Day 4 in Taiwan...

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.

Day 3 in Taiwan ...

Our first visit today consisted of going to the ceramics museum for learning how to craft pottery and to look at the Taiwanese style of craftsmanship. We got to the ceramics museum, however, and it was closed. Fortunately for us, Dr. Chen found another place we could do ceramics so we spent some time there and made our own pottery which we get to bring home. Sorry, no one will see it till I bring it home.

We also took some time to tour the local shops in the area and buy some souvenirs. There were so many things that I wanted to buy, but seeing as how funds are limited and it is early in the trip I reframed from buying much. I do plan on trying to get some souvenirs from everyone though. The area where we were was very pretty. I just remember thinking how different it is from the US here. It is different in a good way though. All the shop keepers can either speak English or work with you to overcome the language barrier. Most of all, all the people I have interacted with are very friendly.

Finally after lunch and a little more shopping around the local markets, we went to our final destination for the day. Our last stop on our third day was the spa. The Spa was so nice. It had recreated hot spring and multiple soaking pools which ranged in temperature from 12C up to something god aweful hot. I liked the hot ones more than anything. They also had several pools with different types of water such as salt water and highly oxygenated water which are supposed to be really good for the skin. They also had massaging showers, a sauna, and a steam room. I had to try everything out including a five minute dip in the 12C water, now that is cold. I did get an applause from the locals at the spa for my 5 minute dip in the cold water though. I was rather amused at this. It was so much fun. So far this has been my favorite part of the trip. It was absolutely amazing. You really don't see spas like this in America. There was more to the spa as well, they had a trail, climbing walls, and much more that we did not get to tour. The only sad part about this part of the trip is that wwe were not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the facility. It was so beautiful, a real shame that I cannot show anyone.

So I guess tomorrow we start our first company visit to Giant bicycles. We have a full day planned for tomorrow and I can't wait to see what all there is to see.

Day 2 in Taiwan...

Well, it is our second day here now, and it is still the most awesome thing I have ever done. As usual we started the day with breakfast and a meeting. He is a glimpse of where we meet.

Our first stop on today's adventure is an old gold mining town turned tourist attraction.

We drove about an hour and a half to get there. the town itself is located on the side of a huge mountain, and inside there were tons of little shops with food and souvenirs. I tried some fried squid dumplings on a stick while I was there ( think they call it tokuyaki). They were actually quite good. Any way, the view up in the mountains of taiwan is just incredible. I can't believe how beautiful it i sout here. All I can say it that the pictures do not do it justice, you have to see it in person.

After leaving the previously mentioned area, we traveled to the beach. Once at the beach we took a bicycle ride. The Bicycle ride was amazing. We went like 2km then came to a tunnel which was probably 1.5km or so in length. The tunnel was nice. It was cool and flat inside, perfect for bike riding. Unfortunately I did not get any good pictures in the tunnel itself, but I did get one at the end of the bike trail.

I kind of got so wrapped up in the trip that I forgot to take many pictures. Ohh, I almost forgot. Dr. Chen ordered us traditional chineese lunches which consisted of rice, cabbage, a tea boiled egg, seaweed, and pork. It was very tasty. Any way, after the bike ride we went down to the ocean front and had tons of fun. We played volleyball with some of the locals. Stupid me managed to Jam my thumb and it is now bruised from top to bottom, but otherwise okay. I also took some time to jump in the water, so now I can say that I have been in the Pacific Ocean as well as the Atlantic.

After returning from the beach we went to a local japanese style resterant and the food was delicious.

This pretty much sums up my day. Early to bed and up at 5:30 am the next.

Taiwan Day 1 (cont'd)....

Following up on our tour of the Museum, we had some time to get some pictures of the areas we went so I thought I might share a few. Here are some photos from inside.

Also, I mentioned that we had tea with several members of one of the local charity organizations. I have never been a huge tea person for various reasons but the tea here is so much better than that found in the US. Any way, here is a picture of the tea and snacks we had. Also, if you are a food buff like I am, this place has been nothing but heaven. There are so many foods that are extremely different from the US. I guess my next goal is to find a local cookbook in english.

Any way, Moving on... Later after we finished these activities we all went out and had lunch. I will post some of these pictures as well as the rest that you haven't seen on Facebook at some point when I get a chance. Ohh, I almost forgot, we learned to use the local subway and bus systems here in Taipei. The subway is fairly easy to use, but you had best be quick getting on and off at the correct stops. The subway is all color coded so it isn't hard to find out where you need to go and which one you need to transfer to. The bus system is a little harder, not to mention the bus rides are a little roughter on the body. Haha, and I thought that people in the US drove rough. Either way it has all still been a very good experience. Also, a lot of people around here drive motor scooters. You really don't see as many cars as you do scooters and public transit. Ohh yeah, here is a picture of us at lunch.

Later that afternoon we went to the Chinese history museum. I cannot recall the exact name. There was so much to see though. It had ton of chinese history heirlooms dating back from pre 1600 BC all the way up to the current era. It is amazing at some of the things there. Sadly though, we were not allowed to take pictures there. I did get some pictures of the outside of the building though. I am not really going to post any of those pictures on here but they will be availble on face book and I have them on my computer. I did however want to post this one picture because it was so neat. Lastly we went to the Ny market. It is a HUGE open area market that has just about everything that you can imagine. It is like a Huge flea market. After that we all went home and CRASHED!!! I think that everyone was dead tired including me, granted I think that the time difference and so forth has affected me less than most everyone else.

The First Day...

Well, it is our first day here. The funny thing is that I woke up at 5:30 am on my own. It is actually nice to wake up early in the morning. Just FYI for the readers of this, my posting is a little behind at the moment so I will do my best to get caught up over the next few days.

I got my first exposure to the native breakfast, and I must say I like it much better than American breakfasts. Breakfast consisted of a boiled egg, and tuna salad, very tasty, with grapefruit juice. None of the greasy american foods. The cafe where we get our breakfast is about a block away and we have our meetings there every morning. Our first event, was to get a japanese make over. It was just a picture studio where we got dressed up in asian attire and had our pictures made. There will be pictures coming back for all of those that wish to see them.

In this picture Dr. Fox (the tall one) and Dr. Chen (the short one) are dressed in some of the picture attire. If you want to see mine you will have to wait until I get the pictures themselves seeing as how taking pictures of self in costume is rather difficult. We are supposed to get our pictures on Monday so I will post a picture of a picture then. Also, in the second picture here is Charles (left), my roomie for this trip. Also, here are some pictures or two that I got of some of the other students dressed in their asian attire (right).

Next we visited the central park with a theatre, with a museum, and a concert hall. There was actually a big event for one of the major charity organization in Taiwan going on when we arrived. We got a tour of the area with the charity organization as well as having tea with them. Also, several of our group got interviewed and videoed. Here are a couple of pictures from the park. I will finish the tails of our first day in my next post, but in the mean time, we are off to dinner. Yay, food !!!! I love the food here.

Arrival in TaiPei....

Well, we got here. The travel was 2 hours from Boone to Charlotte via bus beginning at 4:30am.

Of course, here we are at 4:30 am heading out. Don't we all look so awake and ready to roll.

Ahh, Charlotte-Douglas Airport at last. I kind of forgot to take a picture while we were here but I guess it isn't that big of a deal since it is just a local airport. Any way, continueing on with the story about the travel. The departure from Charlotte-Douglas was at 9:00am est. This leg of the trip was very quiet. I didn't really have much to say about this other than I had to pee for like three hours while on the plane.

To the left is a picture of us on the monorail at Dallas-Fortworth International Airport. It is hard to believe just how big this airport was.

From Dallas-Fortworth, we took a 13 and a half hour flight to Nairita international airpot in Tokyo. It was really interesting the difference in the size of plane we took. Our first plane had less than 100 people on it but the one we took from Dallas was huge. I think they said a 770 or something like that. Any way, there were just over 220 passengers on this flight.

Once we landed in Tokyo, we were all screened to make sure we weren't carrying the Swine Flu over to Japan. As you can see to the left we were screened with a thermal imaging camera to check for fever. We were also given surveys to fill out to check for illness prior to getting on the flight.

After we arrived in Tokyo we had a three hour layover then we departed for Taipei, another 3 hour flight. Turns out the layover was a really good thing, because we got quaranteened on the plane for about 30-40 minutes. It would seem that one of the passengers about four rows behind me, was sick. The Japanese officials gave him a quick blood screening on the plane and then we had to wait to find out the results. Obviously, since I am not in quaranteen in Tokyo, he came up negative, but still it was a big scare. It was also, really funny because had we been quaranteened, half the class wouldn't have been, but the professors and myself and few others would have been stuck in Tokyo for three days. I did take a couple of pictures for the screening process we went through. THe officials were really nice considering the circumstances of what they were having to perform.

To the left is Nairita International Airport. To the right is more of the screening process that we went through on the plane before they let us off the plane. To the bottom left is the shopping area/ food area in Nairita International airport. I know you can't tell from the picture, but can you believe that you buy anything just right out there in public. They had beer, liquor, food, gifts, magazines, books, etc all right there. Unlike America, people can just buy alcohol and drink it right there, even in the airport. I guess since it is more widely accepted and open in other countries that there aren't as many problems with it as there are in the US. I knew it was going to be like this , but to see it first hand was very impressive. All the people I met at the airport were so kind and didn't run you over trying to get to the next place they were going like in Charlotte. Ohh, before I forget,The funny thing to this story is that the very next day three Canadians were quaranteened at Nairita along with about 60 other people sitting near them for testing positive for the Swine Flu. I guess we got really lucky with only such a minor scare. Any way, moving on, We took a three hour connector flight from Nairita to Taiwan. Needless to say at this point, I really don't remember much more of this flight than the take off, landing and the random bits inbetween where I constantly woke up. I remember the food being really good on this flight thoguh. Turns out that airline food as a whole isn't as bad as I had heard it would be considering it is all basically microwaved.

After arriving in Taiwan we traveled another hour by bus to our hotel. Here is a picture of the inside of the bus we were taking. I must admit that most of our travel accomidations have been very nice to say the least. We are staying at the hotel flowers in TaiPei.

And here are a couple of pictures of our Hotel and my room. I share a room with Charles, but he is cool. He was in my Japanese class. I hope to get more posted soon. It may be a day or so behind what we are actually doing because loading up all the pictures and movies is taking a while. I hope that the process will go faster since I am getting more familiar with using this blog.

Almost There

Two more days ... not that I am counting or anything