Return to Beijing, Beihai Park

Today we all leave Pyongyang and North Korea. Roger, Paula and I will take the plane back to Beijing, while Sinead will go back by train. I regret not choosing that option myself, it would be a much more interesting way of travelling back to Beijing, although it will take longer time. We do not do much in the morning, except eating breakfast and getting ready for our departure.

Light in the sky above the White Pagoda.

My greatest anticipation when it comes to leaving North Korea is the customs control. At the airport, we must again fill out a customs form. Be sure to carry with you what you brought with you upon entering DPRK. Warned that they could just decide to confiscate all of my pictures, I was somewhat nervous when arriving back at the airport in Pyongyang. I do not want to loose any of the photos I have taken.

The gate below the White Pagoda on the east side of the Jade Flower Island.

Walkway on the outside of a temple building on Jade Flower Island.

I did not need to worry. While waiting in line to check-in, the customs control is done at the same time, I am told to step aside. Apparently, some high-ranking official are on the same plane and take precedence in the queue. I have to wait to check-in and by the time he has finished, it looks like we are out of time almost regarding our own check-in. They let me go without further questions. We say goodbye to our guides, Mr. Hwang and Mr. Kim, and then go towards the gates.

The White Pagoda or Dagoba at the top of Jade Flower Island.

Our return at Beijing aiport gets a little bit confusing, given our different nationalities, return trips and visas. I will stay a few days more in Beijing, to see some more of the city. Paula will have one evening there before returning home to Australia, while Roger has to go straight back to South Korea to meet another client for a guided tour there. In the crowd and throng in the line for immigration control we all get separated, and I do not get to say a proper farewell to Roger. I meet Paula again after collecting my luggage and we share a taxi back to Beijing.

View of the Forbidden City from the White Pagoda.

The stupa formed Dagoba from the Yong'an temple buildings.

I decided to stay at the same hotel in Beijing when I returned from North Korea, as I reckoned I then would be familiar on how to get to and from the hotel. No order in what I want to see while here, but I know that I want to make a trip to see the Great wall. No time for that today, however. First thing off, after checking in at the hotel, is lunch.

Roof painting in a building in Beihai Park.

The Yong'an Temple gate.

A rough estimate of the size of Beihai Park (Beihai Gongyuan, 北海公园) tells me that I should have enough time to visit it today, so I get on the metro to the Imperial City of Beijing. Beihai Park is a former imperial garden built in the 11th century, making it one of the oldest, largest and best-preserved ancient imperial gardens in China. The majority of the park, however, consists of the large lake giving it its name, Northern Sea (Beihai). In the middle of the lake is the Jade Flower Island (Qionghua), famous for the White Pagoda (or Dagoba) located on the top of the island.

Flower stand in Beihai Park with the White Pagoda behind.

It is a pale weather today, but that may be just the norm here in Beijing. The humidity is high as usual. I like being in the parks here in Beijing, the Chinese feels a lot more calmer here than outside the walls of them. As the White Pagoda initially was why I wanted to come to this park, the first thing I do upon entering Beihai is to set forth in the direction of the Jade Flower Island. Not saying that I take into account what I see on the way. The park has a lot of similarities with what I saw at the Summer Park. Out on the lake are small boats of various sizes.

The Jade Flower Island with the White Pagoda and the Bridge of Eternal Peace.

Beihai Park.

Compared to the experience in North Korea and Pyongyang, I must say it feels great to be able to walk freely around again. On the other hand, if I had been on a guided tour here, I would probably have had to find myself in a controlled group. I also feel kind of relaxed now, with no feeling of the need to see everything.

The Pavilion of Ancient Works.

The Hall of Coolness.

The White Pagoda on top of the island measures about 36m tall and was built in 1651. It is actually best viewed from afar in my opinion. I like the view from the southeast where you can see the pagoda, island, bridge leading to the island, the temple gate, lake and water lilies in front. The structures situated around the stupa constitutes a Tibetan monastery. From the pagoda, I can look over at the Forbidden City and the temple at the top of the Jingshan Park. By the time I start returning to the northern part of the park, it is almost as I can see the sun behind the pale sky.

The Jade Flower Island in Beihai Park.

There are other Nine-Dragons Walls in China, with the one in the Forbidden City and Datong two of the three most famous. The third one is located here in Beihai and is the only one that has reliefs of dragons on both sides. It is called a Nine-Dragons Wall due to the nine dragons adorning the sides of it, but apparently there are actually a total of 635 dragons on this 27 meters long wall. It is quite cool.

Temple gate in Beihai.

The Nine-Dragons-Wall in Beihai Park.

I chill out with a couple of cold beers in one of the cafés in the park.

Dragon reliefs on the Nine-Dragons Wall.

A tree sculpture in Beijing.

Satisfied with my visit, I go back to my hotel. Not thinking to do much in the evening, I only take a short walk in the nearby park that I have visited before. I eat dinner in the same place that I ate on my first evening in Beijing too. Rest of the evening is spent in my hotel room, relaxing. I have not concluded what I will do tomorrow, if I go to see the Great Wall or the Forbidden City. I guess what I will see outside the windows tomorrow morning will answer that question.

Dongyue Temple gate, Beijing.

<- Pyongyang (day 3)Mutianyu: The Great Wall ->

Pyongyang: Panmunjom, Kaesong, Arch of Reunification

This is our last day in Pyongyang and North Korea, I do not count tomorrow as the only thing we will do then is to fly back to Beijing. We will mostly stay out of Pyongyang today, as our schedule take us further south in the country. Although, I have seen much here in Pyongyang, I still feel a little bit secluded from the everyday life here.

People marching outside our hotel to attend the Mass Games rehearsals.

Standing on the Reunification Highway on the way to the visit to Panmunjom and the DMZ between North and South Korea.

It is a little bit interesting that the site of diplomatic meetings between the North and South Korea has become a popular site for tourism. It is the site where the armistice between the North and South was signed, and now known for the place where the two countries are staring at each other at close range. When I was in South Korea, I never had the time to visit Panmonjum on that side of the border. Now I get to see the other side. To get there, however, is not done in a blink. From Pyongyang it is about two and a half hours to Panmonjum.

The Armistice Talks Hall where officials from North Korea and US forces met for peace talks.

Inside the Armistice Agreement Signing Hall.

The drive down to the border between North and South Korea is interesting because of several things. First, we are driving on what is essentially a highway here in DPRK, the Reunification Highway, but there are actually more people walking on the road than cars driving on it. At a rest stop on the way, I can walk out into the middle of the road and be at peace, there are no cars to see in both directions. Second, I believe if the restrictive customs in DPRK regarding photography would be lifted, this would be a treasure trove for photographers. But in the same process, maybe the allure of the secluded country may loose its appeal in a way. It is that it is so secluded that make it so interesting. Another thing is the few checkpoints we pass through, requiring the proper permits to pass. From holes in concrete walls next to the road are soldiers watching us intently. I wonder how this is for the normal Korean living here.

At Panmunjom inside the DMZ, with the Joint Security Area below.

Rural countryside in North Korea.

The first place we pass through, though, is of course the souvenir shop. Our guide sit down in a seat in our bus, and then we drive through a fortified gate. We are now essentially inside the DMZ. To our right is one of the most interesting places inside this no mans land between the split country. A village living entirely within the confines of the demilitarized zone, Kijŏngdong (Peace Village). Or is it so? According to South Korea, the village is uninhabited and used for propaganda purposes. From where we drive, we can only see some of the houses and the huge flagpole.

The Kaesong Folklore Hotel, a part of the old town of Kaesong turned into a tourist hotel.

Lunch tables at the Kaesong Folklore Hotel.

The armistice between the north and south was signed on July 27 1953 in a building constructed for that purpose in the village of Panmunjom in North Korea. The truce talks between the two parties had been ongoing from 1951. With North Korean and Chinese officials on one side and officials from the United States on the other side. The building is now a part of the North Korea Peace Museum. Copies of the armistice agreement are enclosed in glass cabinets on the tables inside the building, so you can sit down and look like you are the one signing the agreement. On the walls are pictures from the talks. I cannot imagine how the atmosphere and moods must have been here in those days.

Decoration on the table.

What we now usually refers to as Panmunjom was initially called the Joint Security Area (JSA) and is located further east from the building the armistice was signed in. It is a quiet place, at least for the moment. Between us and South Korea are the line of blue and grey buildings that the border crosses straight through. Almost no people are visible on the other side. The only people I can see are three soldiers, two of them staring right up at us and one looking in the window of one of the blue buildings. Though I do not believe for a moment that we are not being watched from the other side too. I keep on thinking how it would be if there were visitors on the South Korean side at the same time. What we would think of them, and them of us. That rarely happens, though, as both sides has found it better not to 'open' up at the same time. People may start talking (rather screaming to get heard) to each other. Things might escalate, even if it was initially meant as a joke.

A bear fountain in Kaesong Folklore Hotel, not much water.

After looking over to South Korea, we drive to the nearby town of Kaesong. Here we eat lunch at the Kaesong Folklore Hotel. We eat inside one of the traditional hanok-style houses that the hotel consists of. A small creek flows between the rows of houses. Our food also consists of small dishes in rows and columns on our small tables. Small and good tastes of traditional Korean food.

The Kaesong Koryo Museum.

The Tomb of King Kongmin in the Koryo Museum, this is a reconstruction of the actual tomb.

The Koryo Museum is located within an old educational institution in the centre of Kaesong, the Confucian academy of Songgyungwan that opened in 992 (then under the name of Taemyon). Burned to the ground during the Imjin War in 1592, and was rebuilt in 1602, hence giving us the rare opportunity to visit a museum in buildings that essentially are more than 400 years old. Old are also some of the trees in the compound, with one Zelkova tree apparently over 900 years old and two Ginkgo trees older than 500 years. While a visit to this museum usually is part of the package you get when visiting Panmunjom and the DMZ, it is not uninteresting. Especially if you are interested in history, although I missed out of some of the information our guide told us about the various exhibitions at the museum.

The Taesong Hall of the Koryo Museum.

Mountains seen from the bus on the way back to Pyongyang.

Returning to Pyongyang, we stop at the entrance to the city at the Arch of Reunification. Two Korean women dressed in the traditional chosŏn-ot dress holds together up a sphere with the map of a reunified Korea on. Given the separate paths these two countries has gone, I cannot help wonder how they will be able to do it. It is a distant dream at best, I suppose.

Arch of Reunification. Which is also known as Monument to the Three-Point Charter for National Reunification. The Three Charters (symbolized by the sphere) are the Three Principles of National Reunification, the Plan of Establishing the Democratic Federal Republic of Korea and the Ten Point Program of the Great Unity of the Whole Nation.

The last evening brings us to a pizza restaurant in Mirae Scientists Street, a modern looking and new street in the cityscape of Pyongyang. A band with only female players entertains the guests at the restaurant, playing slightly kitschy, lightly catchy, and too loud music.

A busstop in Pyongyang, notice the picture from one of the most famous mountains in North Korea, Kumgangsan.

The Mirae Scientists street, the tallest building is the blue and 53 story tall Mirae Unha Tower.

Tomorrow we fly back to Beijing, except for Sinead who will take the train, carrying with me a lot of impressions from this secluded country on the other side of the world from where I live. Yet, there is only one country between Norway and North Korea. So much can be written about the stay here, what we visit, see and observe. Given time, I have chosen not to go in too much detail of what we saw during our stay in Pyongyang after our hike. There are a lot of information out there about these sights. I plan to write a separate post about how I experienced the hike and stay in North Korea. This is however it for now.

<- Pyongyang (day 2)Return to Beijing, Beihai Park ->

Pyongyang: Kumsusan, Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, Tomb of King Tongmyong, Mirim riding club

For our first visit of the second day in Pyongyang we have to wear formal clothes, no jeans are allowed and we have to leave all our camera gear and cellphones behind. A slowmoving autowalk is bringing us from the entrance to the actual building itself, giving us good time to look at what first served as the official residence of Kim Il-Sung. Kumsusan Palace of the Sun is now the mausoleum of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il.

Mass Games rehearsal in the streets of Pyongyang.

Fountain outside Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.

While there are not any autowalks inside the building, the tour through the Palace of the Sun certainly bears the feeling of being on one. We go in a rather quick succession on a supervised invisible line, soldiers watching our every step. Before we are allowed into the proper mausoleum we have to go through a gate that uses air to blow away dust and dead particles from us. Many will probably have problems doing this, but at the sarcophagus containing Kim Il-Sung it is expected of the visitors to bow at his feet and left and right side. The same goes for the sarcophagus of Kim Jong-Il. I feel no need to create a fuss about it and make my bows.

Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.

The sequence are the same for both the former leaders of DPRK. First we are to show our respects at the remains, then we are taken to a room containing honours and awards that the leader has received from around the world. I look for something from Norway, but I cannot find anything. What is more astonishing is the fact that they have chosen to build in one set of the leaders personal train inside the building. We can see the different styles of the age separating the two trains. One a wall is a huge, slightly interactive, board displaying the travels by train and plane that each leader did. When finishing the tour, we can retrieve our electronic equipment and walk in the park outside the palace.

Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.

A captured plane on display at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.

Yesterday, we were to visit the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, but it was closed due to a public holiday (Day of Songun). Today, we can walk through its tall gate. This museum is dedicated to the Korean War. A wide open space is the first we come to, almost forming a large alley with several large statues of fighting soldiers on each side. Leaving the statues, we go into a section containing a lot of war equipment that was captured during the war. Large skeletons of planes, truck, tanks and helicopters among others, with gaping holes in them. The gem in the collection is most likely the USS Pueblo, an US Navy vessel that was captured in January 1968 (hence not during the Korean War itself).

Patriotic statue in front of the main museum building at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum.

The USS Pueblo.

It is an interesting museum, but it is undeniably showing the history of the Korean War from their point of view (not that they are alone in doing this). The most impressive feature of the museum is the 360 degrees diorama of one of the major battles in the Korean War, the Battle of Taejon. Here we sit down on a rotating floor while both artifacts on the floor and visuals on the wall come alive as we pass by. With a voice telling us about the events that unfolds, and sounds from the various scenes. Here and there sections are lit up, we see planes fly and fall across the sky, fires in buildings, smoke rising, bombs go off and so on.

Almost everywhere you are in Pyongyang, is the ghost hotel Ryuguong visible.

Another scene from the streets of Pyongyang.

Next up is a stamp, poster and postcard shop and museum. It is the place where we can send postcards back home. Unsurprisingly, the woman from our hotel that we also met at the Arch of Triumph is also here, that figures. North Korean stamps are actually very nice. I am really not the person buying a lot of souvenirs, but I do bring back with me a set of stamps from the area around Paektusan secret camp. Here, you can also take a picture of yourself and put it on a postcard to send. We take a picture of us and sends it to Jo, hopefully he will get it.

North Korean stamps with scenery from the area around Paektusan secret camp that we visited.

The ornamented gate to the Tomb of King Tongmyŏng.

For our next stop we leave Pyongyang for another mausoleum. The Tomb of King Tongmyŏng, who was the founder of the ancient Goguryeo kingdom, now an UNESCO world heritage site. The quiet, but uneven, ride from Pyongyang has taken us back in time. The tomb itself is of the type I have seen before, only in a much larger scale. It is a 11.5m high tumulus, or barrow mound. Two rows of statues leads up to the tumulus. At the tomb there is also a Cheon-Ji-In monument, which symbolizes the basic oriental trinity of East Asian Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist thought comprising Heaven (dragon), Earth (turtle) and Humanity (standing stone). An ornamented building resembling a Buddhist temple contains paintings from the life and era of Kong Tongmyŏng.

The Tomb of King Tongmyŏng.

Ornamented building at the Tomb of King Tongmyŏng.

Also at the compound is a Buddhist monastery with a Buddhist temple, Chongrŭngsa. Many Buddhist temples was destroyed during the Korean War, but some are still standing. Although, religious services are only allowed in a few of them. While we visit the temple, there are even some Buddhists coming to pray there. Think my pilgrimage on Shikoku is still vivid in my mind, I bowed upon entering the temple. Some of us felt that, even though it was nice, it would be more interesting to see more things related to modern day DPRK, as this looks more similar to what we may see outside the country. I partially agree to this, but I felt it was good to get out into a more natural landscape again. The Tomb of King Tongmyŏng and Chongrŭngsa lies in a more rural area outside Pyongyang.

A Cheon-Ji-In monument.

Late afternoon is approaching as take place in the minibus for the last stop of the day. This visit is maybe less interesting to me, but I feel glad that we do it. Paula did not get to climb Soyeonjibong or Ganbaeksan while we were hiking due to her knee. She races horses back home in Australia, so a visit to Mirim Riding Club is probably right up her alley. Me, being allergic to some animals, quickly finds out that I have to keep a little distance to the horses.

Chongrŭngsa Buddhist temple at the Tomb of King Tongmyŏng.

Mirim Riding Club.

We have dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. In addition to all the sidedishes we eat, I eat a big plate with a kind of pajeon dish, which is a sort of a potato pancake. It is good, but takes its place in the stomach. Roger is keen to taste the North Korean makgeolli, comparing it to the ones the South Koreans make. Mr. Kim is having a dish of Pyongyang naengmyeon, a sort of speciality here, a noodle dish that you have to lift up the noodles from the soup to dry off before you eat it.

Kim Il-Sung square in the afternoon.

Pyongyang naengmyeon, a traditional dish in North Korea.

The second day of our tourist 'hike' ebbs out, it was another interesting day.

<- Pyongyang (day 1)Pyongyang (day 3) ->