The Pyongyang Metro is one of the deepest urban rail systems in the world and one of the most elaborately decorated. The stations open to foreign tourists — a rotating selection, typically including Puhŭng and Yŏngwang on the Chŏllima Line — are covered in mosaics, chandeliers, and ideological murals of a quality and scale that would not be out of place in the Moscow Metro of the 1950s. The trains themselves are elderly (originally supplied by East Germany) but functional.
A metro ride is a genuine encounter with ordinary Pyongyang life: commuters with briefcases, schoolchildren, workers. It is brief — tours typically allow only a couple of stops — but more telling than most tourist experiences in the city. The escalators are exceptionally long and fast, dropping deep into the granite below the city.