"Survived Thanks to Korean Choco Pie"...How a Vietnamese University Student Endured 37 Hours Stranded

It has been reported that a university student who was stranded in the mountains of Vietnam survived by eating Choco Pie and drinking stream water until he was rescued.

When the response "snack for survival" came up locally in Vietnam, Orion Vietnam Corporation reflected this and posted a promotional photo on its Facebook page. Screenshot of Orion Vietnam Corporation's Facebook page

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Recently, local Vietnamese media outlets, including VN Express, reported on an incident involving Nguyen Tuan, a 19-year-old student at Dai Nam University in Hanoi, who went hiking on Tam Dao Mountain with friends on the 19th and became stranded.

Tuan began the hike with a group of ten people, including a guide, and reached the 1,592-meter summit after seven hours. The group began their descent at 2 p.m., but with no prior hiking experience, Tuan became exhausted from the heat, stopped to rest, and became separated from the group. He assumed there was only one path down and continued, but contrary to his expectations, the path ended, night fell, and thick fog set in. Tam Dao, a highland region located 90 kilometers northeast of Hanoi, is known as a summer resort in Vietnam because of its cool weather and is also famous for its persistent fog all year round.

He stopped moving and waited for rescue under a rock near a stream. He survived by eating the Choco Pie he had with him and drinking stream water.

When the group realized Tuan had not returned, they reported his disappearance to the police at 6 p.m. that day. Hundreds of rescuers, including police, military, and militia, formed a search team to look for Tuan. At around 7:15 a.m. on the 21st, the search team found him while calling his name along the stream. At that point, 37 hours had passed since he went missing.

Although Tuan was exhausted, it was reported that he was otherwise in good health. As news spread that a university student who had gone missing on Tam Dao Mountain was safely rescued after surviving on Korean Choco Pie, Vietnamese consumers reacted by calling it a "snack that aided survival."

On April 24, Orion Vietnam Corporation visited Tuan and provided him with six boxes of its products, including the new strawberry-flavored Choco Pie, Custas (known as Castard in Korea), Goute (Gosomi), and Tayo (Oh!Gamja). Tuan expressed his delight, saying he enjoys Orion products even in his everyday life.

Orion's Choco Pie was first introduced in Vietnam in 1995. Since then, it has established itself in the market by launching a variety of flavors tailored to local tastes, such as watermelon, cherry blossom, and dark chocolate, and now holds a 70% share of the Vietnamese pie market. Orion's marketing in Vietnam uses the word "Tinh," which means affection, and it is reported that Choco Pie has become a customary offering on family altars or a gift exchanged during holidays. Last year, annual sales of Choco Pie in Vietnam surpassed KRW 130 billion for the first time, and cumulative sales since its launch have reached KRW 1.13 trillion.

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