Frist day of Eastern Taiwan Excursion (13/5/09)

We went on a three days excursion in Hualien, Eastern Taiwan. It takes about 2 hours to get their by the express train from Taipei to Hualien. On the train, we can see Pacific Ocean and mountainous views which are gorgeous.


After having lunch, we went to see Taroko National Park or Taroko Gorge. This is where torrents of river waters cut through the marble and granite over the years which create a beautiful, narrow ravine with waterfalls, complete with a misty mountain top. There are subtropical forests surround the gorge that enhances them to be more fresh and stunning.

Our first scenic spot was the Central Cross-Island Highway which was destroyed by the earthquake in 1999.

Then we arrived at Shakadang Trail where we had to hike about 40 minutes. This trail is built along the river cliff and travelers can easily observe the plants and rocks when they hike. There are some spots for ecologists to do research.

It was tough to hike and climb up the highest rock with flip-flop like me as it is very slippery and I made it.


After that we visited the Tunnel of Nine Turns trail and all visitors had to put on the helmet to protect their heads from falling rocks.

The view was awesome when you are in the middle of the mountain; you can look down to the deep chasm. The next spot is the Swallow Grotto. I didn’t see this one because I fell as sleep when I was on the bus and when I opened my eyes, everyone had left.


After this, we went to see Eternal Spring Shrine. This Eternal Spring Shrine was built to honor the 450 workers who died during the construction of Taiwan’s Central Cross-Island Highway in the 1950s. Our last stop was the sea side of Pacific Ocean. I didn’t go down to the sea because it is so windy and at that time, I am afraid of getting a cold.

We arrived at the hotel at around 6pm and decided to discover Hualien city at night. I was with other students to find McDonald’s or other places to eat dinner using the map given by the receptionist. We all stopped at 7 Eleven to buy some stuff when when we (me and Ellina) got out, everybody was left except Suyash. He told us he didn’t see other people when he got out also. So we decided to go back to the hotel because none of us had the map. One the way back, we stopped at a place where we see some pretty girls sitting outside. Suyash thought it was a bar so he wanted to go and check it out. It was so funny that when we came in, they said that girls, me and Ellina couldn’t get it and it costs around 8,000NT for a girl with free drinks for Suyash. We guess it is a guy entertainment place and they all look very creepy.

After getting a map from the hotel, the direction showed by the receptionists and Dr. Median, we started our trip. Ellina wanted to find the laundry place as Dr. Median said just go straight. We went straight and didn’t look at the map carefully. After finding the laundry place, we asked people on the street about McDonald’s and they told us to keep straight. We was walking on a very dark street and didn’t see any McDonald’s after around 40 minutes. We decided to ask some young Taiwanese sitting in a restaurant to help us. Finally, we made our way to McDonald’s in over 1 hour tiredly. We were a little bit upset because other people didn’t wait for us when we are clueless about the direction in this city.

Sitting at McDonald’s, I looked at the map again, tried to read the street’s labels and figured out that we walked way too far. We have gone through a big curve instead of a short line. We found out that McDonald’s is very close to the hotel and we should have turned right when we got out from the hotel. Anyway, we got back to the hotel using the short way safety. We were freaked out when walking for so long and couldn’t find McDonald’s and the street and people were looking at us like we are from a different planet. However, we enjoyed a long walking journey afterward even though it was tiring and I was so hungry at that time. I think it’s good to get lost because from there, figuring out the rite way back is a challenge that we all want to get through.

Another day in Taipei (12/5/2009)

This morning, we attended a lecture on Economic Development in Taiwan by Professor Chen of economic department at National Taipei University. We learned more about Taiwan’s Economic that Taiwan is a developed country and is one of High Performance Asian Economies. According to the data in 2007, Taiwan has a high GDP growth rate of 5.7%, low inflation of 1.8% and low unemployment rate of 3.9%. Here is the summary of some other things I have learned in the lecture:


GDP per capita equals GDP divides by the number of population. The reasons that make GDP per capita is so important are because this is the best single indicator for welfare measure and the people in the country with a high GDP per capita usually enjoy a better life. Differs to the US, Taiwan relies more on foreign demand as trade is very important to small open economy. Taiwan exports are higher than imports because they sell more to the foreigners than they buy from them. They have a high trade surplus and their trade partners include USA, China, Europe, Japan and others. The strategy for economic growth is import substituting where industrialization was a trade policy adopted by many low and middle income countries before the 1980s. The policy aimed to encourage domestic industries by limiting imports. Therefore, this will raises tariff or impose quota on imported goods. Normally their prices can be double the original ones after tax.

Moreover, I know that a lot of goods are made in Taiwan such as dry food, candies, clothes, electronics …Some of the highly recognized global brands have their products manufacturing in Asia, Africa or South America. They need to minimize manufacturing cost for raw materials and labors. This is why nowadays, we have a lot of multi-national companies, they try to globalize. By investing oversea in developing countries, they have the benefit of lowering material and labor cost and also spread out their names on the globe.

We received our certificates from National Taipei University:


After having lunch at McDonald’s, we visited the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei. This is a non-profit and non-partisan business organization in order to promote the interests of international business in the Republic of China.

Over 50 years, AmCham has become the largest and the most effective business organization in Taiwan. Their mission is that the cooperation itself “fosters the development of investment and trade between the United States and Taiwan, and it seeks to enhance Taiwan's economic environment by promoting the adoption of international business standards in the areas of legislation, regulations, and enforcement." Some of the core values including Private Enterprise, Rule of Law, Free Trade, Ethical & Responsible Business Practices, Transparency and the Free Flow of Information. In addition, their objectives are “to represent AmCham's diverse membership on issues of common interest, to provide a forum for networking and access to information, to serve as a trusted and influential advocate with government, to encourage civic-minded participation in the greater Taiwan community and to promote the Chamber's core values.”

In the afternoon, we visited Tamsui Campus of Tamkang University where many of my old Taiwanese friends attend college. This is a very nice university with a numerous of students including locals and international. All of us attended a lecture on “management” instructed by professor Jeng-yan Tsai with the students from Tamkang University. We were divided to 8 different groups and together, we discussed and answered the questions. My group has 5 Taiwanese students and 1 Brazilian one. It was very tough while communicating with them in English and they didn’t want to work on the questions so the Brazilian boy and I worked on the assignment. We wrote out all the answers but my group didn’t have to present. I think teamwork at that time wasn’t successful because some people didn’t want to contribute and interact with others.

After class, I went on a campus tour with Monzer and Ellina guided by some Tamkang University’s students. There were 5 of them and they were all very nice and enthusiastic. They showed us around the campus, the gym area, the garden and also the circle’s spot where you can hear the echo of your voice. Later in the evening, we went to Tamsui River Area to try some Taiwanese snacks. They are all so yummy such as the fried chicken, brown sugar cake, fried mushroom, plum juice, brown chewy egg…! I ate every single thing they showed as I always love food and trying new things. I enjoyed today a lot because I have a chance to blend myself deeper in Taiwanese culture and make good new friends.

A new week in Taipei has started (11/5/09)

I woke up early today and prepared for National Taipei University, Hsinchu Science Park and Elite Semiconductor company visits in business dress. All of us had a chance to watch some martial arts performances including San Da Self-defeat style, to learn Chinese calligraphy and a lecture on inventory management in Taiwan’s high tech firms. I like the martial arts performance because they showed us how to use an umbrella; a Coke can to be weapons for self-defense – which is extremely interesting to me as a girl.

Calligraphy is a type of visual art which uses black ink and a brush (at different sizes). I think we have calligraphy in most of scripted languages including Chinese, Japanese, ancient Vietnamese, Hindi and Arabic. I remember seeing a calligraphy artwork created by a Chinese artist which is quite different to the original one. I didn’t have a problem writing calligraphy because I can paint using brush and know how to control the brush stroke.

I really love attending cultural classes like this as I think that it is necessary to learn and respect all different cultures when we live in a multi-cultural environment. It is up to each individual to decide whether he or she should appreciate diversity in a global context, but I think a wise person will know that he must be tolerant toward other cultural values in order for humanities to exist in harmony. Understand about other cultures will help people to behave properly across cultural boundaries. No one can run a successful business today without knowing how to interact with different people from different culture or different race. This is essentially important to us as business students. Globalization led to cultural diffusion. People who resist that trend of diffusion will be left behind.


In the afternoon, we visited Hsinchu Science Park - one of the world’s most significant areas for semiconductor manufacturing. It was established to introduce high-tech industries, promote the upgrading of Taiwanese industries and balance regional development which all leads to national economic development. We watched the power point presentation on this Science Park and a tour to its small museum by a representative there. I was amazed by her English, which is very fluently spoken. The presentation was about the history, environment, services, industries, integrated circuits, computers and peripherals, telecommunication, optoelectronic, precision machinery, biotechnology and investments. This is a multinational science park which has branches in 4 different continent including Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.


One of the three branches in Asia is in Hanoi – the capital of Vietnam but I have never heard of it. It makes me curious and I have looked through the link http://vietnam.nsc.gov.tw of Science and Technology Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office. This is the liaison office of the National Science Council of Taiwan in Vietnam which were established on July, 2004, the division is currently headed by Dr. Wang Yu-lung and it provides services across ASEAN countries.

First Sunday in Taipei (10/5/2009)

Excitingly, we have arrived in Taipei last night after a long flight. This morning, we had a quick breakfast at Mos Burger. This fast-food brand is very famous in Taiwan. I wonder whether Taiwanese people prefer Mos Burger, KFC, Pizza Hut, 7 Eleven or Mc Donald’s – a famous name worldwide. I see that the food in 7 Eleven is pretty cheap but not as fresh as others. After breakfast, we walked to Chiang Kai-Chek Memorial Hall MRT station to take the train to Taipei 101 – the tallest building in the world.

The train system here is amazing and convenient; you can get to all the places with a very affordable price. We get on the red line train to go to Taipei Main Station and then change to the blue line toward Nangang – the last station. After 6 stops, we arrived at Taipei City Hall station. In Europe, I have tried the Metro system in Paris, in Asia, I have tried the MRT in Thailand, Singapore and this was my first time using the MRT train in Taiwan. They are pretty much similar, from the map – which is very easy to read, the speed – very fast…to the location of each station – easy to access as in downto

wn area. One different thing is that in Taipei, they use sensor plastic like coins which can be reusable compare to other paper tickets. All students enjoyed the train ride a lot. It was crowed at the Main Station because it is the main station that connects to other routes. There were a lot of people on the train, at all ages. All public transportation including train and bus, they have seats for seniors, pregnant women and disable people and we all should yield the seat for these people. That is why most of the time, I always stand on the train and bus, only when there was none of those people needs a seat, then it is my turn.

Due to the late bus schedule at 11:30, we decided to walk to Taipei 101. I have heard of this building as it took over the Shanghai World Financial Center in China(492m), the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpua (452m), Malaysia, Sears Tower (442m), Chicago or the World Trade Center, New York (417m) – which had destroyed by the terrorists in 2001, to be the tallest building recently in Asia and the world. Taipei 101 is 508 meters height and has the fastest elevators at 1,010 meters per minute, which means that it only take 37 seconds from the 5th to the 89th floor. This is super fast comparing to other towers that I have visited. It took around 90 seconds to get to the top of the Petronas Twin Tower and 50 seconds to the top of Eiffel Tower in Paris (325m).

I have read some facts about Taipei 101 which are amazingly interesting. It has the world’s biggest passive wind damper, with a diameter of 5.5 meters, weights 660 metric tons and was made at a cost of NT$132 million. It also has earthquake resistance, wind resistance, fire safety facilities…and emergency power supply. When we got to the 89 floor, each of us was given pre-recorded voice guides in English so we can discover the views from the top ourselves. We had lunch at the food court in Taipei 101 and drank bubble tea – my favorite drink ever! I wish there was bubble tea shop in Flint!

Later in the afternoon, we took the train and bus to National Palace Museum where has China’s treasures over 5,000 years.

In the evening, we visited Shilin night market. Oh my god, hundreds of people walking down the street. I was born and raised in Ho Chi Minh, a quite busy and crowded city in Vietnam, so I am pretty much used to the atmosphere, environment, culture and food. I already tried the stinky tofu in Hong Kong few years ago and I really like it. They have a unique smell which is not appealing to some people but the tofu itself is very yummy to me.

One highlight for today was that Suyash got lost when we were at Taipei 101 because he went through the elevator to go back down without noticing that he could not get back up. The second one was that “we” – Ellina, Fatima, Lauren and Monzer and myself, we got lost on the way back after arriving at our station. We got out at gate number 5 instead of 1. As a small change makes a big difference, it took us nearly an hour to get back to our hotel but the good things was we discovered more about the area where we live and we feel more confident when walking on Taipei street.

Gettin' ready for the trip tomorrow!!!!

Oh my god, time flies so fast! I remember watching the Taiwanese movie and Japanese manga, learning about their cultures in the orientation meetings last months and this time tomorrow i will be on the plane. I am so excited that I'm gonna be in Taiwan in about 2 days and Japan in 10 days.

I have started packing up and get ready for the trip. I learn some useful phrases in both Taiwanese and Japanese from the manual and online such as: hello, bye, how are you, thank you, numbers... I think this is some easy words that I can speak in normal conversations. I also read through the brochures that I got on the sight-seeing places that I am going to visit in order to know more about them before being there.

I have been to Taiwan but just transited at the airport, stayed in Narita - Japan for one night, transited also. So I can't wait to visit them again, to see other new places, can't wait to learn new cultures and make new friends. This is going to be a great trip for myself and other people.

I believe that all of us are going to have lots of fun and experiences from this coming trip!