North Korea’s Ryugyong ‘Hotel of Doom’

For our Geo Quiz – we’re looking for a place dubbed the “hotel of doom”. It sounds like the kind of place where you check in, but might not ever check out.

Actually, this hotel hasn’t yet opened. It’s been under construction (for 25 years) in the capital of a certain secretive, communist country in Asia.

The design for the Ryukyong Hotel is… shall we say… unique?

Some say it resembles a colossal concrete space rocket. Others say it’s hideously ugly and that it sticks out too much. But we found someone who thinks it’s just grand, “ So if you go anywhere in the city where you get a slight elevation, you can see this hotel and it is absolutely massive, bigger than anything in the city, I think it’s pretty spectacular !”

So can you name the city where this ‘hotel of doom’ looms on the horizon?

For the answer we turn to Hannah Barraclough, tourism manager for the Beijing-based company, Koryo Tours.

She’s been leading tours for 20 years to Pyongyang, North Korea and recently had the rare opportunity to tour the Ryugyong Hotel.