Real shots of transportation in rural areas of North Korea. Ox carts are very popular. Farmers basically rely on bicycles to travel.

North Korea is known as "the most mysterious country in the world". To travel to North Korea, you must join a tour group organized by North Korea, and the travel routes are all urban attractions such as Pyongyang, Kaesong and Nampo. Tourists We are unable to travel independently to the countryside of North Korea, so the countryside of North Korea is even more mysterious to the world. When Chinese people travel to North Korea, they can only glimpse some pictures of rural life in North Korea through the glass windows on the train from Dandong to Pyongyang or on the bus from Pyongyang to other places. Generally speaking, North Korea's rural areas are very similar to China's rural areas in the 1980s.

When traveling in North Korea, you will find that the most common means of transportation on the country roads in North Korea is bicycles. Bicycles are very popular in rural areas of North Korea. Basically every household has a bicycle, so North Korea is also called A big country for bicycles.

North Korean farmers work in the farmland every day, and the main means of transportation there and back is bicycles. The rural field roads are very narrow and muddy, so riding a bicycle is the most convenient and labor-saving way.

The roads in North Korean rural areas are generally in poor condition. Most of the roads are dirt roads and there are few asphalt roads. Therefore, it is very suitable for North Korean farmers to travel by bicycle. They not only ride bicycles to work in the fields, When visiting relatives and friends, the children also ride bicycles to go to school.

North Koreans make full use of the functions of bicycles. They fill the front basket and back seat of the bicycle with goods.

In the rural areas of North Korea, you will see many women riding bicycles, carrying heavy bags on the back seat. These women are carrying their own fruits and other agricultural and sideline products to the market to sell. .

There are very few cars on North Korea’s highways and they are not closed, so you can ride bicycles on the highways and even pedestrians can walk on the highways. This is what we saw pedestrians crossing on the highway to the North Korean port city of Nampo.

In rural areas of North Korea, oxcarts are very popular among farmers. Most of the crops harvested in autumn are transported by oxcarts. Farmers usually use oxcarts to pull firewood and other daily necessities, but North Korean oxcarts are still very primitive.

In rural areas of North Korea, farmers use oxcarts in many aspects of their lives, so you will often see men driving oxcarts on country roads.

In some towns, bullock carts are sometimes seen. Generally, the North Koreans who drive the carts are older men, driving the bullock carts slowly and leisurely on the dirt roads in urban and rural areas.

Tractors are also a means of transportation in North Korea. In addition to carrying goods, tractors are also a means of transportation for North Korean farmers to travel collectively. It’s just that the tractors I saw were quite old.

The tractor's carriage was filled with North Korean farmers and People's Army soldiers, who were rushing to work in the farmland.

A tractor used to transport goods on the road. North Korea's agricultural machinery, including tractors, are owned by the production team and used uniformly.

There is a serious shortage of long-distance buses in rural areas of North Korea. I have only seen one town with a long-distance bus station. Ordinary villages in North Korea have not yet accessed long-distance buses, and a pass is required to go to other places, because North Korean farmers It is not easy to travel far away. Many people have never been to a big city in their lives.

Cars are still a rarity in rural areas of North Korea. Cars are rarely seen on rural roads in North Korea, and most of the cars seen are military vehicles belonging to the North Korean army.

Moreover, these military vehicles are basically for both military and civilian purposes, with People's Army soldiers and farmers sitting on them. These vehicles should be North Korean troops supporting local autumn harvests. It is said that every time during the busy farming season, officers and soldiers of the Korean People's Army will help farmers do some farm work.

The cars in the North Korean countryside are all the Jiefang brand cars that were common in China in the 1970s and 1980s. They are older and look shabby.

This is a very strange "car" seen in one place. It is pulled by a tractor in the front and a closed carriage in the back. And it looked like a military vehicle. Several North Korean soldiers were sitting on it. A group of farmers behind are loading crops inside.