Today our morning started very early, leaving the hotel at 7:00am for a two and a half hour ride to the Giant Bicycle headquarters here in Taiwan. We toured the onsight factory and got to learn about the Giant Bicycle business plan. The company itself is trying to integrate bicycles into the daily lives of everyone across the world. I personally feel like their mission is a good one. Particularly in the US, I feel that using bicycles more would benefit society. Furthermore, we learned that Giant Bicycle is the world's leading producer of bicycles. Ohh another interesting fact is that the president of the company toured Taiwan on a bicycle. Furthermore, the President of the Giant Bicycle company is currently riding a bicycle from Hong Kong to Shanghai this week.
It is really interesting to see someone living their dream through their company's ideals. Also, we learned a lot about the bikes produced by Giant. Their major parts suppliers include Shimano, Schram, and a couple of others. Giant exports both bike frames and accessories as well as bicycles. They have their own brand name bikes as well as parts and bikes sold under different brand names. Currently, 70% of the bikes made by giant are under their own brand name. Also, Giant's belief in being the one bike solution has led them to selling bicycle apparel as well. Giant currently has thousands of independent dealers across the entire globe. 
God, I look fat in this picture.
After our visit to the Giant Bike head quarters, we went to an authentic chinese style lunch. Let me start by saying this was the most impressive lunch I have ever seen. First and foremost, the food was fantastic. Secondly, they just keep bringing out courses of food until everyone is finished. Being finished entails a clean plate that does not get refilled. They take away dirty plates after they have been used. There were all different kinds of foods. I really wish I had thought to take some pictures of the food iteself, but when you are hungry, you are more concerned with getting the food in you than taking a picture of it. After our meal, we toured a local winery. We got to see how the grapes are grown, processed, and made into wine. We also, got to sample the wine as well the grape juice that is made here. This particular stop was a very short one, but it was really nice to see the local businesses and how they are working.
I almost forgot, before our visit to the Winery, we went to a local Saxophone makers. This company makes saxophones in Taiwan. They are neither a large company, nor are they the leading comapny in the global market, but they are breaking into the world market. In the picture is the daughter of the current store onwer/crafter and she is the fourth generation of saxophone players/makers for this company.
This Our next stop was a local orchid garden and sales business. They had a variety of different kinds of flowers and I took plenty of pictures of them so everyone can see the variety and different kinds of flowers that they had for sale. I was amazed by the variety and beauty of all the flowers. I am not going to post any of my award winning flower pictures on this site. If you want to see those then you will have to ask.
After a brief break for dinner, we went to a "love" hotel. While this had nothing to do with business, well I suppose you could have a business meeting in one, it had a lot to do with the culture. Of course we did not use the hotel for it's purpose, it made a great place to have dinner, karaoke, and just have some fun. I think it is a great view of one of the many differences between our culture and the asian culture. You would never see something like this in the States. That reason in and of itself is why we went to see this. I have plenty of pictures of this. This is the dream of a luxury hotel (yes it is designed for couples and their "needs"). After we spent some time there we came back to the hotel for the night. Got a short day tomorrow, so I should be able to get caught up on logs then.
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