I’ve been looking at a large picture book called Inside North Korea by Mark Edward Harris (Chronicle Bks., 2007).
It’s not quite clear how much he was able to shoot without being controlled by government monitors or minders.
The cityscapes seem rather bland. That’s not surprising. Indeed, the place seems quite empty.
The most interesting pics are of the dramatic mountainous areas of Geumgangsan and Paektusan. Of the former, there’s a picture of a poem by Kim Jung Il inscribed on a boulder extolling the area’s natural beauty. The poem is written in Chinese characters. It makes me wonder how North Koreans regard Chinese culture.
A thousand years ago, the place was famous to some Chinese. The Geumgangsan section of the book leads off with a quote from a Chinese Song dynasty poet Shu Shi (a.k.a. Su Dong-Po, 1037-1101):
“If I were to die the day after seeing Goryeo (Korea) Geumgangsan, I would have no regrets.”
It seems that modern-day South Koreans are returning the favor. The recent article in the NY Times about the Wulingyuan natural preserve (a certified UNESCO GeoPark) in Hunan, said that the place is advertised on So. Korean tv.
Maybe I should go there, too, when I finally get around to visiting China. It’d be awesome to see the karst pillars dotted with trees. (The most dramatic scenery I’ve, thus far, experienced in person are the mesas of New Mexico.)
Meanwhile, I’ve also found some articles about North Korea in some of the periodicals I get in the mail:
North Korea’s Best Path Forward; Can it join the global economy? (Courier, Summer 2007)
North Korea’s Last Chance for a Diplomatic Solution by Tanaka, Hitoshi (Chuo Koron Shinsha, Apr 2007) translated for Japan Echo
The Courier article has a picture of Pyongyang which shows many buildings that seem to be smudged by soot (due to coal?). The Harris book doesn’t show any dirty buildings, but his few cityscape shots are obscured by shooting into the sunset. Could it be that some parts of Pyongyang are dirtier than others due to the prevailing winds blowing soot in certain directions?
(Reminds me that my sister’s dissertation discussed a way of describing where coal dust from Chinese power plants would blow on neighboring cities.)