Pyongyang Travel Guide

Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is one of the most unabashedly communist cities left in the world. Beijing, with its Hard Rock Café, its discos and its bars, pales into capitalist insignificance when compared with Pyongyang. Pyongyang is a picture of so-called Communist prosperity: clean, wide streets with very little traffic, no street cattle or itinerant hawkers; none of the bustle common in other Asian cities. It’s a clean, rather `sterile’ city, a showcase for Kim Il-Sung’s glory, for the achievements of the Communist regime in the DPRK. Pyongyang has none of the glamour, the hustle and bustle of other Asian cities: just a quiet and somewhat intimidating dignity that can be rather strenuous for a foreigner trying not to step on the toes of the authorities.