A photo-essay from the world's largest open-air prison, North Korea (or would that be China without torturing the metaphor?):

SHOP GIRL: This is shopping in North Korea. The clerk sits in the dark, unheated special store, waiting to turn on the lights for foreigners, the only permitted customers. "She's wearing a ski jacket or parka; the rest of this time they're sitting there with the lights off, freezing," van Houtryve says. The goods--toys, televisions, and the like--are imported from China. The store only accepts euros.

[Stolen from the Flea, via American Power]