Somebody came to my site today looking for pictures of the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, DPRK. I wrote something about it back in April and GOOGLE KNOWS ALL.
The Ryugyong Hotel is, in my opinion, the single most unsettling structure ever erected by the hand of man. It’s 1,082 feet tall, has 105 floors, and encloses 3.9 million square feet of floor space.
And it is completely empty. It doesn’t even have windows.
The North Korean government began construction of the building in 1987 at an estimated cost of $750 million, or 2% of the country’s GDP. For comparison, 2% of the US GDP would be about $220 billion. Ryugyong was a massive undertaking for such a poor country.
Work was halted in 1992, and nobody knows exactly why. Some say that it was for financial reasons; the DPRK economy was a disaster even then, and 1992 was about the time that widespread famine and electricity shortages began to kick in. Others say that the building isn’t structurally sound due to the use of poor-quality concrete, and that it literally cannot be completed. At one point it was rumored that the North Korean government was trying to raise foreign capital to pay for major structural renovations, so the truth might lie somewhere in between.
The Ryugyong Hotel looms over Pyongyang like some kind of slumbering bat. Something deep inside my brain tells me that the 75° angle of the hotel’s outer walls is exactly the wrong angle; it says sinister, it says creepy, it says get away.
Okay, so tastes differ. I think it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up; maybe the North Koreans think it’s sweet as punkin’ pie. That still begs the question of why. The DPRK maintains strict control over tourists and other visitors. The Ryugyong was designed to have 3,000 rooms, but at the time it was built only a few thousand people were allowed into the country per year, and almost none of them were destined for Pyongyang. Even today, after the establishment of the Kŭmgang-san tourist region, the DPRK only sees about 130,000 tourists per year. Every single one of them could book a week-long stay in the Ryugyong and the hotel would still be significantly under capacity.
I’m no expert on North Korean psychology, but it seems to me that there’s only one plausible answer: Building the Ryugyong was a matter of national pride. The North Korean government put the Ryugyong on city maps before ground was even broken; they even put it on a stamp. The Ryugyong was to be a monument to the North Korean virtue of juche, or self-reliance.
The same sense of pride that drove them to build the Ryugyong has driven the North Koreans to an almost pathological level of denial about the building. It’s no longer on the city’s maps. Guides claim not to know where it is. No one speaks of it. This state of affairs is made all the more surreal by the fact that the almost incomprehensibly massive Ryugyong is visible from every part of Pyongyang. It hangs over the horizon, never far out of sight. The ultimate expression of the idea of the elephant in the corner.
To get an idea of the scale of the Ryugyong in relation to the rest of Pyongyang, consider this photograph. The Ryugyong looms there at the right side of the frame, casting its long shadow on the psyche of every North Korean. It’s a monument not to juche, but to juche’s imminent collapse.
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You know, this would be a the one place I would look in North Korea for a ‘hidden’ missle silo.
I mean, c’mon… $750 million? No way it cost that. No one speaks of it? No one goes to it? No windows? I’d like to have a look inside for myself.
AkRonin
Saturday, October 14th, 2006, 3:54 pm
The pride of Man befalls the foolish, like the desires plated in the tower of Babel . The foolishness and pride of North Korea is and will lead vto their continued folly and downfall.
Anonymous
Sunday, October 22nd, 2006, 11:22 am
Come on, guys, it was the 80’s! Who didn’t make aesthetic mistakes back then! If you were to equate it with the neural damage and expense exacted by ‘the War on Drugs’ or even ‘Punky Brewster’, and the egregious damage inflicted on not only Americans, but her de facto sattelites abroad, it amounts to a low-level example of hubris by a desperately poor nation. How many skint strugglers do you know insist on pay tv, or purchasing the finest import beer just to inject a much needed exotic thrill into their otherwise dreary, grey lives? Unlike all of these given examples, it will make a glorious ruin, one that, if viewed sympathetically, should count as a United Nations ‘Heritage Listing’ architectural treasure. Admit it; who doesn’t look at the Ryugyong hotel, and admire the sheer ambition, if not folly, of its’ construction? We need nations like North Korea to build these things. How else would we know the extremities of function over form?
Josh
Sunday, April 15th, 2007, 8:58 am
It looks like something from a story by H.P Lovecraft. Especially with those weird angles.
Crescent Aurora
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007, 9:11 am
Creepy, but in a way that’s impossible not to gawk at.
Eddie
Monday, May 7th, 2007, 10:58 pm
well, I think they built it in hopes that we would use it as an alternate for gotham city. someone likes batman over there. reruns at least.
that girl
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007, 5:44 pm
I LOVE this building! There are so precious few architectural creations on this planet which can really “say it all”.. this one does for sure! I am left agape by its appearance.. call me crazy, but I think it is beautiful.. in a wierd, scary, bent way.. it’s a morbid fascination!
charlie the painter
Saturday, May 12th, 2007, 10:26 pm
It is like something from another world. The fact that it is so huge, so strange, and incomplete make the mind boggle. It is a testament to the weird world of North Korea. Although I am not sure why they just don’t blow the place up-it has to be an embarassment to the government. Or maybe it really is George Orwell, and if we say something isn’t there, it isn’t.
Winged Griffin
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007, 1:17 am
I just returned from Pyongyang and our tour guide did not talk about the Ryugyong Hotel until we asked. However, he was very honest once the subject was brought up and said that financing had run out and the government is looking for an outside organization to invest $300m to repair and open this place. It is absolutely huge and we were not allowed to drive near it, although no one can certainly miss this behemouth.
Tom
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007, 11:15 pm
[…] Franks post reminded me of the Ryugyong Hotel a project started in the late 80’s in the paradise of the Peoples Republic of North Korea. Another monument to freaky […]
freaky pyramids… at tomatolounge
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007, 12:11 pm
Jesus! How many North Koreans could the governement feed if abandon this projet and serve the people to reduce the mortality due to lack of food!!!
NuoJie
Wednesday, July 4th, 2007, 7:03 pm
people.. its a spaceship… made for chic corea… in north korea.. there are no windows, cos they will play every song chic ever made to everyones painful demise… and then launch into outer space… dont take this as american humor.
kuroneko akira
Thursday, July 12th, 2007, 3:23 pm
It will be a tomb for the Kim dynasty.
A reminder of what not to do…..
AG Berezowski
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007, 4:29 pm
I think they stopped the work at the hotel because they had more important priorities. Today we know what those priorities were: nukes and missiles.
srelu
Thursday, July 19th, 2007, 1:04 am
Stop the condescending talk over N. Korea. Every country has its pride, whether it’s a building, its flag(US!), God (Iran, US), military power (US, former Soviet Union), or whatever.
Cyril
Friday, July 20th, 2007, 5:06 pm
Yeah, but the “foolish” pride the U.S. has in it’s flag doesn’t enslave it’s people. Our is a symbol of an ideal, but only that, a symbol. In Kimland the flag and the power structure are inseperable, and the symbology is changed for whatever the task or struggle.
Also what Cyril may see as “condescending talk” is discussion based on fact. Another fact: The U.S. is the greatest society ever conceived, warts and all. Just ask any starving Kimland citizen given an informed choice. Maybe Cyril can take his place in Kimland and then he will see what perverted pride is in it’s flag, it’s god (Kim Il-Sung), it’s starving country, and it’s paranoid military.
Incessus Erro
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007, 3:17 pm
I say keep the building the way it is now… it looks cool without the glass and stuff and half completed rooftop.
Someone from far away.
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007, 8:52 pm
Looks like our beloved Ministry of Love!
Winston Smith
Monday, July 23rd, 2007, 1:23 am
The Hotel reminds me of Norman’s house in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). The way it shadows everything in North Korea is haunting in just the same way.
Lisa-Louise
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007, 6:17 am
In the playstation 2 game Mercernaries, you get to guide a laser guided JDAM into the hotel, blowing it up and sending it to the ground in a plume of smoke.
Lassik
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007, 1:15 pm
Well it is a tragically ugly and unfortunate building…Reminded me when I lived in Toledo and I stared out of my downtown apartment at a 32 story empty building…I would say -Incessus Erro- that even though “The US is the greatest society ever conceived, warts and all”..it still looks better than what we wasted on Iraq. At least the North Koreans can point to what their 750 million got them. We have spent over 500billion and got nothing..except thousands of dead soldiers and tens of thousands of missing limbs…in other news Pyongyang also has the world largest stadium (and another 70,000+ seater a few blocks away)for some reason. Now those are state supported projects that Americans can get behind.
Michael in Cleveland
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007, 4:03 pm
Man,
I never knew this building existed! WOW!
Was checking out the BURJ DUBAI and ran across this gem.
Apparantly the NKs bit off more than they could chew. But the building, as all buildings do, has its own personality.
I too would like to walk its endless hallways and spaces.
To see for myself what has been wrought.
g-dog in pennsylvania
Thursday, August 30th, 2007, 2:19 am
[…] a nice face but hides emptiness. One of the most glaring skyscrapers is without a doubt is the Ryugyong Hotel (also here). With the economy at a standstill, floods, famines and general mismanagement, it makes […]
DPRK Forum » North Korean oddities: Ryugyong Hotel
Friday, September 14th, 2007, 12:39 am
It looks kind of familiar… for an Argentinean like me. Argentina has quite a few “concrete monuments”: grandiose buildings built during the 70’s and 80’s but never finished due to “lack of funds”, namely corruption :)
Javier Gurfinkiel
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007, 4:07 pm
[…] of my favorite blogs, The Shape of Days, has also covered the subject in detail. Ultimately though, I think you just need to see it for […]
room34.com | Room 34 Multimedia » A night at the Ryugyong…
Thursday, November 15th, 2007, 11:40 pm
whats even more fasinating is the deep underground subway. Many rumours exists about this and I believe much of it is reserved for military use, however it plays an important role in transport for the civilians of Pyongyang. It’s a hundred meters undergound and could possibly withstand a nuke! Visitors claim that they have seen locals using the subway stations as air raid shelters during emergency drills. There is also rumours that construction of a subway station began at the base of the hotel but for the life of me I cannot find anything to confirm or deny this.
Sam
Saturday, November 17th, 2007, 8:23 pm
Where is this located and did the owner come out on t.v avertizing matresses and if he did tell him that this does’nt look like the hotel he showed tell me whitch hotel it was pleace i want to go…….
Natalie =)
natalie corzo
Saturday, November 24th, 2007, 8:05 am
[…] 1992. The cost of the building was the equivalent of 2% of the North’s GDP. For more, check out this informational […]
And the Ugliest Building in the History of Mankind is… « North Korea Monitor
Friday, February 1st, 2008, 2:03 am
It’s an amazing structure. I actually kind of like it. It does appear to be something out of the imagination of sci-fi illustrators, and would fit into settings for Stargate, Star Wars, Blade Runner, or any number of other futuristic dreams. The building isn’t so dissimilar to the fantastic stuff they put up in Vegas. If it’s built of bad, crumbling concrete, that’s unfortunate. Such a waste.
ws
Friday, February 1st, 2008, 2:39 am
The ugliest building in the world is the White House coz thats where the dictator of America now lives. At least in NK he only killed his own people but that American dictator brought death and destruction not only to many parts of the world but to the poor and ignorant Americans as well
Eddie Solid
Friday, February 1st, 2008, 5:10 am
OMFG! BLADERUNNER… 100%
Victor G
Friday, February 1st, 2008, 9:19 am
Eddie,
Ignorant? Try getting something called an education before you call anyone ignorant.
Be glad you are communicating in the GREAT US of A. I have to assume you are looking in the mirror as you use the word ignorant — it is the only logical answer.
If you were in NK right now talking about their government and people you would be dead right now.
If you do not want to stand behind our troops by all means feel free to stand IN FRONT of them!
Jay
Friday, February 1st, 2008, 5:52 pm
The building was never topped off, or officialy opened because, quite simply, the elevator system only goes to the 90th floor. There was no room for the machinery that a vast elevator system requires. You can see that from the picture.All the work done on the last 10 floors was done by hand and materials were carried up the remaining 10 stories on the backs of some North Korean labourer. if they cannot support an elevator system there is little hope for the guests.
JMH
Friday, February 1st, 2008, 6:45 pm
Eddie hit the nail on the head, Jay. You make yourself look like a typical foolish American with your ridiculous “support war or you hate the troops” comments.
This building may be the scariest thing on earth - I think it’s terrifying.
allison
Thursday, February 7th, 2008, 6:39 pm
This building is kinda of creepy in a way but its also a wonder for me. I wish we could see more of it like the ground level since they say there are gardens and stuff around it. I wonder why they won’t let anyone near or around it and who is living near it or if anyone walks it to make sure no one goes in. If anyone know of a picture i could see showing what it should have looked liked finished that would be cool too
Christina
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008, 10:55 am
My first association since i saw it was ant-hill or swarm …
Mike_Varnen
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008, 4:41 am
Christina, heck out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r0fM31BXKk
No idea how the intrepid soul got to film this!
I would love to look aroung this structure….nothing like it in the world. A perfect monument to the idiocy of Stalinism.
Scott in Maine
Friday, March 7th, 2008, 12:05 pm
If the US govt tried something like that in a time of famine there would be a revolt.
Me
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008, 4:47 pm
My first thought? Minas Morgul, as depicted in the Lord of the Rings movies. There’s something very, very wrong about this building.
FAC33
Thursday, April 24th, 2008, 6:40 pm
The building is creepy to say the least. Regardless of how ridiculous other countries expenditure, on wars and all is, the money wasted on this haunted Korean scarecrow is just criminal.
I personally find the building so unappealing unlike the ones currently being constructed close to my home in Dubai. At least there is a vision although I have some scepticism w.r.t. their long term use.
Abdullah
Monday, April 28th, 2008, 6:00 am
on wikipedia it says that construction has resumed as of April 2008. Trying to find a more credible source as to whether or not thats true though.
Zach
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008, 1:02 pm
THE HOTEL IS BACK UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Anonymous
Thursday, July 10th, 2008, 8:47 am
Its a hotel i think one should not relate it to the poor political relation b/w N.Korea and other states specially US. As far as my views are concerned i would definatily like to spend some time there. its an interesting structure a different one.
Abdullah
Friday, July 18th, 2008, 6:45 am
It is the worlds largest phallic symbol; Like a Giant PENIS that is tall and proud and ready to erupt on the destitute city.
Anonymous
Friday, July 18th, 2008, 11:07 am
How sad to see the mindless potshots people take at the US. Educate yourself on what the US is spending on non military foreign aid including bilateral/multilateral development and humanitarian aid. This amount is higher now than at any time during the Clinton era.
The worst part is how the US was somehow even brought up in this blog/comment area about this building.
Many of the more RESPONSIBLE governements are spending BILLIONS of tax dollars on things like Aids research, child welfare and famine relief.
If so many counties hate the US so much, maybe they should send back the aid the US has been sending them.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/TradeandForeignAid/images/bg1186tab1.gif
BACK ON TOPIC!!!
Very intresting building.. Reminds me of the tower of terror amusment ride. Maybe Disney should open a park and use the building for that.
Joshua
Friday, July 18th, 2008, 11:22 am
I think the building is neat. Its unique, interesting and dares to be different. After sitting incomplete for over 16 years, architects have begun renovations to the top floors of the structure. With new technology, this structure could really become something neat!
Katie
Friday, July 18th, 2008, 3:26 pm
Its great, I wished someone would finish it!!
Steph
Friday, July 18th, 2008, 3:51 pm
If they can’t their own people, how did they expect to do the same for the hotel’s guests?
Connor
Saturday, July 19th, 2008, 9:46 pm
This building puts me in mind of the late, great Waren Zevon song “Splendid Isolation”.
“I want to live on the upper east side,
and never come out in the street.”
Gus Wanner
Sunday, July 20th, 2008, 2:51 am
This building fascinates me and I consider it one of the architectural wonders of the late twentieth century. For all the absurd reasons that we hate it are the very reasons it is so important. It’s a monument to folly and ego and if it survives another 50 years it will be considered a twentieth century Giza.
FALCON
Sunday, July 20th, 2008, 6:58 pm