On Wednesday, we began our company visits with a trip to Samsung Biologics. Samsung Biologics was opened in 2011 and is headquartered in Incheon, South Korea. They are a biopharmaceutical manufacturing company, which means they make pharmaceutical drugs from living organisms’ cells. At Samsung Biologics, they are given instructions from other companies on how to make the drugs for them, and make them on a larger scale for the companies who they have contracts for. While we were at Samsung Biologics, we listened to a presentation on what they do there as well as tour the facility to see a room in one of the plants which they have large scale incubators of a protein.

Later on in the day, we went to city hall to take a tour and learn some of the history of the building. The new city hall building is right behind the old one, and there are also remnants of the building that was there back in 1926. While there, we toured the mayors room in the old city hall which was fascinating to look at. We also got to look around the new city hall building which looks amazing with tons of plants as soon as you enter.

After city hall, we visited the Seoul Global Startup Center Visit where they support foreigners who are in South Korea trying to create a startup. They are funded by the government and give companies at least a year to have a facility and resources to get started. We got to see some of the startups while we were there and some of them were very fascinating. One used a QR code when trash was thrown out to keep track of what you threw out. Others included Korean beauty products and a few tech companies. It was very interesting to be there and learn the challenges that there are to have a startup company in Korea. I am excited to continue to visit companies in South Korea.