Ryanggang Province in the northern part of Korea is not very large, but it is a significant place with Mt Paektu, the sacred mountain where the Korean revolution started, and the Paektusan Secret Camp, the sacred place of the revolution where Chairman Kim Jong Il was born.

The province had many places, which had been called areas unfit for human inhabitation for their unfavourable climatic conditions and barren land since olden times, but now it has undergone tremendous changes.

An entity of such amazing transformation is the City of Samjiyon, which has been built into a mountainous city of culture.

If you look down over the city, it looks like a sea of flowers in the middle of vast stretches of forests.

“There is an old saying: Even mountains and rivers change in ten years. Our Samjiyon has been far from being changed. It has been reborn without any trace of its old appearance,” says a city official.

Low- and multi-storey buildings stand in good harmony on the streets of the city to present outstanding beauty.

Also distinctive are the Samjiyon Schoolchildren's Palace, in which lovely children cultivate talents to achieve their dreams, and the Samjiyon Blueberry Drink Factory, which makes famous products from blueberry, a speciality of Ryanggang Province. On the street with a view of Pegae Peak are various restaurants, which remind visitors of the Changgwang food alley in Pyongyang, and the Pegaebong Noodles House, and the modern Samjiyon City Hospital is in the Kwangmyongsong-dong area. At the foot of Mt Phothae stands the Samjiyon Potato Farina Factory as stylish as a rest centre and vast stretches of wheat and barley fields sprawl on the Junghung Farm in the City of Samjiyon.

In the evening, people conduct a variety of cultural and leisure activities under the bright illuminations.

Hyesan, the capital of Ryanggang Province, has also had a facelift.

Iron and many other bridges have been built and the project for covering afresh the main roads in the city with asphalt and the construction of power stations to promote the development of the city are now in full swing. The construction of the infrastructure in the city, which started last year, will be completed within this year. A few years ago, the city began to host a unique ice sculpture show.

Small- and medium-sized power stations were built in Taehongdan County along the Sohongdan and Sodu rivers and its noodles house began to serve fresh starch noodles peculiar to Ryanggang Province.

“Our factory is associated with the exploits of Chairman Kim Jong Il who made untiring efforts to turn Ryanggang Province into a leading potato producer and potato province. We are now undertaking a huge project, including the construction of dehydrated starch noodle and toffee workshops and the expansion of storehouse of products,” says Pak Kuk Phil, manager of the Taehongdan County Potato Processing Factory.

Paegam County, which is the largest county and in the highest place in the country, now works to usher in earlier a new era of local development by its own efforts.

According to an official of the county, its major immediate goal is to lead others in the potato acreage and output.

The county continues to improve farmland by carpeting a large area of it with humus soil every year.

A large-capacity Paegam Potato Farina Factory is now under construction in the Tokpho area where a large-scale potato farm was built and the Paegam County Farm Machine Station mass-produces various kinds of farm machines and parts needed for potato farming.

Rich fish resources including freshwater smelt in the Sodu River are a great help in improving the dietary life of its residents.

The county produces finishing materials needed for the construction of farmhouses from its own raw and other materials and manufactures quality daily necessities and consumer goods to win favour with the residents.

After constructing a splendid provincial parent tree nursery, Ryanggang Province ensures that forest resources, a pride of the province, are properly cultivated and constantly expanded. It also produced many milk processing facilities and sent them to cities and counties, true to the Workers' Party of Korea's childcare policy, in order to supply tasty and nutritious dairy products to children.

Various fruit trees, which were thought to be impossible to grow in the northern highlands, have been acclimatized and rooted in the province by the efforts of its scientists to turn their local area into a better one to live in.

The rural communities of Ryanggang Province are now greeting a new era of great changes thanks to the determined efforts of the battalions of Party members from across the country to translate into reality the WPK’s grand rural construction programme.