the klog

This is probably the most disturbing building I've ever seen. It's the Ryugyong Hotel [Wiki] in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. It's the 17th tallest skyscraper in the world, and it was going to be the tallest hotel in the world when construction began 1987. It was going to have 3000 rooms and no less than 7 revolving restaurants. The only problem? Construction permanently halted in 1992 when it was still just a concrete shell!

They either ran out of funding, or the concrete was structurally unsound. They didn't even get around to putting in windows. And you see that thing at the top? That's a crane that's probably been there for over a decade! And that's not mentioning the fact that Pyongyang doesn't get nearly enough tourism to remotely come close to filling it.

Click to expand. Behold the spookiness.

Now take a look at how it completely dominates the Pyongyang skyline:

I can't believe I've never heard of it before. Just imagine living in a city where the most prominent feature by far is a giant, hulking, failed attempt at national pride! According to this blog entry, guides will even claim that they don't know where it is. (!)

Here are a couple of photo travelogues of trips to North Korea, from an American tourist and a Japanese tourist.