Young Pioneer Tours
Blog
Welcome to the Young Pioneer Tours blog about everything North Korea, and all of our other special off the beaten the track destinations.
Since starting in 2008 we have seen blogging about North Korea and our other great destinations as a great way to engage with our customers and to show the world a slice of life in the great destinations we visit.
Due to the mass amount of great content we create, as well as receive from our Pioneers we have since started our travel lifestyle magazine “The Young Pioneer”.
We’re always looking for contributors to our sites, so feel free to browse through our blogs, and , get in touch if you’d like to write for us.
Check out and subscribe to the YPT Blog and travel magazine
Blloku Tirana – “The Block”
June 21, 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
Albania – and Tirana in particular – has always been a favourite of mine, and YPT have been visiting the country for close to ten years as part of our Eurasian Adventure Tour. There are many reasons why I like travelling to Tirana. Chief amongst …
Cuban Currency
June 21, 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
We’ve written a previous blog on the currencies of socialism and how they don’t quite work the same as those of capitalist countries. One of the flagship ‘socialist currency’ countries is Cuba, with its unique dual Cuban currency system of CUP and CUC. …
Unrecognized countries of the world
June 21, 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
We at Young Pioneer Tours have more than a passing interest in the unrecognized countries of the world. But what, exactly, is an unrecognized country? The answer is nothing if not complicated, and there’s a whole spectrum of unrecognized countries and …
Songun: The military ideology of the DPRK
June 21, 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
There are a few important concepts to learn about when it comes to North Korean state ideologies. The most important is probably Juche (‘self-reliance’), created by Kim Il Sung. Secondary to this is Songun – ‘military first’ – which was created by Kim …
Nanjiecun collective village: A guide
June 20, 2019 / by John McGovern
Nanjiecun, one of the last collective Maoist villages of China, provides a very interesting insight into the country. Located in Henan, Linying Country, Nanjiecun is completely different from the town that surrounds it. Where Linying has the abundance …
Third Trump-Kim Summit: where might it be held?
June 19, 2019 / by Alistair Riddell
Following the success of the Singapore Summit (and the slightly less successful Hanoi Summit), there has been no small amount of speculation about a third Trump Kim summit taking place in the not-so-distant future. In fact, North Korean leader Kim Jong …
Intourist: The Soviet State Travel Agency
June 19, 2019 / by Gareth Johnson
For those of you who have travelled to North Korea – whether with Young Pioneer Tours or with one of the less fun DPRK travel agencies – you will likely be familiar with the requirements for visiting the country. The two most important of these require …
North Korean language: is it different?
June 19, 2019 / by Alistair Riddell
It has now been 74 years since the Korean peninsula was split through the middle following the end of World Word II in 1945. Since that time the two countries have not only been completely estranged politically and geographically, but also linguis …
The Ultimate Somaliland Guide
June 18, 2019 / by Pier Doyon
Young Pioneer Tours have now been running tours to Somaliland for 4 years. Usually, we like to time it to coincide with the unrecognized state’s Independence Day on May 18th. When we heard the CONIFA World Cup would be held there in June 20 …
