Forget Sarasota! Forget DisneyWorld! Heck, forget Paris and London!!
"Strapped for cash, reclusive North Korea is looking to attract foreign tourists to its forested mountains and showpiece capital, a travel industry official said.
“We definitely got the impression that people were quite keen to see more international visitors come in,” said Neil Plimmer, who recently led a team from the Pacific Asia Travel Association to the communist country to assess its tourism potential.
Top tourist attractions would include the forested mountains of Myohyang, the historic city of Kaesong close to the border with South Korea and capital Pyongyang, which Plimmer described as bustling with people, trams and ice cream sellers.
Few foreigners visit now
…According to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, 84,340 South Korean tourists and just 380 foreigners visited North Korea in 2002. Plimmer said foreign visitors, who mainly transit through Beijing, had dried up after the SARS outbreak hammered Asia’s tourist industry between March and July this year."
Korea’s economy still hasn’t recovered from the construction of the Ryugyong hotel.
It cost 2% of Korea’s GDP to build and has rooms to accommodate 100 times more visitors than the actual number permitted visas by the state each year.
It is by far the tallest building in North Korea and one of the tallest buildings in the World, however it has never been finished and is built to such low standards that it can only be demolished. Only thing is that Korea can’t afford the demolition cost either.
[quote]jarvis wrote:
Korea’s economy still hasn’t recovered from the construction of the Ryugyong hotel.
It cost 2% of Korea’s GDP to build and has rooms to accommodate 100 times more visitors than the actual number permitted visas by the state each year.
It is by far the tallest building in North Korea and one of the tallest buildings in the World, however it has never been finished and is built to such low standards that it can only be demolished. Only thing is that Korea can’t afford the demolition cost either.
[/quote]
I blew that shit up in the game Full Spectrum Warrior.
You can see how backward they are when looking at a ‘night sky’ map of the world. The developed countries are dotted with city lights. In fact you can practially see the border between north and south Korea because the north is almost completely black.
Check out Japan, one of the most advanced countries in the world, compared to their backward ass neighbors…
105 stories and 1,038ft. If completed it would be the tallest hotel and 7th largest building in the World (at least until the new Deli, Shanghai and Brunei towers get built).
You can see how backward they are when looking at a ‘night sky’ map of the world. The developed countries are dotted with city lights. In fact you can practially see the border between north and south Korea because the north is almost completely black.
Check out Japan, one of the most advanced countries in the world, compared to their backward ass neighbors…
nuff said.
(that was for you DB)[/quote]
I am now reaching into my computer, snaking my arms through the internet(s) and through your computer, just about got you…
throttle throttle choke bitch slap!
DB
Btw, that is a cool looking hotel, but who in their right mind builds a hotel that size, let alone in a country with so little to offer to tourists?
Btw, that is a cool looking hotel, but who in their right mind builds a hotel that size, let alone in a country with so little to offer to tourists?[/quote]
Rationality has never really applied too much with the NorK’s. Their leadership is legitimately crazy – they don’t just act crazy, they are crazy. I pity the poor, starving people who live there. And just across the border is a thriving, rich, democratic South Korea.
Anytime anyone makes remotely pro-Communist noises, stuff North Korea down their throats.
When you visit North korea you cant actually freely roam around. You are shown around by government “tour guides.” So you probably wont get to see much of the poor and starving people…just the shiny bits.
Apparently its very hard to get a visa and if im not mistaken they wont issue one to American citizens
The hotel was never even finished. The construction was stopped in '92 since they ran out of money and electricity.
If you pull up some pics through google, you’ll see that looks like they never put windows in, the top floors aren’t finished and the rusty cranes are still there…
[quote]AdamC wrote:
When you visit North korea you cant actually freely roam around. You are shown around by government “tour guides.” So you probably wont get to see much of the poor and starving people…just the shiny bits.
Apparently its very hard to get a visa and if im not mistaken they wont issue one to American citizens[/quote]
I would imagine that if they did issue a visa to an American citizen, that citizen would not return to the USA alive. In fact, I would seriously question the sanity of any American that wanted to go to north korea. Barring the day when marines wash up onto the beaches out of the ocean, and rangers materialize out of thin air. If it comes to that, hopefully North Korea will run out of steam before they get their nuclear weaponry built.
[quote]BarneyFife wrote:
AdamC wrote:
When you visit North korea you cant actually freely roam around. You are shown around by government “tour guides.” So you probably wont get to see much of the poor and starving people…just the shiny bits.
Apparently its very hard to get a visa and if im not mistaken they wont issue one to American citizens
I would imagine that if they did issue a visa to an American citizen, that citizen would not return to the USA alive. In fact, I would seriously question the sanity of any American that wanted to go to north korea. Barring the day when marines wash up onto the beaches out of the ocean, and rangers materialize out of thin air. If it comes to that, hopefully North Korea will run out of steam before they get their nuclear weaponry built.[/quote]
I wouldnt worry about North Korea and their supposed nuclear arsenal.
Kim Jon Il is a joke to most South Koreans i’ve met.
He wont attack anyone with nuclear because he knows a response from thw est would totally obliterate him. He doesnt have the money or the power to be a real threat
I actually went to North Korea earlier this year. I was backpacking around north Asia (Japan, South Korea, China and Honk Kong) and I ran into a mate in Shanghai I had not seen in years. He and some friends were going and I tagged along (I was really surprised how easy it was to get a visa). The place is pretty sureal. You get a free “tour guide” that takes you around but they control what you see and who you speak to (since nobody speaks english you are pretty reliant on the translator).
All of the people we met, including random people on the street, were really nice and happy. Generally, you got the feeling that people were so bombarded with propoganda that they did not really know what was going on.
It was strange but we even spoke to a few guys who openlly told us that they thought that there needed to be some changes in the way North Korea did things. He didn’t go so far as to question the regime, but I was a little surprised that our “tour guide” allowed this.
I was only there for a few days but it was definatly worth the trip. One guy, who owned a restaurant, even mentioned the famine they had a few years ago. However it seemed that he didn’t think it was that bad!! To me this was an interesting point because whilst his source of information was propoganda, how would the foreign media know better? The most dangerous part of the trip was the flight. The chinese planes are not legendary for safety!
Oh yeah, nobody tell my parents I went. My mum would kill me.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Nothing like Headhunter trying to get attention to a thread that he knows the politics forum would ignore by putting it in the “Get a life” section.[/quote]
Well, I thought it was interesting and it didn’t involve politics.
Why don’t we keep our battles in the Politics section, eh? These guys don’t want to read our flame wars.
[quote]gotaknife wrote:
I actually went to North Korea earlier this year. I was backpacking around north Asia (Japan, South Korea, China and Honk Kong) and I ran into a mate in Shanghai I had not seen in years. He and some friends were going and I tagged along (I was really surprised how easy it was to get a visa). The place is pretty sureal. You get a free “tour guide” that takes you around but they control what you see and who you speak to (since nobody speaks english you are pretty reliant on the translator).
All of the people we met, including random people on the street, were really nice and happy. Generally, you got the feeling that people were so bombarded with propoganda that they did not really know what was going on.
It was strange but we even spoke to a few guys who openlly told us that they thought that there needed to be some changes in the way North Korea did things. He didn’t go so far as to question the regime, but I was a little surprised that our “tour guide” allowed this.
I was only there for a few days but it was definatly worth the trip. One guy, who owned a restaurant, even mentioned the famine they had a few years ago. However it seemed that he didn’t think it was that bad!! To me this was an interesting point because whilst his source of information was propoganda, how would the foreign media know better? The most dangerous part of the trip was the flight. The chinese planes are not legendary for safety!
Oh yeah, nobody tell my parents I went. My mum would kill me.[/quote]
Hey thats really cool.
so you got your visa in Shangahai? Was it expensive and how long did it take? I heard it costs an arm and a leg (not literally) as a tourist in N Korea.
You can see how backward they are when looking at a ‘night sky’ map of the world. The developed countries are dotted with city lights. In fact you can practially see the border between north and south Korea because the north is almost completely black.
Check out Japan, one of the most advanced countries in the world, compared to their backward ass neighbors…
nuff said.
(that was for you DB)
I am now reaching into my computer, snaking my arms through the internet(s) and through your computer, just about got you…
throttle throttle choke bitch slap!
DB
Btw, that is a cool looking hotel, but who in their right mind builds a hotel that size, let alone in a country with so little to offer to tourists?[/quote]
Communists!
When everyone owns everything nobody really own anything.
