Pyongyang Metro

To give you a break from the everyday, I thought I would share some information on North Korea’s Pyongyang Metro system. It was opened in the 1970’s and is said to be 22km long. Foreigners are only allowed to visit two of the system's stations, so that leads to all sorts of rumours including: the subway is only run between two stations for the few tourists the country sees, or there is a secret network military subway system. Some interesting facts about the system. The stations are named after communist ideals and not geography, so you get station names like Comrade and Red Star. Also, the system was designed as a nuclear fallout shelter. Anyway, there is a very interesting blog post I found at “Marc In North Korea: Through The Looking Glass”

My friend Kirsty (a lawyer from London, England) and I were enthralled by the entire scene. The Socialist Realist murals (like me, she is a huge fan of the art form), the Soviet-retro bauble chandeliers, the archways, and the East German cars were all from some weird "Alice in Wonderland"-meets-hardline Communism' world. It was almost too much to take in.