Interested in visiting
NORTH
KOREA
this summer?
We are currently organizing an 11-day once-in-a-lifetime
educational trip to
North Korea and China for students, families, alumni and
professors.
This field trip is open to all interested in the Brown community
and beyond.
US citizens (including Korean-Americans), in addition to all
non-South Korean citizens, may travel with us to the DPRK this
August to experience the Arirang Mass Games in P’yongyang! In
addition, we will organize visits to the North Korean city of
Kaesong and the DMZ as viewed from the North, ride through the
North Korean countryside by train on our way to the Chineseborder towns of Sinuiju and Dandong, wander the old Manchurian
capital at Shenyang, and meander through the hidden gems and
modern marvels of new and old Beijing.
When: August 10th through the 20th, 2009 and
August 21st through the 31st, 2009
How much:
Program fees will be $1,499 (pending final
conformation
from the DPRK government and our Chinese partners) see below
Included:
Tour guides within the DPRK and China
to Beijing
Not-Included:
Round-trip airfare
Ten nights of accommodation (3-star+)
Double entry
Chinese visa
Three meals daily
Personal travel and
medical insurance
North Korean visa
Personal spending and
drinks
All transportation within China and the DPRK
Arirang Mass
Games entry ticket
All entry tickets included on the itinerary
Anything
not mentioned in “included”
If you are interested, please email me at
Matthew_Reichel@brown.edu
美国布朗大学访朝鲜民主主义人民共和国之旅
미국 브라운대학교 조선민주주의인민공화국에 여행
Itinerary (subject to change at anytime)
August 9th. Depart for Beijing, China (for those
coming from the U.S.)
August 10th. You will be met on arrival at Beijing
Capital Airport and we will drive to our hotel.
One of us (or our representatives) will meet you as
you exit customs at the airport as per your flight
arrival time and terminal. Incase of a flight
change or incident at the airport in which we are
unable to locate you, please keep the address of
our hotel handy for any taxi driver.
Beijing Qilu Hotel 北京齐鲁饭店
北京市西城区地安门西大街 103 号
You will be given time to rest at the hotel or
explore the surrounding area, just north of the
famous Beihai Park in the center of Beijing. Dinner
for those who arrive in time will be at a wellknown Chinese restaurant specializing in Peking
Duck (vegetarian options will be made available
upon request). Welcome to Beijing! Overnight at
the Qilu Hotel.
August 11th, 8:30am. Today we will explore China’s
capital city beginning first with a very local
Beijing breakfast and then with a stroll through
Beijing’s Hutongs, old traditional residential
alleyways around the center of the city dating back
as far as the Yuan dynasty – although most homes
here were built and rebuilt several times over the
last two hundred years. From the Hutongs we will
continue to Jingshan Park, the Forbidden City, and
Tian’anmen Square. We will have lunch in a local
Chinese restaurant.
The afternoon is free to explore and specific
requests can be made to us as to what you would
like to see and where you would like to go. For
those who are tired and jetlagged, we will provide
transportation back to the Hotel. We will have an
official group welcome dinner at a North Korean
owned restaurant in Beijing’s Chaoyang district,
definitely not to be missed! Overnight at the Qilu
Hotel
August 12th, 7:00am. What’s a trip to China without
hiking the Great Wall? Today, after an early
breakfast, we will hike a rustically beautiful unrestored section of the Great Wall known as Jiankou,
located about two hours away from Beijing. The
trek will be somewhat demanding and we will be
brining a packed lunch with us on the Wall.
Although demanding, the trek is spectacularly
beautiful and we will hopefully be the only people
on the wall here, China at its best. Those not
interested in going are welcome to stay in Beijing,
but must be at Beijing Strain Station (北京战 bei
jing zhan) no later than 4:30pm.
We will return to Beijing around four thirty in the
afternoon after an early dinner en route and head
directly to the train station for our overnight
train to the Chinese-DPRK border city of Dandong
(丹东 단동), in China’s northeast Liaoning Province.
We will bring snacks to eat on the train.
Incase you cannot find our train or get separated;
here is our train information in Chinese (below).
Please remember that our train will depart
precisely at five thirty, be on the train no later
than five fifteen!
北京开往丹东列车
K27 次
出发时间：17：30
August 13th, 6:30am. We will arrive in Dandong
early in the morning and head straight for the
hotel. Everyone’s passports will be returned with
fresh DPRK visas from the Shenyang consulate once
we arrive at the hotel for check in and
registration.
Following breakfast, we will first head to the “War
to Resist America and Aid Korea Memorial Museum”.
Here we will have a great opportunity to see the
Korean War from the Chinese perspective. After our
visit to the museum we will make a beeline for the
Chinese DPRK border. The difference across the
Yalu River could not be more extreme; as China
booms, the DPRK remains economically static. Once
we arrive we will get our first taste of North
Korea by getting to walk on the half-bridge, known
in Chinese as the “Broken Bridge” (断桥) that was
bombed during the Korean War and taking a boat ride
right up to the North Korean side of the Yalu.
After lunch we will drive north thirty kilometers
or so to visit the Hushan Great Wall, the furthest
eastern section of the Great Wall and the famous
“One Leap Across” where China and North Korea are
literally separated by only one leap across the
Yalu. Dinner will be at a local ethnic Korean
Chinese (朝鲜族 조선족) restaurant in Dandong.
Overnight at Hotel.
August 14th, 10:00 am. This morning we will all be
given a chance to sleep in a bit and have breakfast
at your own leisure before we depart for Shenyang
city (沈阳 심양), the capital of Liaoning province
located about three hours away from Dandong. Once
we arrive we will check into our hotel, have lunch
and visit the old Manchurian palace that used to be
the political center and home of the Manchurian
emperor.
Everyone will be given an opportunity to rest at
the hotel for a little while before we re-gather at
six thirty for a dinner meeting with Mr. Moosung
Kim (金佑成 김무성), our DPRK coordinator. Over
dinner we will go over protocol and can field any
questions you may have about our trip to North
Korea. We will return to the hotel immediately
following our dinner, sleep well, North Korea
awaits.
August 15th, 8:30am. We will gather in the hotel
lobby in the morning – everyone will be responsible
for their own breakfast, it is included with the
hotel and you will be given a ticket to use at the
hotel restaurant – and board our bus for Shenyang’s
airport for our Air Koryo flight to P’yongyang (平壤
펑양). We will meet our North Korean guides as soon
as we pass through immigration and they will take
us into P’yongyang. Please note that although this
will be very exciting; please resist any urge to
take any photos at the airport or out the bus
windows crossing (or just be very discrete). It is
best to always ask the guides before taking photos.
In the afternoon we will visit the Arch of Triumph,
Fountain Park, Mansudae Grand Monument (Statue of
Kim Il Sung). Immediately following dinner we will
head to P’yongyang’s May Day Stadium to enjoy the
Mass Games. Please note that the Mass Games entry
ticket is not included in our program fee. Tickets
are available for four different classes is Euro
(and possibly RMB and or US Dollars). 3rd class:
40 Euro, 2nd class: 80 Euro, 1st class: 120 Euro,
VIP: 240 Euro.
What are Mass Games?
Mass Games can basically be described as a
synchronized socialist-realist spectacular,
featuring over 100,000 participants in a 90 minute
display of gymnastics, dance, acrobatics, and
dramatic performance, accompanied by music and
other effects, all wrapped in a highly politicized
package. Literally no other place on Earth has
anything comparable and it has to be seen with your
own two eyes to truly appreciate the scale on
display.
The Mass Games organizers state that 'Juche
orientated mass gymnastics of Korea originated from
Flower Gymnastics, a work by President Kim Il Sung
created in 1930, the early days of his anti
Japanese revolutionary struggles'. 1961 marked the
fist truly Korean style Mass Gymnastics piece with
the catchy title of 'The Era of the Workers' Party'.
Today, Mass Gymnastics represents 'the ideological
theme of the history of the country and nation
splendidly through combination of gymnastic
formations, backdrops involving tens of thousands
of people and music'. The games is not merely a
visual spectacular, through the training and
performance of the games 'the ideological theme
promotes social development and it trains not only
the people's physiques but also their spiritual
power'.
Unlike a sports competition, where the athletes
compete for a prize, the mass gymnastics of Korea
brings 'pleasure and satisfaction to the performers
as well as to the audience and instills in their
hearts hope for the future'.
As Leader Kim Jong Il pointed out in a meeting with
the mass gymnastics organizers in 1987 'the Korean
style of mass gymnastics is a mixed form of
comprehensive physical exercises with a combination
of high ideological content, artistic quality and
gymnastics skill'.
Preparations are visible on the streets of
Pyongyang well in advance of the Mass Games with
tens of thousands of gymnasts preparing their
routines in the city’s open spaces and parks. The
2009 performance will be entitled 'Arirang' based
on a historic tragic love story but will be adapted
to represent the struggle of North Korea during the
Japanese occupation and Korean War. Students have
been practicing every day since January. The 90
minute performance which will be held every evening
at 7pm will feature the 'largest picture in the
world' a giant mosaic of individual students each
holding a book whose pages links with their
neighbours’ to make up one gigantic scene. When the
students turn the pages the scene or individual
elements of the scene change, up to 170 pages make
up one book.
August 16th. In the morning we will visit the
Korean War Museum, USS Pueblo and the P’yongyang
Arch of Triumph. Following lunch we will visit a
local park, the Grand People’s Study House, 3
Revolutions Exhibition, and the Korean Central Art
Gallery. Times will be set daily by our North
Korean guides.
August 17th. In the morning we will visit Kumsusan
Memorial Palace (Mausoleum of Kim Il Sung) and the
Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery. In the afternoon
we will see the Mangyongdae Native House and
Pyongyang Metro before hitting the road for Kaesong
(开城 개성), an industrial city bordering the DMZ.
We will spend tonight at a hotel in Kaesong.
August 18th. Following breakfast, we will venture
down to the town of Panmunjom in the DMZ, where we
will have an opportunity to visit the North-South
Korean border. Then we will stop by the Koryo
Museum before returning to Pyongyang by bus. In
the afternoon we will be taken to the Monument to
Party Foundation, the Juche Tower, a book shop,
stamp shop, and finally Kim Il Sung Square.
Overnight in P’yongyang.
August 19th. Today we return to China from the DPRK.
We will fly to either Beijing or Shenyang on Air
Koryo. If we fly back through Shenyang, we will
take the bullet train back to Beijing (4 hours)
after our arrival. Overnight at the Qilu hotel in
Beijing.
August 20th. Depart Beijing for the U.S. or continue
with your own travels in China. Please note that
our program ends this morning, so if you need to
leave for the airport you will be responsible for
getting a taxi there. We will be more than happy
to provide any travel help you may require.