Kimilsungia and Kimjongilia Exhibition Hall, Flower exhibition hall in Pyongyang, North Korea
The Kimilsungia and Kimjongilia Exhibition Hall is a flower museum in Pyongyang displaying two plant species in numerous arrangements throughout its spaces. The building presents the purple orchid and red begonia side by side to highlight their individual characteristics and cultivation methods.
Construction of the hall began in October 1998 and it opened in April 2002 as the Kimilsungia and Kimjongilia Exhibition Hall, near the Monument to Party Founding. It was renamed Okryu Exhibition Hall in 2020. The international flower festivals it hosts date from the 1990s, before the building existed. Kimilsungia, a purple orchid, was named after Kim Il Sung on 15 April 1965 during his visit to Indonesia; Kimjongilia, a red begonia, was presented to Kim Jong Il on 16 February 1988 for his 46th birthday.
Kimilsungia is a purple orchid named after Kim Il Sung on 15 April 1965 during his visit to Indonesia; Kimjongilia is a red begonia bred by a Japanese botanist and presented to Kim Jong Il on 16 February 1988 for his 46th birthday. During the Day of the Sun and Day of the Shining Star holidays, ministries, factories, farms and military units exhibit plants they have grown, and a South Korean reportedly sent a Kimjongilia here during the 2007 holiday, which Korean Central Television used in broadcasts.
The hall stands near the Monument to Party Founding on the Taedong River in Pyongyang's Taedonggang District. It is a three-storey building with a glass-roofed main block and exhibition rooms whose temperature and humidity are automatically controlled. Staff teach visitors how to grow the flowers, and seeds and bulbs bought here may be taken out of the country.
The hall sells buds and seeds of both flowers, and staff teach visitors how to grow them so the plants can survive after being carried out of North Korea. During the 2007 Day of the Shining Star, a South Korean citizen sent a Kimjongilia to be exhibited here, and Korean Central Television used it in broadcasts arguing for Korean reunification.
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