‘No pictures allowed’ in Hyundai, Pohang tour

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a series relating the day-to-day events that happened during the 16th Annual CNMI Students Cultural Exchange Program in South Korea. The trip was sponsored by the Junior Chamber International Pacific Saipan Inc.

ULSAN, South Korea—We all agreed to be in the bus by 7am. Surprisingly, everyone got up just in time to take pictures in front of the San Te Training Center where we stayed.

We started out our day with a full breakfast at a nearby service station. It was either fried chicken or Salisbury steak. I figured its what any of us could read on the menu. I don’t think the students were ready yet to order anything else more exotic.

It was a long ride to the Ulsan Hyundai Car Manufacturing Co. I lost track of the time as I slept through almost the entire ordeal.

All I remember next was that we met up with our Hyundai tour guide almost as soon as our bus pulled into our destination. How we were able to spot this little man in the mammoth Ulsan complex is beyond me.

The Ulsan plant is said to be the world’s single largest automobile plant in the world. It sits on top of a 1,200 acres site and is Hyundai’s main production plant comprising five independent plants capable of producing 5,600 vehicles daily. This place was incredible!

The group was fortunate enough to witness first hand Hyundai’s making of some of its best and top-selling cars.

Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside the manufacturing company and inside the shipyard where all the neat stuff happened.

Being the world’s largest in scale of its kind, the Ulsan plant is the birthplace of the Korean automobile industry and is a self-contained facility that operates its own fire station, hospital, and security vehicles.

According to our tour guide, the Ulsan plant is also equipped with cutting-edge facilities to protect the environment, such as a wastewater and sewage treatment plants, securing Hyundai’s position as a green-minded company.

The Hyundai manufacturing company in Korea has two other plants: the Asan Plant rests on a 440-acre site, with buildings comprising a total of 4.2 million square feet. The Asan Plant produces mainly passenger vans and is capable of an output of 30,000 mid- to large-sized passenger vehicles annually.

Then there’s the Jeonju Plant, which occupies a total of 317 acres of land and has 4.3 million square feet in production space. The Jeonju Plant specializes in producing mid- to large-sized buses of 2.5 tons or more, trucks, and specialty vehicles. It is capable of producing 125,000 units per year.

We spent a good three hours visiting the facility, although clearly there was more to the site than the limited places we toured. Of course, Hyundai officials did not let us go until after they presented us souvenirs to take home.

After lunch, we were on our way to the Pohang Steel Manufacturing Co. otherwise known as POSCO. There, we met up with Rose, our POSCO tour guide who warmly welcomed the group to the third largest manufacturing steel producer in the world, producing all kinds of steel for various equipment and appliances—from vehicles to kitchen appliances to nail clippers.

There are approximately 16,600 employees that work for the 9 million square-foot company. Our tour guide said there are not that many employees because everything is pretty much computerized.

After a short video introduction in the company’s VIP conference room, the group, again, was fortunate enough to see how the steel company made their products. Again, no pictures were allowed inside the facility to capture this amazing place.

Before we left, the POSCO tour guide gave each one of us souvenirs that we could use in our everyday life. She gave each one of us a manicure set that is guaranteed to last a lifetime, “so that whenever you use them you can always think of POSCO.”

Our next stop was Post Tech where we were greeted by the founding chairman, Tae Joon Park. Two of his staff gave us a tour of the facility where electronics and technology ruled the campus.

Post Tech is one of Korea’s first research-oriented university and is known to be the country’s top science and engineering university.

According to Park, Post Tech provides an excellent curriculum and environment “for individuals who seek knowledge and truth.”

After our little tour of the facility, the staff was kind enough to allow each one of us to check our e-mails using their library computers. This was about the only opportunity I had to catch on e-mails back home until I arrived back on island.

It was about 5:30pm when we started to head on to the city of Yeong Deok. We arrived there at our new hotel about 7pm. There, we met up with county mayor Hwang Dae Ju and other officials of the Yeong Deok City.

We were treated to a dinner buffet, courtesy of the Yeong Deok City, with whom Saipan has been sister cities with for at least 14 years, according to Mayor Juan Tudela.

Both Tudela and Ju emphasized the importance of continuing the sisterhood between the two countries to strengthen their friendship and promote their cultures.

Yeong Deok City is said to be one of the most scenic cities in Korea with its pristine beaches and picturesque towns.

After the group shared a nice dinner buffet with Yeong Deok officials, we all headed back to our hotel rooms and prepare for another big day.