Pyongyang: Train ride to Beijing.
Day 11 & 12 Train ride from Pyongyang to Beijing.
Our final day in North Korea was another early morning start to Pyongyang train station. Surprisingly crowded we worked our way to the train and got onboard our carriage. Due to, well, lack of organization by someone, our group was split up into 2 smaller groups of 7 and 19. The smaller group to ride in the Chinese carriages with the other 50-odd people, while the rest of us were in the North Korean carriage.
I have to point out that in the morning I started to feel the effects of Pyongyang belly which intensified throughout the day, which is never a good thing when riding on a Soviet built train with a shared toilet that was literally a hole cut into the bottom of the carriage floor. As you can imagine, it wasn’t the most pleasant ride for me.
The cities we passed through on the way to the Chinese border were; Mundok, Pakchon, Chongju, Sonchon, Ryongchon, and the border town of Sinujin.
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Our North Korean sleeper carriage. Yes, the Slovakian girl ahead does have a large butt.
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North Korean carriages at Pyongyang station.
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Some pictures along the train ride.
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Some farms.
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I was amazed to notice how machinery on farms had become almost non-existent. While the rest of the world progress with technological advances, North Korean has gone the opposite way due to one main problem, oil. The country produces none, and has no money to buy it, so they rely heavily on oil from China and to a smaller extent Russia. Fuel is simply not an option on farms so instead of tractors on the fields, you see men with oxen pulling ploughs and women cutting the fields.
Here are some empty oil carriages on the rails.
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Some more farms.
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Human waste is used on farms for fertilizer as chemically produced fertilizer cannot be manufactured due to lack of resources. North rely on huge fertilizer shipments from South Korea to help with their agriculture.
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A few hours into the trip it started to rain. The first rain we’d seen for our whole trip.
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Getting close to the border. Don’t ask me what it says.
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Our lunch. Sadly the food did not improve on the North Korean carriage so Oli (on my right), Steve, Jurgen and I ate yet another meal of bland North Korean food. Don’t we look excited.
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The river separating North Korea and China.
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On the North side was a very run down amusement park that looks like it hasn’t been used in years, maybe decades, and completely void of people. On the Chinese side is a wall of apartment blocks and shops. I think the North side is void to stop any jealously.
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We stayed on the North side for several hours. Solders came into our carriage and at random started checking people’s bags, thank fully mine was tucked away high above their heads that they didn’t notice it and instead picked on the two Dutch chaps and searched through their bags (or at least of theirs I think). What looked like a Captain, came into our sleeper (Oli, the two Dtch guys and I) laughing away, quite happily, so we started laughing too, as you do when a very important North Korean soldier is laughing at you. Suddenly he pulled out this infra-red gun and zapped one of the Dutch guys in the forehead (seriously) causing the poor guy to freak out thinking he was perhaps being brain zapped or something. What he was doing was checking our temperature for signs of fever or sickness.
Phew!
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We had nothing to declare, but were a little worried since we were carrying unsanctioned North Korean paintings that our guide told us we had to show documents for when crossing the border. I had mine, but it seemed like the other people didn’t (we’re the only group allowed to buy propaganda paintings!), so it was a little nervous all round. In the end everything was ok and we’re allowed proceed into China.
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Crossing the border. I’m already missing North Korea!
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One on the Chinese side the North Korean carriage was then uncoupled with the rest of the train and we were told to make our way to the front of the train and get aboard one of the Chinese carriages. On the platform, Oli and I lost track of everyone, and all of a sudden we were alone on a very foreign Chinese station. Thankfully we picked someone from our group and got onboard our Chinese carriage.
The carriage, was, a shit hole. It was just one who carriage of tightly squeezed together bunks after we’re promised that because our group was the one having to change carriage, our Chinese one would be ‘better’ then our North Korean one. What a farce. That said, there was no pointing complaining. I managed to learn poker that night, slept for a solid 30 minutes, and spent the rest of the trip listening to my iPod and squatting over a hole.
Next post: Back in Bejing!
North Korean Photos and Info. | David | 
6/11/2005 - Sunday 6:20 pm
4 Comments
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Staypuff.net - Following the life of a Perth lad in Korea — 3/11/2008 - Monday @ 12:45 am
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By Joel, 6/11/2005 - Sunday @ 7:36 pm
위대한 김정일 동지를 결사옹위하는 성새가되고….
Becoming a fortress that protects the great comrade Kim Jong-il at all cost and…
I’ve really enjoyed your North Korean photos. If you have any other photos of propoganda banners like the one above I would be interested in seeing them
By s. leach, 13/12/2005 - Tuesday @ 4:32 pm
nice travelouge! one day maybe ill get to see the dprk. one thing though. i never did see pics of the ‘very, very sexy nurse’
By Max Watson, 10/2/2006 - Friday @ 4:02 pm
European trains are no different, in that you’ll go into the bathroom and there will be nothing but a hole in the bottom of the toilet that gives you a view of the tracks below… and this isn’t Eastern Europe I’m taking about, but a train from Amsterdam to Munich three years ago.