Introduction I suspect that most people won’t get the answer to this one straight away. For the absolute YPT aficionados amongst you there is a possibility though. Most of you may be able to think of a city where you can visit two countries – one being …

Dandong is considered a small quiet city where families expect their family members to return back home in time for dinner. So Dandong nightlight or “going out” means going out for BBQ and having a lot of beers or Chinese baijiu. Whilst bars in Dandong …

Introduction The island of Hwanggumpyong Island has garnered a lot of interest over the years as it was supposed to be turned into a tourist SEZ in the Yalu between Dandong and Sinuiju. This has yet to come to pass, but it highlights the strange world …

Introduction At Young Pioneer Tours, we have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with the enclaves and exclaves of the world, and it does not get much more weird and wonderful than Campione d’Italia. To read more about what constitutes an enclave, or excla …

What with the global pandemic and the whole end of tourism as we know it, there really isn’t all that much that gets us excited these days at YPT, until I received one very explosive e-mail. Our partner and colleague on football projects Paul Watson, f …

A staple of any tour of Pyongyang is the Korean War Museum, known to locals as ‘The Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum’, (조국해방전쟁승리기념관) and in actuality dealing both with the Korean war that divided Korea into North and South, but also its libe …

Introduction At YPT, we specialize in taking people on group tours to off the beaten track and whacky destinations. In 2020 we added Bhutan to our international tours list. Bhutan famously does not allow independent travel to the country, much like Nor …

Introduction It is often wrongly stated or implied that North Korea is a one-party state under the Workers Party of Korea. In fact, North Korea is run by a coalition/popular front of the kind found in much of Eastern Europe (and China) after World War …

With my breath hanging in the December air, and the sun still clambering up out of the sooty haze, Rowan and I set out from YPT’s Beijing HQ for the all too familiar Zhong Gu Hotel near Beijing Railway Station. While this was the fourth time to be head …