[HN Gopher] The forbidden railway: Vienna-Pyongyang (2008)
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The forbidden railway: Vienna-Pyongyang (2008)
Author : 1317
Score : 86 points
Date : 2025-05-19 18:45 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com)
| cenamus wrote:
| Fascinating article, didn't know the border is/was that open via
| Russia
| decimalenough wrote:
| It normally isn't (unless you're Russian or North Korean),
| which is a large reason why this story is so fascinating.
| cyberax wrote:
| This is from 2008. Back then, North Korea was still living
| under the previous Kim. Back then, the border was very leaky
| and Koreans could move to China and Russia without a lot of
| barriers.
| ch4s3 wrote:
| The follow on posts and photos are amazing. The photos of crowds
| of North Koreans are really interesting, as were the earlier
| station photos. The material culture of the place is kind of
| fascinating.
|
| It's also kind of mind boggling to contemplate the lives Arirang
| performers[1]. What must that be like?
|
| [1] https://imageshack.com/i/exNHDHTVj
| Loughla wrote:
| There are just no people anywhere. Do they clear everyone out
| when westerners come through?
| bobmcnamara wrote:
| They are pixels
| aziaziazi wrote:
| [image of the show with a giant screen beside]
| https://imageshack.com/i/exQrNAZnj
|
| I was like "wow that is a _big_ screen although not very bright
| ".
|
| > Each background picture is created by about 40.000 childrens
| holding tables containing pages with different pictures/colours
|
| [zoom of the "screen" with endless pixels: a color square a
| little head on top of each - impressionist style]
| https://imageshack.com/i/exw2BFluj
| oatsandsugar wrote:
| did he end up going?
| willidiots wrote:
| Yes! There are a whole series of posts with photos and maps.
| Click the red "Tumangan, we are coming!!!" link at the bottom
| of the first post to jump to the next one, etc.
| echelon_musk wrote:
| Thanks. I didn't realise the red text was a hyperlink either.
|
| To save anyone else the hassle, this is where he finally
| crosses into NK:
|
| https://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/2008/09/tumangan-
| north...
| izacus wrote:
| What hassle are you talking about? Reading about the trip?
| anotheracc3 wrote:
| Keep going and going and going. There are a lot of trains
| (of course) but once you get past that there are a lot of
| very interesting photos, especially the shows that look
| extravagent and unique. This guy documents his trips well!
|
| Hope it is backed up well (guess on the archive sites).
| cosmicgadget wrote:
| Yeah only after clicking the home button did I realize that '<'
| is next. It suddenly got a lot less ominous.
| netsharc wrote:
| Ah, the blogosphere "Reverse chronological" order: Hit "<
| Prev" to read the chronologically next post...
| Klonoar wrote:
| I think I probably refer a stupid number of people to this post
| each year when the topic of trains and/or North Korea comes up.
| Read it when it came out and always found it fascinating.
| te_chris wrote:
| This is one of the best bits of the internet and should be at the
| top.
| geye1234 wrote:
| If you wanted to explain to someone what the 00s-blogging
| phenomenon was all about, and to given them an example of the
| best of it, you may well point to this.
|
| Photos of NK like these are incredibly difficult to come by. What
| a beautiful country.
|
| Also, I admire his courage. In several photos, military people
| are staring at him, as they may well be. He was lucky as well. He
| states he hid the photos in a zip file in his C:\windows folder
| when leaving the country, having deleted them from his SD Card.
| ValentineC wrote:
| I think I spent maybe 2 hours appreciating the author's journey.
|
| This has been one of my best reads of the month, and I hope that
| I'll one day get to visit Pyongyang myself, without the US visa
| waiver issues that come with it.
| sira04 wrote:
| Is there anyone who has archived this into a PDF or ebook format?
| I'd love to save and read it in another way.
| ubermonkey wrote:
| Pretty sure I read this when it was new. Wild.
| saubeidl wrote:
| Reading this made me nostalgic for the old internet and sad about
| what it's become since.
|
| I miss the days of blogs and forums and authentic content like
| this.
|
| Today it's all hyperpolished platforms filled with clickbaity
| influencers. Every step of the way, somebody's trying to extract
| as much money as they can.
|
| I can't help but think that we in this community played a big
| part in turning it into what it is now and that thought fills me
| with regret.
| steamrolled wrote:
| The old internet is still there, it just hasn't scaled as
| quickly as everything else. And frankly, we have a role to play
| if we want to preserve and nourish it. You say you liked the
| site. Drop the author a thank you note. Amplify it beyond
| pressing the "up" arrow on HN. It's not just about the author:
| show others that this kind of stuff is valued.
|
| Today, the signals young content creators get is that they can
| make dumb videos on YouTube or TikTok and get 10M subscribers
| and ad revenue, or set up a geeky blog that will get 100 views
| a month. But it's not Google or TikTok that did this: it's the
| content consumers.
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(page generated 2025-05-19 23:00 UTC)