North Korea DPRK Tongil Aptos(by mthibau)
[ko-fi.com]
This is the Eleventh released item of the North Korea DPRK collection and it consists of quality Apartment Blocks at Tongil Street.
It houses up to 677 people with a regular 87% quality flats.
DPRK ministry of propaganda for Turism, a visit to Tongil Street, by Alek Sigley:
"…While there we would walk down the street and soak in its architecture—it was lined with huge, monumental apartment blocks that had been built down the street in the late 80s as a part of a massive urban development project. Then we could check out the Tongil Market, the largest market in Pyongyang and the entire DPRK.
We got a taxi from the front of the dormitory. The driver started taking us there but asked us: “Where is your interpreter?”. We explained that we were foreign students at Kim Il Sung University and thus didn’t have nor require interpreters. We were allowed to move around Pyongyang by ourselves without any need for accompaniment, I explained to him in Korean. After a phone call to his company, he said: “Alright, no problem. I just had to check”.
The ride took quite a while, maybe twenty minutes, and took us to what is basically the other end of Pyongyang. It cost us about $7 USD (fuel is expensive due to international sanctions), which we paid in Korean won at the market exchange rate of about 8,000 won per $1 USD. After we’re issued our students cards we’ll be able to get the subway there, which costs only a token amount, but that is still a few weeks away. Passing the Taedong River we saw quite a few buildings under construction, including a whole new set of apartment blocks not far from Kim Il Sung Square. Together with Changchon Street, Mirae Scientists’ Street and some of the other urban redevelopment projects, these structures were already beginning to give central Pyongyang quite a distinctive and impressive skyline—not bad for a country under the heaviest sanctions in UN history.
At about 11am we got out of our taxi in front of Tongil Market and found it was opening at 2pm. We were both peckish so decided to find lunch somewhere on Tongil Street while making a walk of it. I knew the bulgogi place in the stamp exhibition hall just in front of Tongil Market, and the “sweet meat” (dog meat) restaurant a few doors down, both of which I had visited while leading tours, but thought it might be interesting to try a place I hadn’t been to before. So we walked down Tongil Street in the direction of central Pyongyang. It was a beautiful, balmy spring day. The sky was almost completely clear barring a few, small, wispy clouds and bright bright blue. It was the warmest day of spring yet. I had visited Tongil Street many times on tours but had never been afforded the chance to take a leisurely stroll down its length, so greatly enjoyed doing so on such a lovely spring day.
(Tongil Street is the most famous place for those wishing to try the Korean specialty of eating dog, however beware the conditions the animals are kept in and the method of killing them is exceptionally cruel.)
I saw a sign that said “bulgogi restaurant”, and thought that although they’d most likely turn us away (only certain restaurants can serve foreigners, and those restaurants become few and far between the further you leave the centre of Pyongyang), it wouldn’t hurt to at least ask. Unfortunately, it turns out that they couldn’t serve foreigners. They apologised and we left joking amongst ourselves that we would leave them a bad review on TripAdvisor. We continued walking further down the street. By now our stomachs were grumbling. Then, I had a gut feeling that the other restaurant I had been to with tours on Tongil Street, the duck speciality restaurant, was just a bit further down the road. So we walked a little bit further down past the bridge that forms the junction between Tongil Street and Ch’ungsong Bridge (충성의 다리), and crossed. And Yo! Behold it was there!
It was a Saturday afternoon and lots of people, young and old, were out on the street. The street has its own tram line with retro-looking but well-maintained trams, and every few minutes or so one would come zipping down past us. We passed a few parks that were full of children who were playing while their parents relaxed nearby. Some of these children, especially excited to see a white person walking down the street, looked at us with curious and delighted smiles. We waved at them and they became even more excited.
(In Tongil, be aware that some theft does occur although it is minimal.)
We ordered some of their own corn makkolli (강냉이 막걸리), which had a fantastic smooth flavour and texture, and a nice, pale yellow colour, served in wine glasses. I had never heard of corn makkolli before despite having lived in South Korea for a few years, and found this makkolli to taste – like other North Korean makkollis I’d had in the past– pretty different to the South Korean stuff but very good in its own unique way. After this delicious and filling meal we paid (the meal cost about $10 USD for the both of us including drinks), said goodbye to the manager and went back to the Tongil Market.
After all traveling in DPRK is dope yo!"
WARNING: Some governments advise against all travel to North Korea due to the uncertain security situation caused by North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program and related tension. There are no resident Canadian or American diplomatic offices in the DPRK. The ability of officials to provide consular assistance is extremely limited. Sweden, through its Embassy in Pyongyang, is the "Protecting Power" for Canadian, American and Australian nationals if any emergency consular assistance is required, but such assistance will likely be very limited, due to the unpredictability of the actions of the government of the DPRK. Those planning to engage in activities that the North Korean government forbids must be prepared to face imprisonment, torture, and death (8 September 2019).(source Wikitravel)
Edit: Flat qualities in DPRK have changed by order of our Dear Leader in the streets:
Kyonghung 47%
Taehak 57%
Mansudae 67%
Kwangbok 77%
Tongil 87%
Sungni 97%
Ryugyong 100%
Special Thanks to Comrade Junna for modeling credits.
Thanks a lot to Comrade Ryan, OffRails, Fox, Sky, Ljubic and MTandi. More itens coming soon.
