Worth a visit for the opportunity to see locals enjoying themselves in an informal setting, Pyongyang zoo has a good aquarium and reptile house and a large array of animals, most of whom look pretty forlorn. Worst off are the big cats, nearly all gifts of long-dead communist bigwigs around the world – the wonderful lions, tigers and leopards are kept in woefully inadequate compounds and many have lost the plot as a result. The zoo’s two elephants and its hippo all look exceptionally lacklustre as well.
There’s more fun to be had with the baboons and a collection of lemurs, while perhaps the oddest thing is the huge cage of domestic cats. It’s very relaxed here; you’ll find North Korean families on outings and this is one of the few environments where you can communicate with locals in a relatively carefree way.
