Seeing the words "closing the country and closing the country", in fact, many people have mixed feelings in their hearts.
During the Qing Dynasty, our country could not keep up with the development of the times because of "closed off the country".
However, what many people don't know is that with the development of the current era of globalization, there are still countries in the whole world that practice a policy of closing off the country.
"Isolated" North Korea
In the modern world, as long as it is mentioned that the country is closed and isolated, then North Korea must be on the list, which is also the most "simple and direct" evaluation of North Korea in everyone's impression.
In fact, everyone's impression of North Korea is "mysterious" and "curious", as long as people talk about North Korea, people will think about it, even if they travel to North Korea, they are subject to many restrictions.
When you plan to go to North Korea, you must hand over the information to the travel agency at least two weeks in advance, and you must strictly follow the route set by the tour guide during the trip, and you must not leave the group in the middle.
What's even more exaggerated is that after arriving in North Korea, not only can you not take pictures casually, but you can't go out casually at night.
In fact, this has a lot to do with their policy of "closing the country to the outside".
You know, North Korea's geographical location is actually particularly advantageous, it is bordered by the Yellow Sea to the west, the Sea of Japan to the east, and to the north, it borders China and Russia.
What is even more enviable is that although North Korea is not a large country, it is very rich in natural resources, such as coal, iron ore, copper ore and various water resources.
It can be said that this can be regarded as God's reward for eating, and with these, the people of North Korea can actually live a better life.
But it is precisely because of the congenital conditions that this country has always been "remembered" by others, such as the United States, Britain and Japan, all of which have invaded North Korea.
For a long time, Korea even became a colony of Japan.
And since the end of the Korean War, the people here have been shrouded in the shadow of war.
In order to protect the interests of its own country and the safety of its people, the DPRK has decided to implement a policy of seclusion and strict restrictions on trade and exchanges between the country and the outside world.
In their view, this is the only way to guarantee the security and independence of the country.
However, this has also led to a "stagnant" situation in the development of their country.
"Unexpected" Myanmar
Seeing the country of "Myanmar", everyone's impression of this country is probably not very good, after all, when you go out, wind evaluation is also very important.
In fact, many people will be very surprised to say that they are closed off from the rest of the world, after all, this country does not look like it is isolated from the world.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Myanmar was actually very wealthy, and their economy was even the largest in Asia.
At its peak, Myanmar's GDP was even as high as 12.197 billion US dollars, which can be said to be almost rich.
What many people don't know is that in fact, Myanmar has a lot of natural resources, and if they follow the rules to exploit resources to develop the country's economy, then the country's economic strength will be much stronger than other countries.
But contrary to expectations, the country has been in turmoil and strife, and there are constant disputes between the various forces in their country.
As a result, the country's economy cannot develop normally, and even if there are resources, there is no way to use them normally.
However, since the independence of Myanmar, in order to maintain domestic stability and prevent other foreign forces from getting involved, they have directly chosen the path of closing themselves off from the country.
It is estimated that they themselves did not expect that this was actually a detour.
The country's economy has not been well developed, and people's lives have not been greatly improved, and in the end, this originally rich country has become the poorest country in Asia, and has been rated as the least developed country by the United Nations.
Bhutan that "doesn't want to be disturbed".
Bhutan is a country with a very low international presence, but as soon as people mention it, they automatically label it as the country with the highest "happiness index", and they are also ranked at the top of the list of happy countries all year round.
The understanding of Bhutan has always been very mysterious, and even the five permanent members of the United Nations do not have any diplomatic relations with Bhutan.
This country is actually a very closed country, and if you want to travel here, then the success rate of this visa is very low.
Not only that, but the premise of this visa is that you must find a tour guide.
Because this country clearly stipulates that as long as you come to your own country to travel, then you must be led by a tour guide, and you can't do it yourself.
In other words, if you want to travel to the country on your own, there is no way to enter the country at all.
Compared with North Korea, Bhutan is actually even more "closed off from the rest of the country".
In this country, people basically believe in Buddhism, and they are worried that foreign cultures will impact the local culture and environment, causing their own culture to be "occupied" by other cultures, and the environment will be destroyed by various developers.
This is actually one of the reasons why they choose to close themselves off from the rest of the country.
However, after the closure of the country, it will face economic problems, which is also the disadvantage of many closed countries, that is, the country's economy cannot be improved, and even directly become one of the poorest countries.
Turkmenistan: Possessing "God's favor"
You know, Turkmenistan's geographical location is actually very "eye-catching", it is located in the center of the Asian map, and Afghanistan next to it is basically a desert of mountains and rivers, which also provides a natural barrier for Turkmenistan.
However, Turkmenistan's terrain is basically some desert, but their oil and gas are very rich, with these resources, they can actually be as "chic" as Saudi Arabia to squander.
However, this country has taken an unusual path, that is, it "closes itself to the rest of the world" and does not have any economic or other exchanges with other countries.
And their decision is actually inextricably linked to one of their presidents named "Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov".
After he was elected, a series of dictatorships began, among which the seclusion was proposed and implemented by the president.
After they were closed, the most direct impact was that there was no technology to extract oil and gas, resulting in the lack of good use and development of these resources, and people's lives could not be improved at all.
Information sources:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Turkmenistan Country Profile, November 2023
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Bhutan Country Profile, January 2024