Belgium trip to Antwerpen, Brugge and Gent

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.

Brugge

Bruges has most of its medieval architecture intact. The historic centre of Bruges has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.

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.

Interesting! Applicaiton of "Hae"

假如我hea
10月7日 星期三 07:10 余若薇

金管局總裁任志剛10月離任前，在電台周末節目中，主持人問他﹕「退休後點hea?」他說：「我都唔知乜叫做hea，所以要學吓。但今朝星期六，好似懶洋洋咁，我諗呢啲係hea的感覺。」

任總不是講風涼話，熱愛工作的人就算有條件hea，都未必識得hea。

在我心目中，hea不是整天大覺瞓，醒來吃，吃完睡，不動腦筋不動骨頭，這種生活不會開心，是白活了。hea是一個超然境界，能夠不徐不疾地過每一天，不是中環 心情而是米埔 心情，悠閒地做自己喜歡的事情，不必趕着開始做，又不必趕着完成它，今天不做明天做又可以，而過程中即使是等待過程中每分鐘都是享受，都感到心靈充實。不容易的。

So funny. Even professionals and legislative council member will use the word "Hae" to describe thier lives. It is such a popular word!

劉遵義讚高錕對中大有貢獻
(星島)2009年10月7日 星期三 15:14

中大為慶祝前校長高錕獲得諾貝爾物理學獎，下午舉行慶祝會。現任校長劉遵義 讚揚高錕對中大有很大貢獻，並指他獲得諾貝爾獎 是對他的成就有很大的認同。

劉遵義致辭時表示，對高錕很佩服，常向他請教，文字言語難以說出對高錕教授的尊敬，對他獲獎感到非常高興，並指其成就無論在中文大學、在香港，甚至全國，所有的華人都分享到這份喜悅。他指，可惜高錕夫婦現時不在香港，希望他們日後回港能再與中大師生慶祝。

劉遵義又表示，高錕為中大電子系的創系主任，87年出任校長，他指中大有現時的成就，必須歸功於高錕。

Congratulation to Charles Kao!

My E-marketing exam! Ha. Don't know what result I will get...

E-marketing Test

Name: Lee Lai Kit

Student ID: 334722

Internet will make physical shops obsolete!

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.

Unlucky things happened on me again

I cannot get my discount card for the train!
I need to go to Central Station to ask about this again!

My new phone number

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

A great night at Mr Leung's place

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.

Hae-ing in Clment place

It is my first time to stay awake overnight for just playing lol.
Usually only projects and homework made me stay awake, not going to sleep.
We play a lot of games in Clement's place.
We soon finished all the alcohol and drinks becasue of 辣辣壽司...
Very interesting to play with Laura Hui Tze and Gloria becasue they did not know Cantonese.

Then I went back home for packaging, not allowing me to sleep for a while.
And then I did some "fishing" in lesson becasue of lacking in sleep.

My new address now becomes:
Struisenburgdwarsstraat 75/2 3063 BS ROTTERDAM

I am also getting my phone card on Mon finally. Thanks Clement.