Day 9 and 10
31.03. - 01.04.2019
Sunday March 31st, 2019
The last day in Taiwan we got some free time and used it for further sightseeing while looking for local food. We visited some sightseeing spots close to our hotel and were deeply impressed by entering the site of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. The hall was just huge and was surrounded by beautiful gardens and the National Concert Hall, Liberty Square and the National Theatre. Afterwards we went to the airport and flew from Taipei to Seoul.
National Concert Hall, Liberty Square and the National Theatre
Seoul
Monday April 1st, 2019
Arriving late at our hotel in Seoul provided us with a further adventure - looking for food, again. This is quite complicated at night and we were forced to head for a burger shop on the opposite side of the metropolis, introducing us to some breakneck Korean driving skills à la “Taxi Taxi”.
Busy Seoul street late at night, they never sleep.
The excitement was huge on this early morning on April 1st at Samsung’s d’light (삼성전자 홍보관 (딜라이트)) at its headquarter in Gangnam, Seoul.
So, what is the next best thing to do if you gain a bit of extra time? Right, grab an exquisite double shot of espresso at the Artiseé coffee shop just next door.
But, unfortunately, the gates were still closed upon our arrival and no, this was not an April fool`s hoax.
After the gate finally rolled up the hordes were released. Everyone plunged expectantly on Samsung’s newest gimmicks, gadgets and tech gear available just to see what the latest trends were.
But this was just the beginning ...
... all the way up to the Samsung lounge
After a warm welcome from our host we were introduced to Samsung`s latest application combining the newest technologies with social media, virtual reality, augmented reality…
Exciting gazing I
Exciting gazing II
…and a volunteer was found quickly for this exercise.
After we were acquainted with further high - end devices from Samsung’s portfolio covering a range of entertainment devices ,…
... over home appliances, …
Display options in a café
Keeping your clothes fresh
- "washing - machine" without water
... to educational hardware (to name just a few).
We were presented Samsung’s latest VR - Experience, the 4D Theater, and it was again a lot of fun.
Some are close to being seasick…
...others just enjoyed the ride.
After the exciting Samsung Store we moved on to Lotte. None of us has ever heard of Lotte before so the expectations were very low. We had already seen a lot of companies and wanted to do sightseeing. Luckily we didn’t.
Before we got to go into the tower, we were invited by 7-Eleven - member of Lotte Group - for some typical Korean Chicken. There was one chicken with rice inside per person, served in a big bowl with soup and different spices. We had to eat the whole chicken just with sticks, which was quite hard but not impossible.
As we arrived at the Lotte Tower we saw right away an impressively high skyscraper. There we were led to the elevators and accompanied up the tower.
We were welcomed by employees and were told to take a picture with them in front of the Lotte Sign, so we did. Afterwards we were let into the first room, it told the story of Lotte. Playfully, a mixture of a small miniature museum and videos were linked together. Lotte means a shortening of Charlotte, central figure of Goethe`s "Die Leiden des jungen Werther", as founder of Lotte Mr. Shin Kyuk-ho was passionate about German Literature, especially by Goethe.
We started, to realize how big the company is. At the end of the presentation, another wall suddenly opened and led us into the next room. Inside the room was a table, on top of it an interactive screen, which showed the up-to-date information about Lotte, with the table you could see different divisions to learn the most important information.
The interactive table The video about Lotte’s future
After that, another video started on the wall in front of us, it told the story where the journey for Lotte will lead in the upcoming years. An impressive video that was more reminiscent of science fiction than reality. What this company is trying to do, is the future I want to live in and it seems so close.
At the end of the video, the screen split in the middle into two parts and opened a gate to the meeting room, where we enjoyed the view down to the city. Eventually, we were brought back to the entrance room. Some employees were already waiting for us to hand us envelopes, in which the snapshot we took at the beginning was printed out.
The surprising splitting screen The group overwhelmed by the view
Hand scanner The signature store inside the tower Future cigarette automat
At the end we went all the way up the tower to the last floor where we had time to take pictures and marvel at the view from 555 m height.
In the evening we had time for sightseeing and local food: Korean BBQ.
Thank you, SAMSUNG, LOTTE, and of course to Mr. Bopp and Mr. Schellhase for making this happen.
