Haha. This was my first time to travel my self, although it was not that far away. I booked the Peace Palace guided tour. As Peace Palace was not a public area/ museum open to the public. Everyone who wants to visit there must apply in advance for the guided tour.The tour costs you 5 euros. But it was really nice.
If you want to know about the history of Peace Palace, visit here
After that, I continued to visited other museums and places. But really nothing very special.
Binnenhof (會議廳) Ridderzaal (騎士樓)
Old City Hall
林蔭大道
An interesting thing happened today. When I was eating my self-made sandwich on the seat of a plaza, a middle-aged lady took a lot of photos of me. She later told me she was from the television. And we took a few more shots. Haha. I was so attractive.XD
Bravo to go to the Rotterdam Zoo. I think it is the best tourist attractions for Rotterdam! It is properly-managed and there are a lot of animals to see! If you get the Rotterdam Pass, it costs oyu only 3.5 euros for entrance fee.
Bokito (Berlin, March 14, 1996) is a male Western Gorilla who lives in Diergaarde Blijdorp, a zoo in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He appeared in the news after he escaped from his enclosure and seriously injured a female visitor on May 18, 2007. Born in the Berlin Zoo Zoologischer Garten, Bokito was raised by his human attendants after having been rejected by his mother. To reduce the risk of inbreeding, he was transferred to the Diergaarde Blijdorp in August 2005.
On May 18, 2007, Bokito jumped over the ditch that separated his enclosure from the public and violently attacked a woman, dragging her around for tens of meters and inflicting bone fractures as well as more than a hundred bite wounds. He subsequently entered the nearby restaurant, causing panic among the visitors. During this encounter, three more people were injured as a result of the panic. Bokito was eventually sedated with the help of a tranquilizer gun and placed back in his cage.
The woman who was attacked had been a regular visitor to the great apes' enclosure, visiting an average of 4 times per week. She had a habit of touching the glass that separated her from the gorillas, while making eye contact with Bokito and smiling to him, a practice that is discouraged by primatologists, as apes are likely to interpret human smiling as a form of aggressive display. Zoo employees had previously warned her against doing this, but she continued, claiming a special bond with him: in an interview with De Telegraaf, she said "if I laugh at him, he laughs back".[1]
Bokito had escaped before; in the summer of 2004, he climbed the three-meter-high wall of his enclosure in Berlin. On that occasion, he was escorted back to his cage without problems.
The word "Bokitoproof", meaning "durable enough to resist the actions of an enraged gorilla", and by extension "durable enough to resist the actions of a non-specific extreme situation", was voted the Dutch language "Woord van het jaar" (Word of the Year) for 2007.
When I am working as an marketing and communications intern in Hong Kong, I also get involved in the CSR department. At that time, the company was undergoing a "Go Gree" process which other banks, I discovered, had been doing on the subject for a long time.
This is a coincidence I studied Business-Society Management this semester in RSM. When I read about the textbook for the course, I discovered a lot of phrases heard during my internship. Everyone is talking about go green. But why reducing greenhouse gases is so important these days. If we don't reduce the carbon footprint right now, what will be our future society be? What are the enironmental risk a business will face if it turn a blind eye to protecting the environment?
I need to finish my project this week so I can plan for my travel next week.I won't take the e-marketing again in the future at RSM. It is not that good.But I can transfer the credits back to CUHK if I can successfully pass the course.
Today I went to practise cycling with Tazi.It was good and maybe I could buy a bike for myself at a later time.I still have such a long time here.
This time, I went to Delft, a city very near to Rotterdam, with Laura. It just took us about 20 miuntes to get to Delft NS station. Delft was a small but nice city. We registered the guilded tour at the infomation desk. At around 12:30, the tour started. I heard a lot of stories about Delft, which I could share with you!
There are a new church (the one in the photo)and old church in Delft. And the body of the Father of the nation, William of Orange, is buried under the new church.How can Netherlands become a independent nation? It all starts with this person.
In the past, the Netherlands was under the rule of Spain, which was very powerful at that time. Its territories covered both Europe and America. Philip, the king of Spain, was a supporter of Catholic church while there were mainly protestants in Netherlands. Hard measures was adopted to suppress the oppositions. Also the Dutch, as a caputred race, was not treated very well. William of Orange then led the independence progress of Holland.
From Wiki:
The city dates from the 13th century. It received its charter in 1246.
The association of the House of Orange with Delft began when William of Orange (Willem van Oranje), nicknamed William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger), took up residence in 1572. William was the leader at the time in the struggle against the Spanish, the Eighty Years' War.
Delft was one of the leading cities of Holland and was equipped with the necessary city walls to serve as a headquarters. When William was shot to death in 1584 by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof, the family's traditional burial place in Breda was in the hands of the Spanish. Therefore, he was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day
There is the place where William of Orange is assasinated. You can still see the bullet holes on the wall.
House of a rich man
Traditional Dutch food
Delft is also famous for its procelain. But I think it is not that special for Chinese as we really get a lot of it! In the past, Delft was one of the six chambers of Dutch East India Comapny (VOC). It was directly connected to North Sea and had trade with many countires, even China. That's why it brought back the procelain skills from China.
Jacky and me is going with Chris, my German friend, to Berlin! By car! Anyone wants to join please let me know! Ha
There was a visit to the Port of Rotterdam organized by the international office of RSM. We took a tram to beurs and then switched to tram 25 to World Port Center.
Emily and me
We attended a introductory talk in the center. We had some tea and cake there. The PR manager briedfly introduced the history, operations, goods handled by the port and the advanced control system of the port.
Later, we took the bus and visited the real terminal. Port of Rotterdam is the biggest port in Europe and the thrid largest port in the world, after Shanhai and Singapore. It is an important entre port for neighbour countries like Belgium, Germany, France etc. I paid a visit to HACTL, the Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal also. Personally I think the one in Hong Kong was more advanced with more automation, and organization. (Ha. Maybe people really have special preference for their own product.)
But I really like the wind power station there. They look so nice. And when you come to the port, you will know why there are so many wind turbines. It is really windy there. The wind is so strong that will make you shake. I think it is even stronger than HK singal 8 wind in Tsim Sha Tsui! Horrible.
Wind turbines
Erasmus Bridge
After the visit, Hui-Tze, Jacky and I went to Euromast due to the free entrance(Rotterdam Pass). We also enjoyed a free drink there.
Hi Chris, Bad news. Vivien is not joining us becasue she is free for only 5 days. But jacky will be joining. So there will be no girls. Hope you don't mind! Ha. I know you like going "I love Asians" party. Not good to have no asian girls in this trip. Without Vivien, we can now move back to our original timeslot: 25 Nov - anytime you want to return. After that, Jacky and me will continue to travel to Prague! If you are fine with this plan (really final), let me know!
Confirm me about this again by email.
Do you mind booking your own train ticket (both departure and arrival) as we don't know what date you want to come back. After you buy it, tell me the date you leave. We will book the St. Christopher hostel for you!
Today, I did quite a lot of things.I bought a cooker making fries and went to Bas supermarket to buy food.In the afternoon, I played squash with Kirk for more than two hours. That's a lot. Since Kirk has a tennis foundation too, so he could handle squash quite well. After that, I got too tired so I just left the sports card and racket to Kirk and Natasha.
At around 7, I went out again for squash class. The teacher was very nice, giving me a lot of advice. I also make a new Belgian friends. I hoped I could date him for squash on Wednesday.
I got my Rotterdam pass also. I will soon enjoy cheap fries, cheap zoo entry, free movie... Haha. But it is really bad to see Dutch in the book and the website. It is not that user-friendly becasue the card is designed for tourist.
Joe, Sunny, Hui tze, Jacky and I went to IKEA near Rotterdam on Thursday becasue we wanted to buy something for our room and try the cheap food their. The IKEA was not very near though. It took us more than half an hour to get there by tram.
As IKEA is a Sweden corporation, the food there is also full of swedish colors. We had small meat balls with redberry jam, as well as fries (as usual). I also bought a cup of cola which allow me to enjoy unlimited access to Cola. Haha.
THE NEXT DAY, we went to Brugge by taking a 4-hour Euroline bus. We slept on the bus for a very long time. Brugge was a really nice city. As we watched the movie "In Brugge" before we went there, so we have stronger feeling to Brugge one of the most preserved medieval city.The first thing we visited is the Cathedral. It was very high, which also took us hundreds of stairs to get to the top of the tower. But the view is really gorgeous. This was the traditional medieval city view with a lot of red-roof houses. The Holy Blood Church is a church keeping the Jesus' blood. The blood, people believe, will change form when some events/ times occur. It is a chruch which is quite different from other Europena church. Worth going but cannot take pictures.
At night, we had dinner at the youth hostel pub. The food was good and price was acceaptable. We got a free sampler on Belgian beer. From left to right: Abbey beer, wheat beer and redberry beer. After that, we went back to our room to play card games and HK games again. Ha. And we need to eat cold potato fries if we lose. It was my first time to live in an youth hostel. But still it was quite nice and cheap.
The Lake of Love
Gent
Actually, there were not many special things to mention in Gent so we just spent about 3-4 hours there. Common places in European cities like city hall, plaza market, cathedral etc. The most interesting building might probably be the Castle. Its name is 魔王古堡. It used this name to scare its enemy. lol
Antwerpen
Something like City Hall, Antwerpen
No more Belgium after that. I wil head for other countries. I really want to visit London, Rome and Paris.
Describe the difference, customer behavior, age groups, products, and marketing
To a fair large extent, I do not agree with the above statement.
Before starting to discuss whether the Internet will make physical shops obsolete. I think it is good to define the term internet and physical shops first. Then we should find out what is their common ground, making physical shops inferior (or vice visa). For “internet”, I would define it as the use of World Wide Web to engage in information-seeking, communication and even transaction functions. For “physical shops”, it is the traditional way of shopping in the streets.
Obviously, the use of e-commerce will be more intense and taking a more important role in the future marketing world. There are a few reasons to explain this. There is not geographical limitation on the use of the Internet, especially during the future world where Internet is everywhere. People can shop at home, office or even in a country park. This creates a very convenient way for people to buy things they want without taking a long way to the city center. This point is very convincing when coming to the European countries and America because people are scattered, but not sticking together like Hong Kong or Tokyo. The use of Internet will surely become more popular when people are more get used to using Internet for shopping. We, as exchange students here, will buy the train ticket, Euro lines ticket or even AON insurance online simply because it is hard to get to every single place for only one product.
Moreover, people are demanding a more customized buying experience now which is hard, if not costly, for physical shops to achieve. When you go to a shoe shop, you expect a salesperson to serve you individually, telling you what shoe suit you the best. This is, however, costly to do so. By using the Internet, the corporations can serve all the customers all over the world at nearly zero marginal cost. By getting the customers’ data beforehand, Shoe Company can recommend the best products to the customers. Nike has developed a My Nike web page where customers can customize the shoes of their own by choosing their favorite color, shape etc. People want some products to show their characteristics and customized products are the key to achieve that. Only by Internet companies can provide customized service at an economical price, with high customer satisfaction.
Regarding the current situation, I would say Internet and physical shops are not mutual exclusive, but complimentary. People will surf online to find the information of the products they want to buy, and may probably ask some questions about the product through e-mail. If they find it nice, they may simply buy it online with credit cards or bank accounts. For more conservative people, they may go to the shop to take a real look. In this perspective, the e-commerce site of the company can also be a marketing/ promotion tools for the physical site. The opposite can happen. When a person wants to buy a product after visiting a physical shop, he can save travel time by buying online. Internet and physical site can exist harmoniously.
Nonetheless, it is clear that physical shops will not disappear in the near 5 to 10 years when we take the age of the active internet surfer/buyer into consideration. The younger generation, for sure, are used to mastering computer and Internet. But since Internet is not invented and became popular until the early 1900s, old people may feel reluctant to try the Internet for shopping. The old people just feel insecure to buy online. They will prefer to the supermarket to buy the daily necessities. So we hope to see more acceptances to the Internet in the near future. But for sure, physical shops will not deplete in the near future.
Knowhow:
What are the functions of Internet and what will increase in importance?
There are four main function of the Internet:
1.Information function - seeking the information of the products/brands
2.Communication function – contacting with the corporation by means like email and chartrooms
3.Transaction function – putting good into shopping car and buy online
4.Infrastructure function – Development of computer network and protocols
I think the transaction function will increase in importance. The information function and communication function is already used widely by the public. They go to the web site to find specific information of the products they want to buy, contact the company in case of inquiries. However, the transaction function is still seldom used by people. Due to reasons like insecurity, unfamiliarity, long delivery time, people are reluctant to buy online. But with the advancement of payment method like verified by visa and better handling process, the transaction process, I believe, will become more important in the future of marketing.
How can you start innovation and how can you control it?
Personally, I think there are two types of innovations.
1.A completely new innovation
2.A innovation improving the existing products e.g. adding a new feature
To start a new innovation, it is always a group of people sitting together for a brainstorming. It can be realistic or infeasible. But they just create a list of ideas for further discussion. Next, they will look at every option carefully to look at the feasibility and profitability (we are businessmen so we do need to make a profit out of the new innovation.
After that, we will do a prototype of the product to see if there is anything for improvement. If the product is fine, then we will conduct a market test, testing the market acceptance to the inventions. If all the steps are finished and good, then the innovation will be release into the market and a marketing strategy is formulated
What is the future of marketing?
When it come to the future of marketing, I think it should be a general picture of what the marketing should be in the coming 30 or 40 years. I think it would be a world where we put a lot of emphasis on customer-oriented, if not network-oriented, marketing with a massive use of the Internet as medium of communication.
Traditional advertising, like billboards, magazine, radio broadcast will decrease in importance because they are costly and magazine and radio are no longer popular as the 70s or 80s. Unlike most of the Internet marketing tools, they are mass advertising where some part of the coverage is wasted. They are probably not your target.
With the use of the Internet, the marketing/promotional tools can be made more personalized and direct to the target customers. For the future of marketing, we can surely observe a greater use of the Internet to communicate with the (potential) customers.
I finally get a new phone number. I signed a contract with Ben. This is a very cheap telephone company Clement introduced to us. Only 2.5 euro for 75 minutes. (this is of course far below HK's standard in terms of price and plan) Add my new phone number! +316-4292 3868
3 rd October. A great day for me to meet a very kind CU alumni and his family. Jacky and me went to Mr Leung's home to celebrate the mid-autumn festival. The Leung's fa,ily lived in a town near Einhoven. (This is the base of the famous football team Einhoven as well)
Jacky and me were the first group to arrive there. And we have a nice chat with the Leung's family. Mr Leung was an management trainee in Hong Kong, and later sent to Holland to work for a few years. (Big company usually do this to train a senior)After years of training, Mr Leung did not return back to Hong Kong for a better career prospect. Instead, he chose to stay in Holland becasue of the church.
We talk a lot about the tax system of Holland. That is quite horrible. I list some of the statisitcs here: 1. Holland adopts a progressive tax system, starting from 30%. 2. In Holland, if you buy food, a 6% sales tax is imposed. If you buy other stuff such as clothes, a 19% sales tax is imposed.
Mr Leung paid half of his salary to the government. Holland is a welface society! Ever university student can get a free travel card on weekdays/ weekends. The unemployment assistance is also a great amount comapring to the Hong Kong's one.
At night, Sam came too. He was QFN from Maastricht, a student city. Then Mr Leung explained a lot of history about Holland and WW2 to us. Holland used to be a powerful country in the past(15, 16 century) It had colonies in Taiwan. And its ships are the fastest trade ships at that time. Holland also established New Armsterdam city in US, which is now the New York City. It is hard to believe this!
There is special history about Einhoven too. It used to be a battlefield during the WW2. And the famous War of Market Garden happened here. So till now, there is still memorial functions here.Mr Leung provoked me something about traveling: we should really do some research before going to visit any place. Otherwise, they will just some buildings meaningless to you.
Einhoven Church
Vanabbe Museum
This is the only one artistic stuff I can fully understand. I like this.
If you want to know about the history of Peace Palace, visit here
Binnenhof (會議廳)
Ridderzaal (騎士樓)
Old City Hall
林蔭大道
Gorilla Bokito
