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Yoboseyo! Welcome to Seoul!

Yoboseyo Everyone!

Well, here I am in Seoul. Between the jet lag and running around town, Im a little behind on this blog. I'll update daily for the next business week to make up for the delay.

Today, Ill just talk a little bit about Seoul - the city, the people, the general stuff.

I arrived at Incheon Airport and took a 40-minute ride to the heart of Seoul. That might actually be a bad way of phrasing it; there is not definitive heart to Seoul. The city is a lot like New York - there are several boroughs, each separated by river and highway. The difference between here and NYC is that all of the boroughs are huge - no Staten Island here! Each holds a few million people at a population density that one comes to expect from a buzzing Asian metropolis.

The city is huge and extremely difficult to navigate without the use of taxis. I mastered the London Underground in two days, but the subway here is more than I could learn in a month.

As for the people, they have for the most part been very friendly. Virtually nobody outside of the hotel has been able to speak English. The Kazakhstani bartender I met last night told me that I was only the second American she'd ever seen in her bar - which is on a main avenue, just two blocks from my hotel (and several other major hotels!) Despite the de-isolation of Asia that has occurred in the last few decades, this is still a very closed society. I have yet to see any non-Asians on the streets, except in the hotel (I expect this will change when I visit Itaewon, the foreigner area over by the US military base). However, the use of the English writing is everywhere - many signs, billboards, even business names are in English! Most are in some mix called Konglish, with one or two English words surrounded by Kangul (Korean) script. Those that are in English completely rarely make sense - my favorites so far have been "Bang Bang Plaza" and "Real Estate Fortune Tellers". It seems many more Koreans can read English than can speak it.

Tomorrow I'll have details on social trends that we investors can capitalize on, plus a few notes on companies that I've encountered. And just to be a tease - my inside man here in Seoul may have arranged a VERY special surprise for me and for all of you. Ill have details on that in the next day or two.

Until tomorrow,

Alex Chinn

April 27, 2005 in Alex Chinn in Korea | Permalink