FUI NA FRONTEIRA RURAL DA COREIA DO NORTE e FILMEI TUDO QUE PUDE

FUI NA FRONTEIRA RURAL DA COREIA DO NORTE e FILMEI TUDO QUE PUDE

This is life in rural North Korea, folks. And that blue building is a school. Notice there are several children there. In North Korea, there’s a young man on a motorbike in the rural area. Here’s the train station. You can see there’s a guard out front too. The little dog running around. And we didn’t understand the movement of people during this harvest, folks. We were lucky to see a train passing by. It’s the most famous dish in North Korea. And I’m eager to try it because we’re not used to cold noodles with ice yet. For over 70 years, North Korea has been the most closed and isolated country in the world. We rarely see what happens inside, but today we found a window to observe rural life in this mysterious country, where 26 million people live. Another day in China. We’re at Yanji station, the Korean autonomous prefecture in China, heading towards Tumen, a city on the border with North Korea; they say it’s the point where you can see North Korea most closely. So, we’re excited. And this room, which looks like a VIP lounge at the train station, is all decorated with different little benches, very pretty too. I also liked that there are some giant panels out front, on this side and this side, with dances, showing Korean culture as well. Now we’re going to get ready to board. They’re calling already. The ticket was cheap, only 11. And a curious thing is that this journey takes 15 minutes to get there, by car it’s 1 hour. A big difference from the bullet train. Very good. We arrived there. It arrives slowly. Then to leave it’s just a shot. It leaves like a rocket. We got off at the station. Now we’re going to the bus stop, because the station, guys, it’s located on the outside of the city, so it’s further away from the city. But officially we’re in Tumen. We have to take this bus here, look. Nine. It’s a bus with few seats. There are two, look, guys. One. And ours is already leaving, it already cost 4 yuan for the two of us, high frequency. We liked it. We got off the bus. Now we’re really heading towards the border. We’re right up ahead. We’re already going to the national gate, which is the border gate, right? And we’re just following the flow. When we arrived there were a lot of taxi drivers, but I think it ‘ll only be about a 4-minute walk. That’s how we felt when the bus stopped back there, it seemed like it left us in the middle of nowhere, but the flow will take us to the right place. The good thing is that there are many tourists, but no Western tourists. We’re the only ones. We ‘re trying to blend in with the Chinese. Updates, everyone. As soon as we got off, we were filming for you, we were about to reach the gate, which is the border, right? And a woman came up to us. Okay, she asked where we were from. We said we were from Brazil. And then she asked us to accompany her. So we went to a part there with the boy who was a policeman. Then we walked around with him for a while longer; he took us inside, into a police booth, a mobile booth. Then a guy came, he had a translator and everything, which helped, and he did a complete interrogation there, asking us where we were from, what we were doing there, because it’s a border area and so on, he asked our profession. Then he took a lot of photos, confirmed the train, confirmed the accommodation too, it was all that, almost 30 minutes. And then we were calm, right? Because we said we were tourists, this being our fourth time in China. From what we understood, it’s very different for foreigners. So the Chinese arrive there and that’s it. Exactly. It’s a tourist spot for them, taking photos, making videos and so on. But in the end they let us go and now we’re going up to the viewpoint. So from what I understood, the lower part there, very close to the border, is more restricted, especially for us foreigners. And it’s full of guards there, full of cameras. Right up ahead is the observation deck. And here are some signs. And Namyang is the name of the North Korean city that’s on the other side of the river. And to give you some context, Namyang is in the far north of North Korea, also near the Russian border. So there’s a… The tri-border area is nearby, but towards the capital it’s 900 km from Pyongyang, so it’s a very far and remote place. And this is also considered a workers’ district, a rural area. Okay, we’re on the deck now. And here it is, folks, North Korea, the most closed country in the world. But our camera zoom isn’t very good. Pam is taking several pictures there. Here I see someone on a bicycle and a little dog accompanying them. This is life in rural North Korea, folks. Another bicycle here. Let’s see if they’ll greet each other. They didn’t even look at each other. Up ahead they look like two children, folks. And it looks like there’s… And here’s a group of people on bicycles. Up there there are many people. They are very close to the railway line. Little dog running already. And this blue building, folks, is a school. Notice that there are several children there, look. You can see a group of children with someone older. Probably the teacher and the children running. And here, with the little white dots, we can see a herd. It looks like sheep, folks. It’s going to pass by there, look. It went straight past. Look there, folks. From the North, the guy on a motorcycle in the rural area. We haven’t seen a car yet, but I saw a motorcycle, a motorcycle, and a cart. Look, folks. So, on this side we have the city of Tumen. Up ahead there are two gates and the bridges too. In this case, this first one here is a railway bridge, sometimes freight trains pass through, and the one on the other side is a road bridge, so trucks pass through, but they say that this transport happens infrequently. And this railway bridge, folks, where the trains pass, it was built by the Japanese when they occupied Manchuria in China and Korea as well. But this demarcation that you can see on the bridge there shows where China and Korea are. And these buildings, folks, from what we’ve seen, they’re even new, because in 2016 there was a flood that destroyed a large part of this region. And Chinese sources claim that China financed the construction. So, North Korea only contributed the labor, which is why it even has this slightly newer appearance, although we can see some parts there, for example, the windows are a little more unfinished, but I believe that’s due to use. And we’re even going to show a shot we took when we were down there, which allowed us to see more details. Look, folks, now we can see some buildings. We can see. Look there, there are clothes there. We saw it with the binoculars, we could see a person, but we couldn’t film it for you because we couldn’t attach the cell phone to the binoculars. Look at the smoke. And these little houses, folks, are the simplest ones. So you can see that they are even drying things there, on the roof. We suspect it’s corn because of the yellow color and also some kind of material that they will use there to burn and for heating. And remember, folks, in North Korea all houses and land belong to the government, but they allow people to live there for free. However, there’s also the issue that they can’t buy or sell land or houses. And as you can see, we’ve shown various types of residences, but the type of housing depends on the person’s social status. For example, a soldier, a teacher, a farmer—all of this defines what kind of house they will live in. And a curious fact, folks, about this region—not exactly in this village, but in a nearby town—is that the grandmother of the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, was born, and she is rightly called the mother of North Korea. And we weren’t understanding the movement of people during this harvest, which seems to involve harvesting bok choy, you know, Chinese cabbage. And then we remembered something: it makes perfect sense, because now is the beginning of winter preparations. So they harvest this cabbage to make kimchi, which is basically a very common food, I think in both North and South Korea. And we were reading, we managed to research that they prepare it for practically six months. So they’re going to harvest everything now, they’re going to do this preparation, and this food will last from now until winter. There at the end of spring, because as we said, it’s a very cold region. So everything will be frozen, but not all of that cabbage, folks, will go to the population of that region. In this case, they also take a portion and give it to the government, which will supply the whole country. And we were saying that this region is very beautiful and mountainous. Ronaldo. Look, folks, here you can see a picture of the North Korean dictators. Here is the train station. You can see there’s a guard out front too. And here we can see the fence, folks. So, it seems to be a double fence . It’s quite close to the buildings, but it still seems quite reinforced. And folks, these little houses with blue roofs are also storage sheds, so they store food there, whether it’s the vegetables they grow or the kimchi they produce. And one thing, folks, that we researched a lot about this city, in Western sources we found almost nothing. There isn’t much information in Chinese sources either, but we did find some. For example, the Chinese themselves consider this region to look very much like China in 1980. So the picture we’re seeing on the other side is like China in the past. We were lucky enough to see a train passing by. It’s not a freight train. Look at this, folks. This green train is a famous train in North Korea. It serves practically the entire country. But there’s a catch: North Korea suffers from power outages. This train can suddenly stop and take many hours or even days to reach its destination, depending on the situation. From what we saw, its average speed is 50 km/h. So it’s already a slow train. And you can also see that it’s a single track, so if it stops, it will practically paralyze the entire railway system in the region. And another interesting fact: when it stops, several vendors come to serve the people there. Sometimes they ‘re in a very remote area, and vendors arrive to sell food or something they need at that moment. And there’s a truck over there, with people behind it. We were very surprised to see this truck, because until now we thought we wouldn’t see any cars here, because as far as we know, North Korea has a fuel shortage. So this truck was one of the most impressive things we saw today. We generally believe it’s for military use, but from what we’d read, it could also serve as a rural bus, transporting people who need to work in another region, since it would take much longer if they went on foot or by bicycle. Look at the old man over there, tending to the crops. There’s a telecommunications tower over there , and the city is all mountainous, except near the river here. Here there’s a plain. And on the deck it’s like this, folks. A Chinese flag on one side and a North Korean flag on the other, for people to take pictures. We’re going to take a picture from either side to have a record, right? And the deck is over there, folks. We’re leaving the deck now because we’re filming a little differently than we’re used to, right? When we arrive at a place, we like to film the whole route like this, but it’s not possible here. But the experience was very different, guys. Oh my God. I’m still in ecstasy. From what we saw, we didn’t imagine we’d be able to see so much. When we were down there, when we arrived and were approached by the police, we could see through the binoculars. But we saw people inside the houses, but we couldn’t film them. Then we came up here. Wow, I thought, I was sure I’d only see a few people. Maybe three or four at most. But the crowd of people we saw, we saw the school, we saw children there too, we saw people on bicycles, we saw people on motorcycles, we saw a truck, we saw a train. We’re observing them there, but I think they certainly know that there are people watching them, but I don’t know what that feeling would be like for them. From what I’ve seen, many people have already created theories saying that these border towns in North Korea are fake, that nobody lived there. But in this one… We really saw with our own eyes that it’s real. Yes, they say they’re actors, but if they are actors, they’re doing a very good job, you know? Because we saw people doing manual, heavy work there. At the school, we also saw a teacher and the little children running around. So I don’t believe that in that city itself it’s something like that; we saw life happening, the little dogs running. Yes, one thing that surprised me was the number of dogs we saw. I didn’t expect that, because in North Korea, we know, we ‘ve seen several reports that they consume dog meat. So I saw so many dogs running around there , from one side to the other. I think it’s also because it was near cattle, right? I don’t know. So I was surprised to see that. The things we didn’t see, we didn’t see any cars. So I believe there shouldn’t be any there. We didn’t see any cars, and we were there for almost an hour . Yes, from what I could tell, the movement of people between cities is done by train, at least in that region. Yes, we filmed the train, and that was a passenger train, not a freight train. So, and remembering, sometimes you think: “Oh, why don’t you go there? North Korea is closed, it’s only open to Russia.” Well, I think only some Russians manage to go. And it’s possible to go to North Korea, if it were open, you just had to pay for a tour. We saw that for about R$5,000 you can do a 5-day tour, but we wouldn’t be able to go to that specific city. It’s only a few designated cities. It’s the capital, I think. So, I think we’d like to one day go there and see what it’s like to be such a closed country in the world, and see it up close. Even though we know that many of these tours are very much geared towards tourists, if it ever reopens and we have the opportunity, we will go. However, this was a very different experience for us. We had already been to South Korea, the DMZ, which is the demilitarized zone, but it was totally different, there’s nothing there. Here, my God, it was a very different feeling. In the DMZ you can see very far away, and I really didn’t see any people, you know? I think I only saw one, who was a soldier. You practically don’t see anything. Now we’re going back to the station. We really wanted to walk around the city, but these train schedules are very limited. So we’re going back to Yanji and we’ll show you. We know that there’s also North Korean cuisine there. Korean cuisine. So we’re going to show you some typical North Korean foods. Let’s go get a taxi and go back. We returned to Yanji and now it’s dinner time. We came to a traditional Korean restaurant and here there are also some North Korean foods. For example, this cold noodle dish, its name is Naengmyeon, something like that, we’ll put it on the screen. And look at this. This is simply ice. Ice on noodles. So, we were researching this dish. It’s a very thin wheat noodle dish. And they also add cucumber, beef, and an egg. The history of this dish is quite interesting. It originated in Pyongyang, which is now the capital of North Korea. It’s a cold dish, but they ate it a lot in winter, precisely to take advantage of the ice at that time of year. Isaac even researched the average temperature in that region of North Korea, for example, which we were looking at – -15 degrees Celsius, but in severe cold it can reach -30, 30 degrees below zero. My God! And they thought that adding ice to the noodles made them more refreshing. We saw that it became a symbol in North Korea. It’s a dish of national pride. Even when there was a meeting between the president of South Korea and the North Korean dictator, they served this dish. It’s the most famous dish in North Korea. And I’m eager to try it, because we’re not used to cold noodles, especially with ice. It comes with breaded pork to accompany it. This is Bibimbap. And another interesting fact, folks, is that the cuisine of North Korea and South Korea are similar. Often what changes is the amount of chili pepper. For example, this… You can find noodles in South Korea, but there they made a very spicy adapted version. In North Korea, they eat it fresher, without much spice. The same goes for other dishes. So I think South Korea really adopted something spicier, they like it more. Let’s try it, everyone. This dish here weighs almost 1 kg of soup. Heavy. Let’s try the broth first. I’m curious to see it because of this ice here. In Brazil, we’re used to pasta salad, right? With spiral pasta and mayonnaise. My God. Now, if you have a verdict, you can say it now. I loved it. Wow, it’s interesting that it really has a refreshing, citrusy, and well-seasoned taste. And I’ll also say something else, it’s not very salty. And it’s interesting because this refreshing taste is almost like there’s a fizz at the end. Can you feel that? There’s this ice here. Let’s get closer. Let’s show you this ice, this shaved ice we have here. When we put it in our mouths, it melts in a second. It makes a boom, it explodes in your mouth like this. It’s so different, my God. An explosion of flavors. Let’s try the pasta now. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this dish. I thought it would be something more normal. Let me grab some pasta here. It’s all clumped together like this. It’s a darker pasta. Let me bring it closer, honey. It’s a little cold. I never imagined eating a dish like this on a cold day, because in Brazil we eat cold dishes in the heat, right? This pasta is very light. To me, it looks like rice noodles, but at the same time it’s more intense and tastes better than plain rice noodles, which are usually tasteless. Wow, I really liked it. It even comes with an apple. There’s an apple. Let’s try the apple to see if it’s still crunchy. Apple. There’s a meatball here. Hmm. Made of meat. Pork. The meat is very firm. It’s a dry meat that we’re used to in Brazil. More like pork. And then there’s cucumber and cabbage. And there’s an egg here, look. Let me grab it. A cold egg. A normal boiled egg. And the pork I just tasted wasn’t cold, it was at room temperature. There was the pasta. Let’s go. When we got here, we said: “Guys, we’re not going to like trying cold pasta. Let’s just order one.” Hmm hmm. It was a huge surprise. Same texture as rice noodles, but with a slightly more intense flavor. Rice noodles are more neutral. This one has a more pronounced flavor and it’s not spicy. It has a nice flavor, a nice broth, guys. Wow, I really liked it. Really surprising. Very surprising. Yeah, I’d even eat it in winter too. Now Isaac is going to try this sweet and sour pork. Yeah, I see something shining here. I don’t know if it’s sugar or oil. I think it’s sugar. It’s sugar. Oh, from what we’ve seen, it’s also a food they eat in North Korea, but in North Korea they put less sugar in it. Uh-huh. It’s very good. But, I think it’s cloying if you eat a large quantity. Really? Because imagine a sweet, breaded pork belly, you eat it, it feels like you’re eating a dessert, but it’s too good. However, I can’t imagine eating this alone, for example. Oh, yes. That would be too much. Uh-huh. I think if we share it, it will still be nice. But it’s not a very sugary dessert, it’s still a balanced sweetness. And the caramelization, it all stuck to my mouth here. Different dish, bibimbap. This one has several vegetables, look. There are mushrooms, you can see carrots. There’s… I think it’s zucchini here, look. Look here. It doesn’t look like zucchini, does it? And the egg here in the middle. But we have to mix everything because there’s rice at the bottom. We also saw that it’s widely consumed in North Korea, but the difference there is that they use fresher ingredients, so they consume it with vegetables that are grown in the region itself. And it’s the same way here. That’s how you have to do it, folks. We’re not doing it wrong, you know? Generally, there are people who don’t like to mix foods, But this one you have to mix. You need to do that. And it’s really hot, really hot. At least let’s balance it out, right? One really hot dish and one cold one. Yes. And the prices, folks. This noodle dish here was 23 yuan. Bibimbap 2 yuan. And the meat 35 yuan. Very cheap. Because in South Korea, for example, a simple dish there costs around 12 dollars on average. Yes. South Korea is one of the countries with the most expensive meals. It surpasses Japan, for example, which everyone thinks is expensive. Let me try this. I think I managed to mix it well. It’s very tasty too, folks. It’s rice. This rice isn’t seasoned, but you can taste all the vegetables that are here. And you can also taste the egg because they left the yolk runny. I thought it was very tasty. We ordered it without chili, but we know that in South Korea they put a lot of chili. Isaac tried to eat this when we went to South Korea. He couldn’t even finish it all. I had to eat it the hard way. So yeah, I thought it was tasty. Now, we’re back to our lodging. Today was a day that will go down in history. That’s right. And we’re reminiscing about our journey here in China, from the extremes of China. Xinjiang in Yining, bordering Kazakhstan. Then the far south. Hainan Sanya, the Hawaii of China, and now here, the far north of China, bordering North Korea. We made a comparison, it’s like we left Cartagena, Colombia, in the Caribbean. From the Colombian Caribbean, we went down to Ushuaia, Argentina, and then to Maceió or Fortaleza. It could be something similar to that. Looking at the map, it doesn’t seem so far, right? I even drew a line here, from where we left here to where we started. And for those who haven’t seen our previous videos, check them out, there were many interesting videos. And today was like this, my God, telling our personal experience like this, if you can stop, oh, you got scared, something like that. Guys, we were very relaxed the whole time because we know it’s a tourist spot, and many Chinese people go there to take pictures. They themselves were very touristy for the Chinese, not for foreigners, right? Yes, exactly. But what surprised us was that they called us over right from the start. We set foot there, and they already called us over. But the whole conversation was very relaxed, it was just two guys, you know, they practically asked basic questions. Our concern, to confess to you, was that they wouldn’t let us film, because then we would feel, we had come all the way from our city, arrived there, and if they forbade us from filming, we would be a little sad. They even asked a crucial question: “Where did you go here in Tumen?” We said: “We just arrived, we just set foot here. I hadn’t even taken the camera out of my pocket yet.” So, they left it like that, it was super chill when we were on the observation deck, filming. There were police officers there too, they came to talk to us, you saw it. So, we left there super satisfied. Of course, we had to be more cautious, because we understand it’s a border, especially a super closed border, of a super closed country. So we were more cautious filming. Usually, we like to film more openly, showing everything we went through. Of course, we didn’t film the surroundings, but there wasn’t anything too extreme there. The essential thing, the focus was to show North Korea, and we achieved that. But that’s it, share this video because I’m sure these are unprecedented, rare images, that we haven’t even seen on foreign channels. So share it. We hope you enjoyed it, that you saw a little bit of North Korea with us, North Korea, the most closed country in the world. Yes, through our lens. It’s a very closed country, but we found a small window and were able to see it. That’s it. And that’s it, folks.

Olá amigos, no vídeo de hoje fomos ate a fronteira da China com a Coreia do Norte, na cidade de Tumen, depois de certa tensão inicial, conseguimos fazer imagens raras de uma área rural da Coreia do Norte. Compartilhe esse vídeo para que chegue em mais pessoas. Esperamos que gostem!

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