Day 4 - b) Mt Chilbo to Chongjin

Tuesday September 7, 2010

The drive from Mt Chilbo to Chongjin would be 4.5 hours on the rough dirt roads. However Mr Lee had permitted us to take pictures of rural scenes (including people), which kept us amused and alert. But conversely we were under strict instructions not to take any photographs once we reached the industrial city of Chongjin.

The rural streetscape showed the locals packed onto trucks, military personnel carrying out civil works (or enjoying a cigarette break), many cyclists, many ox carts, children walking home, and ladies carrying something or other on their heads... We even saw a freight train leading a Hyundai container. I have much shaky video footage of the countryside so please feel free to ask me in the offline world if you know me.

Ox cart. (Photo courtesy of Tim)

There was plenty of goat herding in North Korea. (Photo courtesy of Tim)

Being on the bus for long periods and craving local interaction, at every opportunity we waved to the people outside. And invariably a smile and a wave was returned. This habit would continue for the entire tour, and it took some restraint to stop waving to strangers after crossing into China!

A mother and son just outside the temple at Mt Chilbo. (Photo courtesy of Tim)

Chongjin is North Korea's third largest city. As an industrial city in the far north-eastern corner of the country it was a world away from Pyongyang in aesthetics and quality of life for its residents. The streets were grimy, the air was hazy, and there was no plethora of grand monuments. Compared to Pyongyang this was much closer to the "real" North Korea our tour group had been waiting to see, and ironically for the very same reason our guides prevented us from taking pictures.

The excellent book Nothing To Envy by Barbara Demick was privately discussed frequently by my fellow tourists during this trip, and Demick encountered many interviewees who had come from Chongjin (as the city is close to China and Russia).