Busan

Today we took the bullet train from Seoul to Busan.

It was pretty impressive. It's only a "bullet" train until Daejeon but we were really moving during that part. I enjoyed seeing the countryside. There were some views of how I thought Korea should look. Very rural, a lot of farming.

Busan is on the coast. Where we are staying is a resort area in the middle of a busy port. Busan is the 5th largest port in the world. While it's the second largest city in South Korea, it is very different from Seoul. A lot less traffic and a lot more green space. Busan has some very pretty gardens. I even saw a community garden being tended by the residents on my walk this evening. And, of course, there is the beach!

Tomorrow we are going to tour the harbor, perhaps on a boat, and then meet with a container company. Friday we will tour Hyundai Heavy Industries and see where they make the massive ship motors.

Samsung

Yesterday we visited the Samsung Digital Complex in Suwan, just south of Seoul. I think this was my favorite visit thus far. Samsung Digital is on a gigantic campus that is almost a small city. They even have dorms for the single workers. Security is very tight - they did background checks on all of us before we arrived - and no pictures were allowed within the gates.

We started with a tour of their various products. It was amazing! Huge, 80" flat screen LCD tvs that are 2" thick, cell phones that have a dial on it so you can use it like a rotary dial, cell phones that can project up to a 52" screen so you can watch a widesceen movie on your phone, cool laptops, mid-blowing surround sound, and cute refrigerators. It's too bad it's going to take so long for the technology to hit the US. It was really impressive.

After our tour of the current technology, we toured an assembly plant. It was difficult to hear our interpreter over the noise but it was very interesting to see how un-automated it was. Even though it was "people powered", it was still very efficient and mindful of mistakes. The various components being assembled are placed under a camera and the display will show areas that need work (screws around the frame, for instance). When an area is done, the display will show it as "good" and it is passed on to the next station.

After the factory tour we met with two of the HR specialists. One was from France so the discussion was a bit more open than I think it would have been if there were two Koreans. The bulk of our questions pertained to HR since this is the first time we have met with someone from that area. A lot of questions about the interview process. However, the part that I found most interesting was the discussion on change.

Samsung recently went from five divisions within the Digital Complex to just two. They totally reorganized the workflows so that there was a more logical bundling of like products. They decided to do this at the beginning of the economic downturn because they knew production would be slower for a while. While this was a time of great stress for the company, everyone from management down viewed it as an opportunity. That was the message that was conveyed everywhere. They did not try to sugar-coat the process but they focused on the positive.

I couldn't help but compare it to the changes that are happening at LCC (on a much smaller scale). While our president views our changes as a potential opportunity, no one else does. No one in middle management is portraying a positive attitude. They are all talking about how terrible it is. Even though LCC has layed off some workers, I wonder if the attitude to the college wouldn't improve if management began broadcasting a positive message as a unified front. Banish the thought of "you thought yesterday was bad just because you didn't know about today". Instead, focus on growth and rebirth.

Soju

No trip to Korea would be complete without a little soju. Soju is a type of alcohol that is usually made of rice but can be made of any type of starch (barley, potato, etc). It tastes quite a bit like vodka. It can be mixed with juice for flavor, drank straight as a shot, or made into the infamous "soju bomb". The soju bomb is a pint of beer with a shot of soju floated in it. It's much like a boilermaker. (I have a picture of one being made last night but I need to obtain permission before I post it).

Soju is between 20-40 proof and is truly a part of the Korean culture. Business men often go out to the bars after work to get drunk on soju. Really. Getting drunk is the goal. The contrast between their daytime persona of proper and reserved and their nighttime persona of, well, not is astounding.

Traditionally, corporate Korea has been reserved for men so the soju escapades were usually no big deal. However, the recent admission of women into the higher ranks is creating some interesting problems. The attache yesterday told us about a lawsuit in 2007 where a female executive was pushed into going to the bars with the males and then the males were "forgetting to show proper respect" (I think we can read between the lines there) so she sued them. And won! It was very shocking.

I wonder how the soju culture will change as women executives become more prevalent.

Korean Barbecue

Most of the group went to dinner at a Korean barbecue restaurant (one of the high-end ones so the food was excellent quality).

Each table had a hole in it for the fire pot. The waitresses then put a grill over the pot and cooked our meat at the table. According to our "party guide", Olivia, the beef was Korean beef and is considered to be the best (the lower class joints use very fatty beef). After the meat is cooked, the waitresses cut it into pieces and then you make little wraps with it using various lettuce leaves and condiments. It was excellent!

After the beef came the squid. The process is the same. The taste is not. I tried a piece but I did not go back for seconds! Some people in our group loved it but I thought it tasted like fishy erasers. There was also raw crab which is meant to be eaten raw. Olivia said that is very expensive and shows a great deal of respect on behalf of the restaurant that they served it to us. I tried a piece and it tasted like what you would expect raw crab to taste like. The sauce on it was so hot, though, you couldn't taste much. Some had the idea of throwing that on the fire and made cooked crab. Much better.

Pictures here.

Korean Stock Exchange and SK Telecom

We had two business meeting today (well, three if you count the little lecture by US Embassy's Commerce Attache).

The first was to the Korean Stock Exchange (KRX). The main exchange is in Busan but they have a branch in Seoul. Even though it was just a branch, I was expecting something like this. Instead, the exchange floor has been turned into a museum - it was totally silent! They went completely digital in 1997! There's still workers about and they have the board up but that's it.


I can't imagine the New York Stock Exchange doing something as drastic as this! I think the US is too attached to tradition in some areas and the NYSE is one of those areas! Korea is not afraid to jump in an make massive changes, though. That is something that is becoming very clear on this trip.

Our second visit was to SK Telecom. They are a HUGE telecommunications group and are one of the six main chaebol's (family run business conglomerate, Hyundai and Samsung are others). While their main focus is on wireless, they are expanding rapidly into other areas. Part of our tour today was to visit some displays that show possible future technology. Those who wanted to wore a special devise that created an avatar for you which acts as your tour guide. We then visited various "future" areas, the first of which was the future home. In it, your avatar interacts with you throughout the house, constantly reading your bio signals and making adjustments, suggesting things, etc. I found this highly creepy. I think what bothered me most is we aren't talking something from the Jetson's where George is dressed on a conveyor belt while a machine brushes his teeth. This is technology that is, at most, 5 years out. Maybe I've seen too many Terminator movies but I couldn't help but think of Skynet. I heard a few others making the same comment.

Once we recovered from the avatar invasion, we were able to enjoy our surroundings after hearing a presentation by some of the SKT VPs. We were on the 32nd floor and the scenery was amazing! Even the bathrooms had floor to ceiling windows! You can view the pictures here. (The first picture is supposed to be the last. Picasa is not winning any brownie points with me!)

Next up, the Korean barbecue we had for dinner...

Pictures from Sunday

Click on slide show or at least open the pictures to full screen for the best color/resolution.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsilverman26/PalaceVisit#slideshow/5350079397255571298


Someone please tell me if you can't view them - this is my first time using Picasa and it's quirky.

Sunday's agenda

We will be having lunch today at Samcheonggak - here are some more pictures. It looks very cool!

After that we will tour the City Square and Cheong-gye-cheon Stream Park. I hope my new camera behaves. These look like some very photogenic areas.

On a side note, I had breakfast in the hotel and ate the best pineapple ever. It makes pineapple in the States taste like plastic. A Korean business man was seated next to me and he promptly struck up a conversation. And gave me his card. I had read that everyone gives tons of business cards but I thought they meant in formal settings. I brought a very small stack of mine so I think I had better ration them out for our meetings.

Chasing the sun

I made it! That was a very interesting experience.

The part that I found my unusual is that the sun did not truly set until we reached Tokyo. After dinner, the cabin shades were drawn so we could watch the movies. Every once in awhile someone would open their shade a bit and the light was always the same. Since we flew over Alaska and the Bering Straits before coming south to Japan, we were truly in the land of the midnight sun. It was very surreal.

Another thing that was interesting was the food. It was actually pretty good! Much better than standard American fair. Well, except for that weird "midnight snack" that was a dry roll spread with what I assumed was a bit of cream cheese, marinated cucumber slices and boiled egg slices. Uh, no thanks. Also, on Korean flights, California rolls are considered "airplane food"! Which don't agree with me at 10,000 feet but that's another story.

Our guide handed out a list of things that we are going to do and see while we are here. She just has "live octopus" list for one of the days. I hope that's not for dinner!

When a slacker travels abroad

The majority of students in my class are extremely high performers and go above and beyond for any assignment. Me? Well... let's just say that some days are better than others.

While they will have lovely phrase cards for every situation to help with the communication barrier, I'm printing this out and calling it good. Jeez, I just know I'm going to end up in North Korea by accident. But hey, at least I'll be able to ask for some co-pee (coffee) while I'm in the detention cell.

Preflight jitters

It's getting down to the wire and I still need to pack! I'm trying to keep it to just one checked bag but, with a 50 lb. limit and a suitcase that weighs 10 lbs., I'm not sure I'll succeed.

I know I'm worrying about the oddest things but my only experience with international travel is the trip to Mexico when I was three! I'm just thankful we're going as a fairly large group. I'm fairly adventurous but only in an English speaking environment. One thing that helps is reading everything about the country that I possibly can.

The English version of the Korea Tour Guide site has these 10 second animated clips about various aspects of visiting South Korea. They're somewhat amusing. One of them says that South Koreans enjoy spicy food but they think Americans do not. If you want spicy, you have to really press for it. May I just say "thank goodness"? My former sister-in-law is Filipino and she enjoys Korean food, especially kimchi. I saw first hand what that stuff can do and I think I'll pass! I want to try the local food but I'm afraid I will wimp out and stick to the safer versions.

Jump

One of first items on our itinerary is to attend Jump - "a cultural performance". Okay, that doesn't tell me much. Here's a better description:

With the preparatory period of 3 years and 7 months, the musical JUMP is a non –verbal performance based on Taekwondo, a traditional Korean martial art, JUMP that will make the audience laugh and applaud throughout the show. This performance was given a favorable reception as it earned the top box office award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005.

Sounds... interesting.

Itinerary

We leave in 3 days! Here's our itinerary for those playing at home:

Friday 3:40pm Detroit DTW for Seoul Incheon Airport via Tokyo Narita

Saturday 9:35pm Group flight arrives in Seoul

Sunday Afternoon Welcome lunch (Korean)
Guided tour of Seoul (Cheong-gye-cheon Stream Park, City Square, etc.)
5:30pm Jump - Cultural performance

Monday 8-9:30am U.S. Commercial Service - Overview of South Korea by Mark C. O’Grady, Commercial Officer
10:30am-12noon Korea Exchange site visit
2-5pm SK Telecom site visit

Tuesday 8:30-10:30am Gyeongbokgung Palace / site visit
1:30-4pm Samsung Digital Complex / Suwon site visit

Wednesday Morning Travel to Busan by KTX train (duration 2hrs 45mins)
Beomeosa Temple / cultural visit

Thursday 10-11am Busan Port Authority (BPA) site visit
12noon-2pm Group lunch, then travel to the Busan New Port Company
2-3pm Busan New Port Company site visit

Friday 10am-12noon Hyundai Motors Company (Ulsan) site visit
1:30pm-3pm Hyundai Heavy Industries (Ulsan) site visit

Saturday Morning 11:35am Group flight departs for Detroit DTW via Tokyo Narita
1:45pm Group flight arrives at Detroit DTW