Monday, June 23, 2008

Capital of Willows Hotel

This is pretty cool. It is a story about a hotel in Pyongyang that would have been extravagant had it not been for the shortage of funding and electricity. Korea had planned on attracting foreign investors and adding casinos and other attractions but now the hotel is unoccupied and is not open for business. It is a massive empty building in North Korea's capital city.

1 comment:

Veronika said...

I think it is so strange that North Korea undertook the project in the first place, considering the limited number of foreign tourists allowed into the country. The casinos and other attractions also do not make sense because they completely go against communist ideals. It was a complete waste of money. Some accounts claim that 2% of North Korea's National GDP was spent on construction. Now that construction has stopped, I think it is unlikely it will start again in the near future. The cement used was of poor quality, making the structure unsafe to inhabit. I am no architect, but I believe they would have to tear down the entire structure and start over to fix the problem. But even then, who is going to be staying at this hotel anyway?