Chapter 576 - Building Bus Terminal (1) – Part 1
It was Wednesday. Gun-Ho headed to Incheon International Airport to take the flight for China after briefly stopping by his office at GH Building in Sinsa Town. On the way to the airport in his car, Gun-Ho sent a text message to Young-Eun.
[I’m going on a trip to Antang City, Guizhou Province, China right now. I need to attend a contract signing ceremony to establish a joint venture company there tomorrow which is Thursday. I will be back on Friday, and I will see you then. Please take good care of yourself while I’m gone.]
Young-Eun replied right away.
[Have a safe trip.]
Gun-Ho stopped by a supermarket and bought basic pantry items which were the key ingredients to cook Korean food, such as dried seaweed, pickled Pollack roe, red pepper paste, etc. Gun-Ho knew from his personal experience that the best gifts for Jae-Sik Moon right now, who was staying in a foreign country, are genuine Korean foods. When Gun-Ho had started his life in China several years ago as he acquired a Korean restaurant in a hotel in Hangzhou City, he desperately missed Korean foods.
When he arrived at the airport in Guiyang City, Jae-Sik Moon was waiting for him.
“Huh? President Moon, how come you are here to pick me up? Picking me up from an airport is a tedious job for a president.”
“President Goo, it’s really good to see you. I feel so happy these days whenever I see any Korean, I mean literally any Korean.”
“I totally understand that, especially for you because it’s hard to find Korean people in the area where you are staying.”
“Maybe it is so. It’s really nice to talk in Korean.”
“So, all I have to do tomorrow is to sign the contract?”
“It’s kind of funny to sign the contract after having already established the joint venture company. Our Chinese partner seems to want to have the signed contract for a record. Since they are receiving investment funds from Korea, they probably need a document to prove the purpose of those funds, which was to build the terminal.”
“Of course. What they concern the most is the terminal construction, not the intercity bus service business.”
“That’s true.”
“So, you have your own office now, huh?”
“Yeah, my office is in the old terminal building. They redid the wallpaper and installed lighting. The thing is the lighting in my office looks like something that you can easily see in a bar.”
“The next time when I have to send the investment funds, the amount will be 3 million dollars because they will need to start building the terminal with the fund. With 3 million dollars, you will need to buy a few express buses and finish the civil engineering work at the construction site for the terminal.”
“Hmm, you must be highly knowledgeable about construction as well. You were there when GH Mobile’s factory and Dyeon Korea’s factory were being built, right?”
“I just have an overall picture in my head; that’s it. I don’t know any details about construction. It’s not like I majored in construction in college or something. You and I have never been in the construction field, but we had lived in a 17 pyung large old townhome and spent most of our time reading comic books, right?”
“Hahaha.”
They hadn’t arrived at Antang City yet. It took three hours to get there from Guiyang City. Gun-Ho was looking outside the window. There was a farmer standing with a water buffalo.
“Look at the water buffalo.”
“I heard that water buffalos don’t taste good. Korean beef is the best.”
“Of course. I love Korean beef. I already miss Korea grilled beef sirloin with a glass of soju.”
“Haha. Let’s have it when we can.”
After spending some time without saying a word, Gun-Ho broke the silence.
“So, they haven’t done anything yet about the terminal construction, have they?”
“No, nothing yet. The land is still vacant as before. Oh, I heard that they were doing soil tests on the construction site.”
“Soil tests? Yeah, they have to do it.”
“Is it necessary?”
“Of course. So they can figure out how deep they could drill.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
“Through the soil tests, they will test for density and quality of the soil for building construction. For a large building like a terminal, they will have to drill piles deeply, so they could have a strong foundation that could allow the stresses coming from the structure. They will also need to design the building to withstand earthquakes. So, soil tests are a very important first step to be able to build a strong terminal. That way, the government will give them a permit to start building the terminal.”
“I see.”
“I guess that this is a good opportunity for you to become familiar with building construction. The knowledge will come in handy someday in your life. We don’t work in the construction or civil engineering field, but if we know about the relevant procedure and stuff, it will be very helpful in some way later.”
“I think I will have to start writing a daily log for the terminal construction.”