Yanggakdo International Hotel
Yanggakdo International Hotel | |
File:Yanggakdo-International-Hotel-2014.jpg | |
Korean name | |
---|---|
Chosŏn'gŭl | 양각도국제호텔 |
Hancha | 羊角島國際호텔 |
Revised Romanization | Yanggakdo Gukje Hotel |
McCune–Reischauer | Yanggakto Kukche Hot'el |
The Yanggakdo International Hotel is the largest working hotel and the second tallest building in North Korea, after the Ryugyong Hotel.[1] The hotel is located on Yanggak Island in the river Taedong, two kilometres to the south-east of the centre of Pyongyang, the nation's capital. It rises to an overall height of 170 metres (560 ft) and has a slowly revolving restaurant on the 47th floor.[2] The hotel is said to contain 1,000 rooms and a total floor space of 87,870 square metres (945,800 sq ft). The structure was built between 1986 and 1992 by France's Campenon Bernard Construction Company and opened in 1995.
Background
Besides housing the reception, the ground floor offers the purchase of North Korean currency sets, postcards and letters, and basic commodities at Western prices. There is a bar, and a bookshop which stocks North Korean reading material including back-issues of the local English-language newspaper, the Pyongyang Times, treatises and photos of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, children's books and material which describes the North Korean understanding of the history of the region.
In addition to the revolving restaurant, the hotel guide issued to guests indicates that the hotel contains four further restaurants on the second floor — these include the numbers one and two dining-room, the main banquet hall and the Japanese, Chinese and Korean food dining-rooms.
The fifth floor is off limits to hotel guests,[1] it also does not have a button on the elevator panel.[3] The basement contains a bowling alley, a pool room, a swimming pool, a barber shop, a casino and a massage club run by a Chinese company with an exclusively female staff.
The hotel's grounds originally included a 9,000-square-metre nine-hole golf course. In 2011 the golf course was demolished to make space for a Chinese-funded health complex to be built.[4][5] Also located on Yanggak Island, next to the hotel's grounds, is the Pyongyang International Cinema Hall. The opening and closing ceremonies of the Pyongyang International Film Festival take place here.
The Yanggakdo International Hotel is a standard stop on tours of North Korea, and was featured in the graphic novel Pyongyang.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yanggakdo International Hotel. |
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Dprk-hotel-yanggakdo.jpg
The hotel's façade seen from the ground level
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Yanggakdo-Hotel-Lobby-2014.jpg
Hotel lobby area, March 2014
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The Taedong River in Pyongyang.jpg
The hotel seen from the top of the Juche Tower
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Yanggakdo International Hotel front side by night.jpg
Front side of the hotel
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Yanggakdo International Hotel room 1.jpg
Standard-sized twin room
See also
References
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- ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/getting-drunk-in-north-korea/279310/
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External links
- The hotel's promotional video, recorded by a guest in August 2011: Yanggakdo Hotel promotional video on YouTube
- Yanggakdo International Hotel picture album at Naenara
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- Pages with broken file links
- Articles containing Korean-language text
- Commons category link is defined as the pagename
- Hotel buildings completed in 1992
- Hotels in Pyongyang
- Buildings and structures with revolving restaurants
- Skyscrapers in North Korea
- Skyscraper hotels
- Skyscrapers between 150 and 199 meters
- Hotels established in 1995