Tours to Pyongyang are guided and prepaid, but inside the itinerary there is real cheap ground: free hill parks and martyrs' terraces, five-won trams, won-priced markets, and a beer hall where a half-litre costs less than bottled water at the hotel.
Forested ridge park open dawn to dusk with no entry fee. Ulmil Pavilion, a Koguryo fortress gate rebuilt in 1714, crowns the hill with free views over the Taedong River. Sunday afternoons fill with picnicking families and accordions.
The 46 m winged-horse monument from 1961 stands on Mansu Hill's north slope, ringed by open lawn. There is no ticket booth and no bowing protocol here, unlike the bronze statues nearby, so photography is relaxed and unrushed.
Terraced hillside of bronze busts of anti-Japanese partisans, capped by a red granite flag. Entry costs nothing and the 15-minute climb ends at the widest free panorama of Pyongyang, with May Day Stadium visible on Rungra Islet.
A kilometre of pastel high-rises finished in 2017, including a 70-storey tower, laid out along the Kumsusan Palace approach. Walking it costs nothing, and street-level shops, a bookstore and a noodle counter stay lit until about 21:00.
Three-floor state supermarket on Kwangbok Street where prices are marked in won, not euros. The ground-floor food hall sells packaged Taedonggang snacks, tofu rice and bottled sikhye; change money at the currency desk just inside the door.
The 1960 riverside restaurant serves Pyongyang naengmyon — buckwheat noodles in chilled beef broth — in a hall seating 2,000. A single bowl is the cheapest famous dish in the country; add sweet mustard and vinegar before the broth is poured.
Pyongyang's largest covered market, a 1990s hangar of roughly 1,500 stalls selling dried pollack, chilli paste, socks and Chinese electronics. Cameras stay in the bag, but browsing is free and the won-price haggling is the realest scene in town.
A stand-up hall pouring the state brewery's seven numbered beers, from the rice-heavy No. 1 to the black No. 6. Half-litre glasses cost a few hundred won and dried squid or peanuts arrive by the plate; locals drink standing at tall tables.
Czech-built and locally assembled trams run the length of the city for a flat five won a ride, the cheapest transport in the country. Cars are packed at rush hour, and the route crosses the Pothong River and passes Ryugyong Hotel at close range.
A Koguryo-era Buddhist temple founded in 392 and rebuilt in 1990 after wartime destruction, set among pines below the Taesong Fortress walls. There is no admission charge, a resident monk keeps the halls, and the ridge path behind is open walking.
Reopened in 2016 on the Mt. Taesong approach with a domed elephant house and a dog pavilion that draws the largest crowds of local families. Tickets are priced in won, and the adjoining Central Botanical Garden fits into the same afternoon.
Willow-lined embankment along the canalised Pothong River, free and open at all hours. From the eastern bank the 330 m glass pyramid of the Ryugyong Hotel fills the frame, and its facade LED show begins shortly after dusk.