Yangjiaodao Pyongyang International Film Club

Yangjiao Island International Hotel is one of the two most luxurious super hotels in North Korea (the highest level) (equivalent to a five-star hotel in China).

Yangjiao Island International Hotel, surrounded by water, is located in Yangjiao Island in the center of Datong River, with pleasant scenery and fresh air. 1995 was completed and opened on July 2nd. Covering an area of 6,543,800 square meters, with a total construction area of about 90,000 square meters and a building height of 654.38+ 070 meters, it is a 47-story building (48 stories high). There are more than 65,438+0,000 rooms of different grades, equipped with modern equipment. Each guest room has a bedroom and a reception room, equipped with various lighting devices, temperature control devices and automatic fire extinguishing devices. Rooms: 100 1 set, beds 1963. Among them, there are special rooms 10, 23 first-class rooms, 90 second-class rooms and 878 third-class rooms, which are the best places to enjoy the scenery of Datong River.

Yangjiaodao International Hotel has 9-hole golf course, indoor swimming pool, sauna, massage (health care), bowling, billiards and KTV. On the first floor, there are Chinese restaurants, nightclubs, saunas and casinos operated by Macao.

There is an aquarium on the right side of the central hall, where turtles, sturgeons and snappers are kept. There is a couch on the left, surrounded by trees such as cycads and white pines, which adds interest to the hall. There are two most important foreign-related hotels in Pyongyang. One is the Koryo Hotel, which is located in the center of Pyongyang and adjacent to the Central Station of the Workers' Party of Korea. It is relatively old and has rich experience. It mainly receives government delegations and some official economic and trade delegations visiting the DPRK, which is equivalent to our Beijing Hotel. The second is Yangjiao Island International Hotel, which is located on Yangjiao Island in Datong River (the island is named after the shape of Yang Jiao). Young, junior, mainly responsible for the reception of foreign guests and various tour groups to North Korea during the large-scale international exchange activities in North Korea, similar to our Hilton Hotel.

Yangjiaodao International Hotel is also the largest foreign-related hotel in Pyongyang, with 47 floors and a revolving restaurant on the top floor overlooking Pyongyang. In order to create a better leisure atmosphere for foreign guests, five years ago, relevant parties in North Korea cooperated with Macao investors to develop "Yangjiao Island Entertainment City in Pyongyang", including China restaurant, KTV karaoke hall, casino and so on. If the so-called "underground" on the Internet refers to the exact location, then this statement is correct.

But does this "underground" really mean the unknown "underground"? The answer is: no! Moreover, this casino is very famous in Pyongyang.

There are two uniformed North Korean security guards at the entrance of the casino. Their role is to prevent North Koreans from entering and "eliminate holidays" for North Koreans who come to eat or participate in activities. In principle, North Koreans are not allowed to enter the whole "Yangjiao Island Entertainment City", but as most China residents and some foreigners are often willing to entertain North Koreans in Chinese restaurants, with the passage of time, North Korea has relaxed this order. After strict declaration and approval procedures, some North Koreans are allowed to eat in Chinese restaurants, but when they leave, they must show the approval certificate to the security guard at the entrance of the casino and "cancel their vacation", which means "I have left", but the DPRK still explicitly prohibits any North Koreans from entering the casino, even the North Korean escorts of foreign institutions.

Therefore, Yangjiao Island Casino is a forbidden area for North Koreans, and it is precisely because of the forbidden area that North Koreans are familiar with its name.

Because it is a restricted area, when the DPRK signed an agreement with Macao investors at that time, it was clearly stipulated that all the staff of the entertainment center were not allowed to go in and out at will, and only activities were allowed on the island in their leisure time. In an emergency, they must get the approval of North Korea, or they will be ordered to be dismissed. Even if the manager wants to go out to buy necessities, he must be accompanied by a special North Korean guard.

Overview of Casino —— Simple luxury corner of North Korea

The total area of this casino is much smaller than that of the King's Casino, with a visual observation of 500 square meters at most. But the decoration is extremely elegant. Dazzling golden ceilings, marble Roman columns and royal style seats ... Journalists who have long been accustomed to the simple and simple decoration style of North Korea do have some difficulties in adapting to this dazzling and luxurious decoration.

As soon as you enter the door, it is a chip exchange point. Casinos use dollars as the settlement unit, but they can also accept euros and RMB, with a minimum chip of 25 cents. The waiter at the exchange point told the reporter, "The average guest doesn't change many chips, which is only tens to hundreds of dollars. It seems that they are just playing and taking a fresh picture, but when a few regular customers come, they usually change more. "

Walking in, you can see several brand-new slot machines standing side by side. From the appearance, it seems that not many people have played it. Turn a corner is the casino lobby, covering an area of about 400 square meters. There are four tables in the hall that the reporter can't name, and there is a pinball machine in the right corner. At that time, it was about 5 pm, and there were only three men with Dandong accent and boss appearance gambling at the innermost table. Several assistants were standing by, and two waitresses were rushing to serve tea and light cigarettes. From time to time, I will accompany a few words and smile. It depends, these three Dandong bosses are all like regular customers. However, whether it is raw or cooked, our tourism manager still sits in a bar chair one meter high, overlooking the venue one meter square, and uses a very professional eye to prevent guests from cheating.

There is a cabin on the left side of the casino. This is an out-and-out hut with an area of only 6 square meters, but there are three people living in it: the casino manager, the tourism manager and the financial manager. The reporter was asked to sit on a radiator, and as long as he stretched his legs a little, he would push them on the opposite table.

The people who come to the casino are mainly from China.

According to Manager Luo, the people who come to the casino are mainly from China. One reason is that, except for Koreans, the vast majority of foreigners in the DPRK are diplomats and officials of international institutions, and they rarely go in or out of casinos. Secondly, most foreign guests staying at Yangjiao Island International Hotel are from China.

"The guests here are mainly some individual Chinese businessmen, accounting for about 95% of the total." Manager Luo Canrong has always had a headache about the problem that the number of guests can't get up. "In the five years since its opening, the operating conditions here are very general, with little financial profit and little profit, mainly because there are too few guests. There are too few people coming to North Korea for tourism and business, and there are fewer flights. " The "individual Chinese businessmen" mentioned by Manager Luo are mainly divided into two categories, one is the individual Chinese businessmen who come here for business investigation and stay at the Island International Hotel, and the other is the individual Chinese businessmen who are based in Pyongyang and engaged in bilateral trade between China and North Korea.

Relevant personnel of the Embassy told reporters that almost all government delegations and most business delegations visiting the DPRK were arranged in the Koryo Hotel, and only a few business delegations were arranged in the Yangjiao Island Hotel. Before check-in, embassy officials usually take the initiative to warn members of the delegation not to patronize casinos, basically achieving "work in advance". Individual businessmen who come to the DPRK for business inspection are all received by the Korean Trade Association, and the DPRK will naturally not persuade them to ban gambling. Therefore, due to their own reasons, these people lack external constraints or curiosity and become the main customers who patronize casinos.

Manager Luo told reporters that in the last two months, there were about 20 to 50 guests every day, and most of them would not come one after another until after 10 in the evening. "But when the former manager said' April Spring', it would be very popular because the whole Yangjiao Island Hotel was almost full at that time."

10: 30, the reporter came to the casino again. As Manager Luo said, casinos are much more lively. There were three tables around, but it was still a bit sparse, which was far from the lively scene in the casino.

The reporter saw several acquaintances, all of whom are individual businessmen based in Pyongyang, so they went up to talk. "Come and kill some time. Idle is idle. It's almost Spring Festival. Find two money to spend, "said a clothing merchant in Jilin. The reporter looked at his chips, which were not big, and they all added up to no more than 200 yuan. There is also a businessman who came to Pyongyang for the first time. "I didn't know there was a casino here. Come and have a look. "

"The guests here don't gamble. Generally, the guests will play for dozens or hundreds of dollars and have a taste. If they play more, they won't exceed twenty thousand dollars. However, several big bosses in Dandong who have invested in North Korea have made great achievements when they came to North Korea. At most, they lost 500 thousand dollars in three days. " Manager Luo said.

"There are many passers-by mainly staying in hotels, such as traveling and inspecting. Although regular customers can gamble a lot, they spend most of their time in China and only come to Pyongyang when they have business, so they can't be seen at ordinary times, "Xiao Wang, a waiter from Dandong, told reporters. "Last time the Zeng Changbiao incident broke out, I visited several Zhejiang businessmen's investigation groups, but I played here for a few days, and the number was not small. I have never seen them since.

The reporter asked Manager Luo that in order to attract customers, some overseas casinos implemented a lot of chip discount systems and entrusted domestic travel agencies to carry out various publicity. Manager Luo said with a wry smile: "You see, there are so few guests here, and the profit is flat. If you engage in preferential activities again, the remaining profits will be returned to the customers. Moreover, the North Korean side and the headquarters will not let us engage in these concessions, let alone promote them, but only exist as a role to provide a leisure atmosphere for foreign guests. "

When the reporter went to Dandong, he also paid attention to the advertisements of tour groups of various travel agencies in Pyongyang. Indeed, he didn't find any promotional materials about Pyongyang Casino, but told him that he would stay at Yangjiao Island International Hotel. However, there are also some gamblers who come to gamble specially, and the number is very small. "I can't see the big head in a month," the account manager of a travel agency told reporters. In addition, it is understood that most tourists to the DPRK just come for sightseeing, and their interest in this country seems to be far greater than their interest in Yangjiao Island Casino. Moreover, tour groups usually have a tight schedule, and scenic spots outside Pyongyang such as Miaoxiangshan and Panmunjom are also on the itinerary. It is hard to imagine that they will spend more time, energy and money on casinos.

Generally speaking, this casino in Yangjiao Island Entertainment City cannot be compared with the King's Casino in Luoxian City. First, the purpose of establishment is different. It is only to provide a place for leisure and entertainment for foreign groups visiting Pyongyang. Although it has commercial purposes, it is not just like the emperor to attract gamblers from China, and effectively organize gamblers to go in batches through domestic travel agencies; Second, because of the small scale, there are not many guests. The tourists are mainly Korean individual businessmen who live in North China and guests who usually live in Yangjiao Island International Hotel. It's all small things. Unlike the emperor, there are not only a large number of stable tourists here, but also huge gambling funds. Third, Pyongyang is a pure tourist city. Most tour groups come to Pyongyang for sightseeing, but some business tourists are mixed in. Occasionally, they mostly enter casinos for curiosity and leisure purposes. At present, there are no gambling groups in China that come to Pyongyang specifically.

The most conspicuous thing in the room is the calendar.

Although North Korea's policy of governing the country is "military first" and "politics"-Koreans call it "military first politics" for short. This can also be manifested consciously or unconsciously from the international hotel Yangjiao Island.

The luxury of the hotel seems to be only in appearance, but the facilities and furnishings in the room are not synchronized, or the "old three articles" we have seen before, beds, mirrors and tables. Almost nothing is needed in an international hotel, let alone a room phone. The most conspicuous place in the room is a calendar to celebrate the beautiful life of the Korean people, but in China, which used to be keen on calendars, there is absolutely no calendar in hotels today.

In fact, this mismatch can be said to be relatively common in North Korea today. Take the toiletries as an example, which can only be regarded as the level of our guest house today. Disposable dental toothpaste is made in China.

Don't spill water on the floor when taking a bath.

The window glass is actually double-layered. North Korea is famous for producing copper, so even though other facilities in the bathroom are extremely ordinary, the sewer pipes are all made of copper, which makes us really envious.

There is one more detail. There is no floor drain in the bathroom of each guest room, which has become the most important point we repeatedly emphasized before entering the room. Be careful when washing, or the waiter will be in trouble if the water spills on the ground. Imagine, when a person is taking a bath, who can guarantee that he will not put water and wine on the floor? So during those days in North Korea, we all had an obsessive-compulsive disorder, fearing that the water would not obey and ran to the floor.

The elevator is made in North Korea.

The disconnection between hardware and software is also manifested in the elevator. There are eight elevators for guests in the building. If you need to get on and off at different floors, you must run back and forth at the fastest speed. When all the buttons of the eight elevators are pressed, it is possible to find the elevator you want to get on and off in the shortest time. Unlike domestic elevators, you can get it by pressing an up key or a down key. The speed of the elevator seems to be very fast, but because we don't know that the guests have pressed many up or down keys at the same time, the speed is much slower. I also found that two of the eight elevators were loud and heavy, and there was a sense of weightlessness from top to bottom. The hotel waiter said that the two elevators were made in North Korea.