Ryugyong Hotel - The Waiting Room(s)

More music from http://www.galxygirl.com HOTEL BACKGROUND: The Ryugyong Hotel resides in N. Korea. Work began in 1987 and was abandoned in 1992. [ UPDATE: Construction resumed April, 2008! They are adding the glass facade. See new photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kernbeisser/sets/72157615664866904/ ]

At 105 stories, with 7 revolving restaurants, it would have been the tallest hotel in the world. However, word has it that is suffers from crumbling concrete, problems with the elevator shaft, and funds to complete it.

Questions remain about how such a poor communist country with widespread famine and not enough electricity could even support such a hotel. Mostly, who would go there?

It was such a bizarre discovery for me to suddenly learn of it's existence and abandonment that I felt compelled to make this compendium of available photos, along with that video from "untochables".

SOCIAL COMMENT:

Despite this fascinating and bizarre story, everyone knows that N. Korea is the "problem child" of the world and quite dangerous. Their people are starving, yet they pump most funding into nuclear proliferation and structures such as this. Recently, they literally threatened to blow the U.S. off the map. So, just to be clear, I was only prompted to make this music video as a means of expressing how weird this hotel fiasco made me feel. As for my thoughts on the country itself, I am as concerned about their belligerent behavior as anyone.

ABOUT THIS VIDEO:

I made the news intro using LiveType and Final Cut Express (looks like a "real" news broadcast! :o)

ABOUT MY MUSIC SOUNDTRACK:

Previously, I had posted my video using a music mash-up I had quickly edited to evoke the weird feelings this story gave me. However, after considering a prior viewer comment, I felt the need to revise the soundtrack to become entirely my own composition, with no supporting commercial excerpts. So, except for the royalty-free "news" intro, I created all the music in REASON 4 - my song composition software of choice. Those are even my real chimes, sampled for playback! Unfortunately, YouTube provides no facility to replace a video and retain the hits. All ego aside, I was inclined to remove the first one and let the counter reset back to zero from about 11,000 hits.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• abandoned
• construction
• fiascos
• hotel
• projects
• ryugyong
• skyscraper
• tallest
• music
• soundtrack
• propellerhead
• reason
• wendy
• dunham
• north
• korea
• DPRK
• Pyongyang

[wendylouwho]

Attn: Before submitting a comment, please watch the entire video with annotations enabled and read the video description. 1) First and foremost, this is my original music video about a tall abandoned hotel that I previously did not know existed, and it freaked me out. 2) Yes, I know the hotel now has a mirror glass facade. However, the hotel was unfinished when the video was made in 2008. My description says it's completed. 3) Vulgar language guarantees your comment won't see the light of day.

[ChrisMiller1994]

logic express library music? ;)

[wendylouwho]

@ChrisMiller1994 Nope, except for the stock intro from Apple Loops, I created the music in Reason 4.0.

[ChrisMiller1994]

@wendylouwho ahh, The news one at the beginning appears to be an apple standard intro, I was sort of there ;)

[wendylouwho]

@ChrisMiller1994 Yeah, the news intro loop fit my title sequence well, as I was trying to make it look like real "news" :o) But the rest is an original composition I made with Reason 4. At the very end of the video, I show the actually rack of gear used in my song. The video's text description has more details.

[jcsf9]

Imagine what it would be like if that building were actually completed...

[wendylouwho]

@jcsf9 If you read my video notes or watch the credits, you will discover that it now has a mirrored glass facade.

[wendylouwho]

The comments thus far are mostly political in nature, and that's to be expected I guess. But is no one just freaked out by this abandoned shell, like I was? That's what inspired me to make the music video in the first place! Since I first made this in 2008, construction resumed and the glass facade has finally been added. But it was the stunning revelation that the world's tallest hotel was an abandoned concrete shell that got me all bent out of shape in the first place!

[johnnyalonso1]

like you, i am fascinated with this building. it looks great with the glass and steel fronts - but we're all pretty sure nothing has been done to the interior of the building. its sad to think theat if they tried to run power and electricity in thae building that it would fail due to the weight of getting it in there. are there any known photos inside the hotel?

[MazJax]

Apparently its not just a hotel anymore. It will include apartments and offices as well as a hotel. Or so they say. Some say only the top conical section and the lobby will be functioning only leaving the main floors unused.

[puttal88]

I have one question, why did they stopped making this? Was it a cash crunch issue, yes it would have been really the tallest hotel in the world much earlier than burj al arab, and is it abandoned now? plz reply regards

[Haffschlappe]

This building truly is STAR WARS !!!

[chanctonbury63]

A bit like Dubai!! Everything has stopped there too.

[Kamadev888]

- Hotels in North Korea are mostly without guests. They are meant to showcase how superior N. Korea and its system are. All of Pyongyang is just a showcase city.

- North Korea won't attack anyone, it's just blowing steam. The US (who have not had a year in the past 250 without attacking someone) accuse other countries of being warmongers, even though they haven't done anything, so they can attack the country 'pre-emptively'.

[nurulkey94]

the question is Who want 2 stay at that Hotel??? bcuz north korea citizen is poor n plus don't hv enough money 2 support their own family.. I think the person that will stayed at there is Kim Jong Il n his family only n a few of their army(I guess)....

[DeadRavers]

They built a mega-hotel for all the tourists they never let in? Might wanna get a deal with Priceline for all those empty rooms.

[exploreryen]

creepy

[shutdafup]

Looks like an Indian casino