Off to Dangjin

Well, where to begin...After our last blog, we were greeted by a new group of rotarians and shipped out of our coastal pension to the city of Dangjin. Today has been the warmest since arriving in South Korea. This region is the largest producer of garlic and ginger. Both of which I love!! So definetely off to a good start. We arrived in Dangjin and ate lunch at a Rotarian's restaurant. Our friends informed our new hosts not to worry because we all enjoy the food and will try anything. After lunch was a tour of Hyundai Iron Plant. At first, they told us that we would go to a place where they make iron so we were expecting a factory. Much to our surprise as we approached the factory that it wasn't a factory but the first privately owned steel producing plant in S. Korea. This place was the size of a small city. After another amazing PR video, we we're able to tour the facility by bus. We viewed the shipyard, where raw materials are imported, viewed the scrap metal holding facility, and the holding tanks of the raw materials. It was as if walking onto the set of Star Wars as we approached the domes! It was quite amazing. They actually had an opening ceremony the day before, for their scrap metal/reuse program, in which the President of South Korea attended!!!! We then trekked through the largest rice paddy in the region (maybe South Korea...I'll have to double check on that). It is actually larger than than the iron plant!! Of course this made me happy. It's pretty late so I'll have to end here. We'll add more about the rest of the day's journey tomorrow. Until next time!!