The Chongsan-ri Cooperative Farm halfway between Nampo and Pyongyang was the second time that my fellow tourist group grew kind of impatient (the first time was at the rather boring Museum of Metro Construction, where taking photos was forbidden for no apparent reason). It’s the DPRK’s showcase farm and whenever you see tourist visit a “typical North Korean farm” with “typical North Korean farmers” you can bet that it’s this place; which is actually more than just a regular farm…
I think we all had a huge communication problem right from the start. When we drove up to the Chongsan Cooperative Farm it didn’t look much like a farm. We parked on a huge concrete parking lot in front of what looked like a museum, announcements in Korea coming croakily from age-worn speakers – we were waiting in the direct heat for a couple of minutes and nobody seemed to know what was going on. Instead of showing us some crops next we were lead up a gentle slope to… a statue of Kim Il-sung surrounded by farmers and their families. It turned out that the Dear Leader stayed at the farm for 15 days in 1960 and 84 times more afterwards, giving on-location advice and developing the “Chongsan-ri Spirit” (about leadership) in the farm’s honor; later being part of the Chollima Movement (promoting economic development) and the Juche Idea (promoting autarky). It also turned out that the building that looked like a museum actually was a museum, though I am not sure if that fact was made known on location – like I said, there was a huge communication problem…
From the monument we went back to the parking lot, past the museum and straight to some of the farm houses, where we were welcomed by a couple of playing kids and an elderly woman. Shoes off and in we went, taking photos that have been taken a thousand times before – of the woman with her grandson and twin kids on a couch, of the generously equipped kitchen, of the technical equipment on a decent level. On the one hand it was quite interesting, on the other it was completely pointless as this was an arranged photo session. Our hosts claimed it was a typical farmer’s house, but well, I guess it’s up to you whether you want to believe it or not. (BTW: I don’t think the house was much of an exaggeration since they didn’t put in a washing machine or a DVD player – and at least in Pyongyang DVD players must be quite common as, according to the latest rumors, the government has a serious problem with South Korean drama TV shows that seem to be quite popular among the North Korean population. DVDs and especially USB sticks make it possible to copy those shows to small and easy to hide storage devices.)
Afterwards we were able to have a look at a different (predetermined) house and then we waited for like 20 minutes at the parking lot to get the heck out of there – we didn’t see a single field or animal, although the farm is supposed to produce rice, corn and beans. We also didn’t have a look at the museum or some of the facilities at the farm, like the hospital, the cultural hall, the kindergarten or one of the schools on the premises. I really wonder what went wrong there, because it seems like the other group with the grumpy guides actually saw a lot more of the farm. Most of the information in this article I had to gather afterwards – and of course nobody mentioned the surface to air unit that was on the farm and just 200 meters away from the houses we visited…
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what a well-written article – interesting!!!
Thanks a lot, I’m happy to hear that you liked it!
What a weird place. What were the communication problems? Did you ask your guide questions that he couldn’t/wouldn’t answer?
I actually don’t know what went wrong. I left the bus and took some photos while talking to Jeff and nothing happened for about 10 minutes. Then we went to the statue and back, past the museum and to the houses. From there to a smaller parking lot where we waited for another 20 minutes or so. I guess we were so used to guides showing us stuff that we all just waited for things to happen, but they never did – and then we went to the next stop.
What a cool trip. I would find it so interesting.
It was indeed really interesting, but what really elevated the experience is the fact that I was able to see things only 3000 non-Chinese visitors see a year. I live in Osaka, so I see about that many people on my way to work every day…
Another fascinating article. From the photos these houses look much nicer than anything in the more remote areas of China. Agree with you that what you saw was authentic up to a certain point. Any foreigner is not going to be show abject poverty, just as tour groups that come to the USA will not tour crime & poverty stricken areas around most major cities. Nice photos as well!
Thanks a lot!
Actually most of the houses we saw from the bus were in decent condition. Some of them were lacking the white and blue paint, especially in the countryside around Kaesong later that day, but overall housing seems to be decent, although I am pretty sure those buildings are really cold in winter and really hot in summer…
And I totally agree – when you visit Paris you go and see the Eiffel Tower, not the banlieues. The big difference between Paris and Pyongyang: If you want to see the banlieues on your own risk you can go there – if you want to see certain parts of Pyongyang you are not allowed to go there.
Thanks for giving us this glimpse into the DPRK 🙂
Thanks a lot for stopping by and leaving such a nice comment!
The main building and fence/gate look a bit like the Nitto factory in Japan. I think it’s the colors, mainly. Sounds like you had an interesting experience on that trip.
Going to the DPRK was one of the best decisions I made in the past few years and I can only encourage people to go there themselves!
where’s the farm again ? 🙂
I guess that would be a great selling point in the States “Our beans are so good we have to defend them with our army!”… 😉
Maybe I read on another website about this farm too. There it was said that the farmers have been working on the field while they have been watching. When they left one person turned around and saw the the farmers are no longer working. Like it was only for the visitors.
What I learned in NK is that you gotta be careful to judge based on what you see or think you see. At one school we visited a computer class and the students were working on whatever. When I and somebody else got to the back of the room to have a look at the screens they were black – so we thought they faked the whole thing. Turned out that there was a blackout seconds before… people from my group watched those students using their PCs earlier.