinese Army. Previously only Chinese tour groups were allowed here. We were the first Western tourists granted permission to visit.
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Local guide shows us the guesthouse where Kim Il Sung stayed when he visited the Chinese.
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The end of the road, for us anyway. This is as far north as we were allowed to travel before we had to turn around and go back the way we came. What lies beyond the red & yellow symbol of the Korean Workers Party on the left or the peeling paint of that green apartment building on the right will forever remain a mystery.
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This guy is apparently the head honcho in this part of North Korea. He accompanied us during our entire stay to "facilitate" our movement around the area, and our guides and handlers were always exceedingly deferential to him.
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Next stop on our tour of Chinese revolutionary sites, the Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, a graveyard of Chinese soldiers who gave their lives defending North Korea during the Korean War. Below is the entry way to the cemetery.
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Impressive statue of a Chinese soldier at the entrance to the main cemetery grounds.
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The centerpiece of the cemetery is the grave of Mao Anying, eldest son of Mao Zedong, who was killed during an airstrike during the Korean War. A lot of people on the outside world are frustrated by the cozy relationship between China and North Korea, but this alliance goes back decades and has been cemented in blood so it is not an easy thing for China to simply discard just because the rest of the world wishes it would.
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Some snapshots of the graves inside the Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. The third one down is, in effect, a Tomb of an Unknown Soldier since the Chinese characters say that the name of the person interred below has been lost to history.
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Some of the pavilion artwork at the Chinese martyrs cemetery.
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In one of the strangest unplanned "only in North Korea" moments, despite our handlers' best attempts to keep the local people as far away from us as possible, when we returned to our hotel after a few hours' worth of sightseeing, the street was jam packed with Koreans rehearsing for the upcoming Korean Workers Party Congress festivities. There was nothing preventing us from simply walking up to the musicians and onlookers and whipping out our cameras. The locals seemed shy but intrigued. We had a blast. Only our handlers appeared upset with the whole situation.
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One of the most educational things about driving through the North Korean countryside is seeing how nearly all farm work is done by hand.
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The Koreans are nothing if not resourceful. Here, potholes in the dirt road are simply filled with small rocks.
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A very pretty spring day snapshot, or so it seems. We were forbidden from taking pictures of anything with soldiers in it, and this included the many military checkpoints in and out of Pyongyang. What seems like an idyllic picture is actually at one such checkpoint while the guards examined our paperwork. I knew I would be seen taking this photograph, and I fully expected to have an angry soldier march over to me to demand that the photos I was taking be inspected and possibly deleted. But the scene was too pretty to pass up so I took the risk anyway, figuring that when the guards did look at my camera, they too would think it was a pretty picture and let me keep it. Nothing happened. No one saw me after all. A pity too, because if I had known I would get away with this shot I would have tilted the camera slightly downward to include the heavily armed soldiers with the cherry blossoms. Instead I have this peaceful shot, knowing that a phalanx of guards is just cropped out of this deceptively serene vignette. Proof once and for all that in North Korea seeing is not believing.
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Flower-festooned portraits of the country's leaders can only mean one thing: we're almost back in Pyongyang. Or any other city in North Korea, for that matter!
