Take the green train to Pyongyang. What is the train in North Korea like and how is it different from the train in China?

Because North Korea has many mountainous areas and plateaus, rail transportation is more cost-effective than road transportation, so the North Korean government vigorously develops the railway system. Taking a train is the most convenient way for Chinese people to travel to North Korea. It is really a rare experience to sit on a slow-moving green train in North Korea and enjoy the scenery of North Korean countryside and towns through the glass windows.

The international train No. 95 from Dandong to Pyongyang we took departed from Dandong Railway Station in the morning and headed to Sinuiju, the border city of North Korea. There, it passed the North Korean customs and border inspection and continued to the North Korean border. Pyongyang.

This train uses the 25T passenger car of China Railway and the 30 type passenger car of North Korean Railway. They are both sleeper cars, and each car has the national emblem of North Korea.

The train departed from Dandong Railway Station on time at ten o'clock in the morning, crossed the China-North Korea Friendship Bridge on the Yalu River, and headed for Sinuiju City on the other side of the Yalu River.

This is the sleeper car that our China tour group took. It looks no different from the hard-sleeper car of ordinary domestic buses. It is also a three-story sleeper.

Because it is a single-track railway and the tracks are in disrepair, the train runs very slowly, with a speed of only about 50 kilometers per hour. Although the speed is a bit slower, it is more convenient to enjoy the scenery outside the window and observe things by the way. Current status of North Korea's railway system.

Since the 1970s, the North Korean government has vigorously developed railway electrification. By 2016, North Korea’s electrified railways accounted for 80% of all railways. This is a train track with a lot of wires on it.

The picture shows a North Korean electric locomotive that I photographed in the carriage. After the old steam locomotives were eliminated, the North Korean government introduced a large number of electric locomotives made in the former Soviet Union because it had no industrial capacity to produce electric locomotives in the early days. North Korea also introduced Shaoshan Type 1 electric locomotives and Dongfanghong Type 1 and Type 2 electric locomotives from China. Locomotives, as well as a small number of Beijing type and Dongfeng 4 type.

Later, North Korea learned from and transformed the imported electric locomotives from the former Soviet Union and China, and independently produced some types of electric locomotives. The most common ones were the Red Flag type and the forced march type electric locomotives.

This is another international train that I saw running between Dandong and Pyongyang when I stopped at a small station on the way.

This is an ordinary passenger bus in North Korea that I captured on the way. The windows can be pushed up and down. This bus looks much shabbier than the Dandong-Pyongyang international train. It looks like a The antique train is very similar to the domestic passenger cars from the 1960s and 1970s.

This is a truck captured on the way. The truck is covered very tightly with blue plastic sheeting, so you can’t see what cargo is inside.

A female railway worker passed in front of a freight train. Most of North Korea's railways use standard gauge railways like China, so many freight cars are imported from China.

I wanted to take a closer look at the model of the North Korean train, but I accidentally discovered that there was a child scratching the train hidden under the carriage.

North Korean railway personnel wear gray uniforms. The large caps on their heads are tall and big, which makes them look a bit exaggerated.

North Korea’s female railway workers still look better in skirts and hats. This is a female railway employee and a North Korean military officer watching our train enter the railway station. Larger railway stations in North Korea have people's officers, soldiers and militiamen on duty.

This is a North Korean militiaman patrolling the train station with a gun on his back.

On the way, I passed a train station and saw several beautiful female Korean railway employees in uniform standing outside the building.

Two beauties from North Korea walked out of the window. North Koreans like to bring big and small bags when they go out by train, just like we Chinese bring a lot of new year's goods when we return home during the Spring Festival.