Sculpture at Mansu Hill

We (Comtourist editors Jochem and Sebastian) planned to have a look in North Korea for many years already. We wanted to witness what live in a totalitarian communist state is like. Many people react very surprised when you tell them how easy it is to get into North Korea, they believe the country is closed. Basically its a matter of money as it is a very expensive trip (and you should not have the American or South Korean nationality).You have to book a pre arranged tour with a local specialized travel agent or with Koreo Tours in Beijing. We decided to book a 7 day tour with Dutch travel agent VNC. Only group travel is aloud so we decided to travel in a 2 man group. We combined the week in North Korea with three weeks in China afterwards, we booked a flight to Beijing and the return flight from Hong Kong. We picked up our Visa and travel documents in the North Korean Embassy in Beijing. The Visa is issued in a separate document nothing is stamped in the passport (some countries don't like visa from countries belonging to the axes of evil!). A day later (September the 7th) we flew from Beijing to Pyongyang with Air Koreo. From Pyongyang we had trips to Kaesong (Demarcation Zone) and Myohyansan (International Friendship Exhibition). We went back the 14th by night train via Dandong.

On day 1 we arrived at Pyongyang airport flying from Beijing with Air Koreo. We visited the the Grand Kim Il Sung Monument at Mansu Hill, saw a circus show from the Korean Peoples Army and checked in at the Yanggkakdo hotel.

On day 2 we drove to Mt. Myohyang were we visited the International Friendship exhibition, the Buddhist Pohyon temple and walked the Piro mountaineering route. We stayed in the beautifull pyramid shaped Hyangsan hotel.

We started day 3 (9-9 national day) with site seeing in Pyongyang. We saw Kim Il Sung square, the Korean Central History Museum, Kim's birth house and took the metro. We finished with national day celebrations on Kim Il sung Square.

We spend day 4 in the border region near Kaesong, with as highlight the famous DMZ. In Kaesong we saw a number of tourist attractions, we stayed in the traditional folklore hotel. The next day we visited Mt. Kuwol and the West Sea Barrage at Namp' before we returned to Pyongyang.

On day 5 we visited Pyongyang's major monuments and landmarks. First we went to Kumsusan Memorial Palace the mausoleum of Kim Il Sung. Then we visited the revolutionary martyrs cemetery, the Juche Tower, the Reunification monument, the Arc of triumph, and the sports district.

Day 6 and time to go back to China. We would take the train back to Beijing. The train journey took us past Ryongchong were a a large explosion took place view months before we past. The train crosses the border over the Yalu River between Sinuiju in North Korea and Dandong in China.