In midsummer, people are lured to the Rungna Water Park in the Rungna People’s Recreation Ground on picturesque Rungna Islet in the Taedong River in Pyongyang.
As people see others swimming and splashing about in water, they feel an urge to cool themselves off by jumping into refreshing water.
Many visit the park and especially children and students now on vacation come to it almost every day.
Adults also come there with their children, wearing broad smiles on their faces.
Parents busy themselves with teaching their children how to swim and other adults have a good time splashing about in water like children.
A water slide is a magnet for visitors at the park.
It looks like rolls of silk when you look at it on the Rungna Bridge crossing the Taedong River.
The slide has four courses and people can slide down with or without a float.
The longest course is more than 120 metres.
Holding yellow two-seat floats, people go up stairs to the starting point by forming pairs even with strangers.
They slide down from the top of the slide sending up sprays, which is a sight to behold.
They say it is nice to feel the thrill of floating in the air or turning upside down and enjoy the pleasure of plunging into water throwing up sprays after sliding down the course in an instant.
Youth and schoolchildren competitively ride the water slide as if sliding is a demonstration of their bravery.
Young people do not have a monopoly on the water slide.
Elderly persons go up stairs of the slide with long strides, which reminds viewers of the song “We Don’t Care for the Passage of Years”.
“The water slide is always full as people take one course after another in succession,” said keeper Kim Kum Mi.
Another crowd-puller at the multi-functional water park is the top of the building of bathing booths and shower rooms where there are courts of beach volleyball, basketball and volleyball.
“When I jump into the cool water from the springboard after playing a volleyball match, I am relieved of all fatigue and get invigorated,” said a resident in Okryu-dong No. 1 in Taedonggang District, Pyongyang.
The Rungna Water Park, which cools people off in summer and makes the elderly become younger in body and mind, adds to the scenery of Taedong riverside overflowing with joy and optimism of life.
