Hyundai Steels and a really long drive
These are the voyages of the bus Daewoo. It's all day mission: to explore the world of Hyundai Steels; to seek out new technology, new industrialization; to boldly go where few men have gone before.
This is me as Captain of the bus for this long trip. It was 2.5 hours of driving each way. They fed us Quizno's subs for lunch, so no exciting food stories there either. :( Then we arrived at Hyundai Steels and were told no pictures.
For those of us that did not know previously, the U.S., Japan and Germany are the top steel producers and Hyundai makes Kia motors and is #1 in ship building. Hyundai Steel is now bringing Korea into the steel production list and their newest factory in Dangjin (yes, it is spelled Dang jin. Haha!) is the size of 1,000 football stadiums. It began by production 8 millions tons of steel/year and their goal cap by 2013 is 23 million tons per year. Did I mention that this was just build in 2010? Oh and they recycle 11 million tons of scrap per year. Cool right? This plant is also the most eco-friendly of all the steel producing mills. They keep their iron ore in a dome as it is powder like and they don't want it spreading to the environment. They also produce their own electricity through natural gas and solar panels. Then they take the iron ore and produce large blocks of hot steel which is then stretched into long sheets and rolled into balls. This process is almost completely automated. It was cool!
So then we headed back to Incheon (another 2.5 hours on the bus). We went to some Chinese restaurant in China Town where Angelina, June and James met us. Jini was already with us, apparently she doesn't have any classes on Monday or Tuesday. We had some sort of chicken soup which needed salt, thankfully they had salt! :D It was good, it had rice in it too. They gave us a shot of some sort of ginseng liqueur that I did not like. Boyoung said it was really strong. I didn't think so, but I just didn't like the taste of it. While at this restaurant, I saw my first squatting toilet. No, I did not use it. They had another that was normal.
Finally, we went to E-mart. Yes, again. I bought some sort of kids snack, a kid's juice, some bathroom slippers (because the concept is that cool to me and these were like $1 and super comfy), and a bike lock for my suitcases while I am in China, apparently we can't even trust the hotel staff. *sigh*. So, that is how it stands right now. We go to DMZ tomorrow.
This is me as Captain of the bus for this long trip. It was 2.5 hours of driving each way. They fed us Quizno's subs for lunch, so no exciting food stories there either. :( Then we arrived at Hyundai Steels and were told no pictures.
For those of us that did not know previously, the U.S., Japan and Germany are the top steel producers and Hyundai makes Kia motors and is #1 in ship building. Hyundai Steel is now bringing Korea into the steel production list and their newest factory in Dangjin (yes, it is spelled Dang jin. Haha!) is the size of 1,000 football stadiums. It began by production 8 millions tons of steel/year and their goal cap by 2013 is 23 million tons per year. Did I mention that this was just build in 2010? Oh and they recycle 11 million tons of scrap per year. Cool right? This plant is also the most eco-friendly of all the steel producing mills. They keep their iron ore in a dome as it is powder like and they don't want it spreading to the environment. They also produce their own electricity through natural gas and solar panels. Then they take the iron ore and produce large blocks of hot steel which is then stretched into long sheets and rolled into balls. This process is almost completely automated. It was cool!
So then we headed back to Incheon (another 2.5 hours on the bus). We went to some Chinese restaurant in China Town where Angelina, June and James met us. Jini was already with us, apparently she doesn't have any classes on Monday or Tuesday. We had some sort of chicken soup which needed salt, thankfully they had salt! :D It was good, it had rice in it too. They gave us a shot of some sort of ginseng liqueur that I did not like. Boyoung said it was really strong. I didn't think so, but I just didn't like the taste of it. While at this restaurant, I saw my first squatting toilet. No, I did not use it. They had another that was normal.
Finally, we went to E-mart. Yes, again. I bought some sort of kids snack, a kid's juice, some bathroom slippers (because the concept is that cool to me and these were like $1 and super comfy), and a bike lock for my suitcases while I am in China, apparently we can't even trust the hotel staff. *sigh*. So, that is how it stands right now. We go to DMZ tomorrow.
DMZ, Karaoke and Goodbyes.
Today started out with me waking up to people banging on my door at 6 a.m. wondering why we were late. I jumped out of bed, threw some clothes on and ran downstairs in 5 mins. Then we spent considerable amounts of time waiting on other people before finally heading off on the tour. I was in the back of the bus and everyone else was in the front, but it was a cool trip regardless, lots of random people on this tour.
They told us we were not allowed to take pictures at so many spots! Sorry guys, I have very few pictures. Anyway, learned a lot which I don't really feel like going into right now as It's like 2 a.m. and I'm tired so check out the pictures for now. We did go look at the 3rd infiltration tunnel where North Korea tried to sneak attack South Korea. We went down into the tunnel and got to look into the actual section build by North Korea. It was cold and wet.
After the tour we headed to dinner. Dinner consisted of American food. We had pasta and pizza! :D Very good dinner. Then we headed out to Karaoke with our Korean buddies. That was way to much fun and I will have to go into details another time.
They told us we were not allowed to take pictures at so many spots! Sorry guys, I have very few pictures. Anyway, learned a lot which I don't really feel like going into right now as It's like 2 a.m. and I'm tired so check out the pictures for now. We did go look at the 3rd infiltration tunnel where North Korea tried to sneak attack South Korea. We went down into the tunnel and got to look into the actual section build by North Korea. It was cold and wet.
After the tour we headed to dinner. Dinner consisted of American food. We had pasta and pizza! :D Very good dinner. Then we headed out to Karaoke with our Korean buddies. That was way to much fun and I will have to go into details another time.