I got up about quarter to seven and headed down to breakfast. The breakfast here was pretty good, although I don't really remember all the details, but there was this fig jelly for the toast that was really good. So much so that I went looking for some in my local supermarket when I got home, but didn't find any.
Kaesong definitely had a different vibe than Pyongyang. It was built less "grandly" and felt more utilitarian, although it still had the wide main roads, but the apartment blocks were all concrete and older, none of the new glass and steel highrises like in Pyongyang. Still, it was in good enough repair and the routines of daily life didn't seem any different here.
A primary school to the left.
Our first stop for the morning was a history museum in what I think used to be a Buddhist temple complex. It was a museum of ancient Korean history, so it had old tools and outfits, a model of an old fortress, and a reproduction of an old tomb. We had a Korean guide here that our tour guides translated for, and at the end was the gift shop where they were pushing the local ginseng. I would have liked to get a bottle of the ginseng liquor, but it would have been a pain to get back home, plus I didn't have much spare room in my luggage.
The museum stuff was inside all of these buildings, but it was too dark inside to get any decent pictures.
A better shot of the university.
Incidentally, at some point on the bus Miss Kim was explaining that ginseng was supposed to be good for your health in X, Y, and Z ways, and was also supposed to improve your "night life", which was a euphemism we had a lot of fun throwing around for the rest of the trip.
Next was another stamp shop (you'd think stamps are the one of their top products and sources of tourist revenue with all the stamp shops and gift shop sales we saw), where I bought some souvenir postcards (as opposed to the ones that I had bought before to mail).
The stamp shop.
One thing that we had noticed in Pyongyang, and we saw it here too, was
that a lot of people in the apartments had solar panels in their windows
or out on their balconies. Less than half of the apartments had them,
so it seemed like something not provided by the state, but that people
bought with their own money. It also implies that either they didn't
have electricity, or it was unreliable or only available occasionally.
The couple times that we drove around at night, although there were very
few streetlights, it seemed like there were dim lights on inside most
apartments (that is, not just the ones with solar panels).
Lots of solar panels, and a silly statue for the kids.
More solar panels.
The town obelisk.
"Unification Hall"
They had statues here too! More about these later.
Notice the streetlight with solar panel. We saw some of those in Pyongyang too.
The sign on the right says "Kaesong Bookstore"
"Kaesong Cinema"
Obviously a school or nursery.
Now we were going to head to one of the jewels of any Korea trip, North or South: the DMZ. It was just a short drive from Kaesong, but we went through three checkpoints on the way until we reached the Northern Limit Line. There was a concrete wall with a gate that we drove through, and then we all had to get off the bus while it continued through a gate in another wall a little bit ahead and got searched by guards. In the meantime, we hung out in the gift shop and looked around. We weren't allowed to take any pictures here though (except the two I noted below). When the bus was cleared they had us all march in two lines through a small opening in
the wall next to the vehicle gate. Then we all got back on the bus on the other
side with a military guide and continued through. First we drove over
some metal grates covering a pit a couple feet deep. The grates could be
removed so that vehicles couldn't pass through. (No one was explaining
any of this, just my observations.) Then the narrow concrete alley
continued with a set of barrel shaped concrete blocks lying on their
side on a sloped portion of the wall. They were restrained by a set of
cables that could be released so they would roll into the roadway. Past
these were a number of similar traps with square blocks on the sloped
wall and wooden wedges under them holding them up. We were now inside the legendary DMZ.
That's the giant flagpole there, but you know, I didn't even notice it at the time to actually take a decent picture of it.
I asked Miss Han what the propaganda on the mountain said, but it was nothing special. I forget, but something generic like "Lead us to victory, General!" or something.
"To the next generation: Let them inherit a unified country!" This is just inside the entrance to the DMZ, and was the only thing at the gate that we could take photos of.
"Korea is one!" There was also a big sign over the gate that said "Juche unification".
Before actually going to the border we stopped at the building where
the armistice talks happened, and then the building where the armistice
was signed, which still has two tables with flags and a copy of the
armistice on display. The building is now a Peace Museum, and the walls
are lined with documents and news articles showing US intentions to
continue or reignite the war and Korean statements about peace and
reunification.
The negotiation hall where the peace talks happened. Very small.
The outside of the hall.
A copy of the armistice in Korean.
A copy of the armistice in English.
The original UN flag that was used. It's gotten a little old.
The whole hall/museum.
Typical of the exhibits. An embarrassing declaration from the US on how easy the war would be. (Reminds me of Iraq...)
The outside of the Peace Museum.
When we were done there we continued on to the border itself. We entered a forested area and after going only a short way and rounding a corner we were right next to Panmungak Hall, the big building that looms over the border on the North Korean side. From what I read online, apparently tourists in the south are told that this building is just a facade a couple meters deep, but you can see from the pictures I took inside that that's obviously a lie. I guess the propaganda in the south can be just as strong as the propaganda in the north.
The final signature of Kim Il Sung, the day before his death. I forget what document it was on, but it was related to reunification.
We walked around the building and came out the front facing the border. The guides told us that we still didn't know if we could go in the
conference huts because although it's usually allowed, that's something
that has to be arranged between the two sides for each separate visit,
but in the end we did get the go-ahead and walked down the steps and filed into the middle hut. The guard just said a few
things before letting us go around and take pictures. It was crowded
with all of us in there, but we got what pictures we could.
The US "Freedom House" and the conference huts straddling the border.
Inside one of the huts. All the flags of the UN forces are displayed on the back wall.
Now I'm in South Korea...
...and now I'm in North Korea.
Panmungak Hall on the North Korean side.
Now we went back in the building and up the stairs to come out on the balcony where we could overlook the JSA. They told us we could take pictures from here, and I asked if that meant we could take pictures facing back towards the north as well, but that was denied. The inside of the building was really nice and I had asked Miss Han if we could take pictures inside of it, but she wasn't sure. Now on the balcony though she came back over to me and said it was okay, she had asked the guard, so when we were done on the balcony and went back down I got some pictures on the way out. From up here you could see the two giant competing flagpoles the two sides had built, although they were both off in the distance and hard to see.
Our military guide let everyone who wanted take pictures with him, which Jessica said was pretty rare, so we thanked him profusely.
From the top of Panmungak hall.
The South Korean propaganda flag (it's out of frame to the left of the above picture).
Right in the center is the North Korean propaganda flag, built in response to the Southern one.
Selfie!
Group photo.
Pictures of the Kims inside the Hall.
A nice decoration inside. Notice that it's in the shape of Korea.
The ornate stairway.
That's all there was to do at the DMZ, so now we got back on the bus and drove back into town. On the road on the way back we went past sets of concrete "gates" flanking the road which are supposed to be loaded with explosives to be able to fall down across the road, similar to the traps at the JSA border. This is what I read in other blogs that the guides explained to them, along with saying that they couldn't take pictures of them, but our guides didn't even point them out or mention them.
Some fortification line near the border. Notice the concrete blocks that can fall to block the road.
Just some more of the Kaesong countryside.
Plenty more of the solar panels hanging out of windows.
After getting back into town we drove over to the central road in town that
went up a hill where it ended in front of another pair of statues of the
leaders, almost as big as the ones in Pyongyang. Of course everyone
wanted to go up to them, but just like in Pyongyang, the same mysterious
tourist ban applied. Apparently we were going to go up this hill to an
overlook, but we would have to go right past the statues to get there,
so the guides did a lot of running around to figure out how we were
going to get over there, as the area at the top wasn't big enough for
the bus to turn around, so we couldn't take the bus up either.
Eventually we did walk up and past the statues and got the best pictures
we could as we continued past to the overlook.
The Kim statues at the end of the road.
Using digital zoom.
Central Kaesong from the same spot.
Using digital zoom.
A nice flower garden along the road.
The closest we got to the statues.
Kaesong is
south of the 38th parallel, so while the rest of the cities in the north
were bombed flat by the US, Kaesong is the one city which now belongs
to the North which was mostly untouched, so from the overlook we could
see the old section of Kaesong with all the traditional houses and
street layouts preserved. In the distance there was also a mountain
(Songaksan) which resembled the shape of a pregnant woman laying down,
which was apparently a well-known landmark since ancient times. When we
were done we hiked down the hill through the trees back to the parking
lot so as to avoid passing the statues again.
Old Kaesong
The mountain that looks like a pregnant woman. The head on the left, and the stomach as the peak.
Next we went for lunch, which was called the "royal lunch", since it was served in many small golden bowls, which was apparently how the royalty of Korea was served their meals back in the day.
After lunch we took a drive out to see the "concrete wall". It was about a 45 minute drive east and we parked in just a little lot off the road where there was nothing else around. There was a set of stairs and a path carved into the hillside which we climbed back and forth up the hill until we got to a little outpost on top. Inside the guard explained about the supposed concrete wall that the South had built across the entire peninsula in an attempt to permanently divide the Korean people into two separate nations. They had a big diagram of it with all the statistical information about it, showing how it was built into the land more like a cliff face rather than jutting straight up out of it like a wall, so that it couldn't be seen from the southern side and thus their government could deny its existence to their people. Then when the presentation was done we were taken out around the back where there were a number of sets of binoculars so we could see it for ourself.
The street outside the restaurant.
When asked, Miss Kim said the people in the river were cleaning it.
Not sure exactly how these things were used.
An elementary school.
The view across was fairly clear without a lot of vegetation at this section of the DMZ, and just a few meters in front of us was the fence of the Northern Limit Line. Then looking further across to the other side we could see the fence of the Southern Limit Line on the other side of the DMZ, and some South Korean buildings and flags on the other side. What we were supposed to be looking at was just within the DMZ and there was only one section of it that was visible poking up from out of the rolling hills. It was hard to see being as far away as we were, even with the binoculars, and it was fairly hazy looking across that distance, but you could eventually see the section they were talking about.
View from the hill across the DMZ.
The Concrete Wall, using digital zoom. It wasn't really any clearer in real life either.
The northern edge of the DMZ right below us.
That tree is part of a South Korean outpost. You can see it on Google Maps.
A depiction of the wall and its statistics.
A view of the wall through the binoculars.
Now, this obviously isn't a full wall stretching across the entire peninsula, but just an anti-tank barrier stretching across this short, relatively clear stretch of the border. But it's an important point of Northern propaganda to show that it's the South that's responsible for the current division of the Korean people and that they just want peaceful reunification and self-determination for Korea free from any occupying forces, so they're even willing to drag us all this way through the impoverished countryside to show us this little thing.
The path cut up the hillside.
The entrance from the parking area.
Concrete wall seen, it was time to leave Kaesong and drive back to Pyongyang. Although our first view of the countryside had been on the way down, the sun had been setting and it was dark for half the ride. On the drive back it was midday, so we had a better view. The whole countryside seemed very dry. I don't know if it was just like that at this time of year, or if that was the usual state, but if it was always like that I can see why agriculture would be so difficult there. And then compared to Japan, which has a very well-developed irrigation system, there was no such thing here. But then, most of the agriculture here didn't seem to be rice paddies either, although we did see some of those in the flattest areas. But most of the land was very hilly and mountainous, and for the most part it every available square meter of land was tilled for crops. As for the non-paddy land, I don't know if maybe non-paddy rice was grown on it, but corn is also a popular crop here, so it may have been for that.
A building back in Kaesong.
Another school.
Practically the only thing we saw that could qualify as a forest.
Reforestation on the mountains.
Those decorations at the highway exit again.
Although we did see one or two small tractors out in the fields during the trip, more often we saw the fields being plowed by oxen, although I don't know if it's more for lack of tractors or lack of gasoline. There were also many people going along the roadside herding a small group of ducks, or chickens, or goats.
On the way down Miss Kim told us that we'd have some karaoke performances on the way back to help pass the time on the ride, so as promised, now we had our performances. Since we were such a diverse group we had songs in all different languages. The New Zealander sung their national anthem, but the Maori version of it. The Mexican sung a mariachi song, the Finn sung a very fast fisherman's song, and I sung the Goldfish Warning theme in Japanese. Of course, being a proper tour bus, the onboard mike had a karaoke mode with added reverb, so it was a proper karaoke experience.
Halfway back we stopped at the same rest stop again. This time there was already another bus there though, and these tourists were Japanese! So I talked a little to one guy in half-Japanese and half-English, and then one of them broke out an accordion. It was the same guy from the airport that I thought was a Korean! So he played a couple of the same songs again, including The Internationale. And then the four staffwomen of the rest stop all came out and gave us a performance too.
So we got back to Pyongyang without issue and got to go on a little walk through the city before dinner, our first time to just be able to walk down the street instead of being bussed everywhere, so it was a nice treat. It was about a fifteen minute walk, and it wasn't from anyplace in particular to anyplace in particular, the bus just dropped us off at one spot and picked us up in another, but we got to go through one of those understreet pedestrian tunnels finally, and I took the opportunity to get a video of the street life.
A building back in Pyongyang.
Probably the best shot I got of our hotel.
The Central Bank.
Pyongyang Grand Theater
So after our walk we went to dinner at the Taesong Restaurant, bibimbap again, and then back to the hotel for the night. We were all assigned the exact same rooms as before, and getting back into them, they weren't even completely cleaned. The beds were made, but the soap that I had put on the soap dish was still there, so the rooms hadn't been used by anyone else the previous night and they knew that we'd all be back in the same rooms, so I at least wish we could have left all the luggage we didn't need in Kaesong in the rooms instead of lugging it all the way down and back.
I tried to take some night photos of the city, but the camera didn't do too well with most of them. This is the Schoolchildren's Palace.
The train station.
A shot from my hotel window.
We were going to be up a little earlier in the morning again to get back out in the city and see some more attractions tomorrow, so we all just chilled in our rooms a little tonight before getting to bed to be ready for the next day.
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