More Posts to Come

5/16/11 (From Detroit)

Yes, I'm back home but I have a few more posts typed up that I will upload within the next week or two. I just have to download a bunch a pictures and get caught up on some things around here before I can get to it. The posts will include some interesting stuff that might be worth checking out. Thanks for following along.

Tunghai University

5/7/11 – 6:00 pm (From Taipei)

Also in Taichung was our final university visit. Tunghai has a large beautiful campus with about 17,000 students. My professor, Dr. Peng, attended Tanghai for his undergraduate degree. One of the professors, who has lived in Taiwan for the past 20-some years but is originally from New Jersey, gave a presentation on the history of Taiwan and its current status. The presentation was well done and clarified some confusing topics. Why is there so much Japanese influence in Taiwan? That one’s easy; Taiwan became a Japanese colony for 50 years, between 1895 and 1945, after China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. Is Taiwan its own country or is it part of China? Taiwan has its own leadership, currency, and flag, but Taiwan is officially known as Taiwan ROC (Republic of China). Are the people Taiwanese or Chinese? Those ones are much more difficult to explain. There is a lot of ambiguity with those subjects. The professor also discussed the rest of the world’s image of Taiwan. Many do not know anything about Taiwan and many have an inaccurate perception of the country.

In the background is a church
designed by the famous Chinese-American
architect I.M. Pei.
Yes, there is a church on campus.

Before hitting the road back to Taipei, we toured the Central Taiwan Science Park. It is an industrial park that is owned by the government. Many high tech companies lease the land from the government in this park, including Dow. The six major industries in the park are Integrated Circuits, Precision Machinery, Computers and Peripherals, Biotechnology, Optoelectronics, and Solar Energy. The companies in the park are responsible for some very advanced technology and products. Many people think Taiwan consists of only OEMs and assembly plants. The Science Park is evidence that Taiwan is very strong in R&D (Research and Development). There are several other parks like this in other areas of Taiwan.

The Service

5/13/11 – 11:00 am (From Taipei)

The restaurant service here is very different to what we are use to. It is the same when a traditional 10 or 12 course meal is served (large portions are brought out one at a time and everyone digs in), but not the same when everyone orders individually. In America we walk into a restaurant, sit down, and immediately someone comes over to take drink orders. Drinks are brought within a couple of minutes and everyone drinks and talks while they look through the food menu. Not here. They give you some time to look through the menu, then take your food order. If you don’t tell them you want something to drink at that time they will come back later for a drink order. Sometimes your drink will come after your food. We have been frustrated because we would order a beer and it would come 15 to 20 minutes later. This seems to be acceptable here. Not sure if it is related, but there is a 10% service charge added to every food bill. No tipping at all, for anything in this country. Another thing that is odd is how/when the food is served. As the dishes are ready they serve them, individually and not all at once. So my plate may come and I have to start eating without you because your plate may not come for another 15 minutes, even though we placed our order at the same time. It is not uncommon for some people to be done eating before the food arrives for others at the same table. I’m not sure if the Taiwanese realize how much they are loosing in sales by making people wait to get their booze. The servers are very nice and polite, but I am spoiled in America and look forward to American service again.

KPMG and Taipei 101

5/7/11 – 7:00 pm (From Taipei)

KPMG is a global company that provides professional services, mainly financial. They are one of the big four. KPMG operates in 146 countries and employs approximately 140,000 employees. Their world headquarters is in Amsterdam. Their Taipei office is located in Taipei 101, which up until last year was the tallest building in the world. It is a beautiful building inside and out. It is occupied by world leading companies and filled with the best brand-name stores in the world. Rolex, Gucci, Cartier, Armani, etc. Many Americans don’t realize it, but Taiwan has a lot of wealthy people. The government district of Taipei is different from the surrounding areas that we have been visiting. It is much more modern and spread out like a typical western city. Our visit to KPMG in 101 gave us a view from the 68th floor, which allowed us to see across the city for miles in all directions. Not only do the employees get a great view in a beautiful building, but they also have access to several amenities. Besides the shops and restaurants on the lower level of the building, KPMG has its own café and massage service, to name just a couple. They want to hire the best and retain their employees, so they create a very attractive work environment. The work environment also makes life a little easier for the employees that work long hours.

The government district: Government offices, the best
shopping, businesses, and American chain restaurants.

A long ways up

From the 68th floor. There are 101 floors above grade,
hence the name Taipei 101.

The conference room where we met. Nice view.

For Dusty

Above the clouds

The Food

I have had some interesting food. Some things I like (such as sushi and cooked seafood) and some things that I don’t (such as ox intestine). That was a mistake. Some people here think eating the body parts of animals is healthy for that part of your own body. Eating intestine will prevent intestinal cancer. Eating monkey brains will make you smart. I’ll let you guess why the men eat ox penis.

A popular food with the locals is Stinky Tofu. They love it. They admit it smells bad, but think it tastes great. They say you can’t come to Taiwan without trying the Stinky Tofu. I would recommend you don’t and just say you did. I took one bite and had a very hard time getting it down. It tastes as bad as it smells. A lot of the food, especially at the night markets, smells bad. There is a lot of unidentifiable raw food that looks like guts. The sushi and cooked seafood I can handle, but when I need a break from that I resort back to the good old American food. With a little bit of searching you can find a Pizza Hut, KFC, Domino’s, Subway, Burger King, and of course McDonalds. 

Sushi Bar

What is that?

The local beer is not very good. Fortunately
you can at least find Heineken wherever you go.

Sweet & Sour fish. Actually pretty good.

I'm begging you; please don't eat me.

Chicken sandwich from McDonalds. Most of their chicken
here is dark meat.

Very fresh seafood

Typical 12 course Taiwanese meal

Much of their food contains eyeballs

Asia University

5/7/11 – 1:00 pm (From Taipei)

I’m back in Taipei, but before we left Taichung we visited another university. Asia University is a new university. It is only nine years old and has a beautiful campus. Hands down the warmest welcome we have received. From the second we stepped off the bus they treated us like rock stars. It was evident that they were anxious for our arrival and put a lot of time and effort into the preparation. We learned about their university, took a tour of the campus, and then did some cultural activities.

Later on that night the students took us to a local night market. Night markets are the big thing around here. Back in the States we go out to restaurants and then the bars to get our social fix. In Taiwan everyone goes to the night markets to shop, eat, and socialize. They are open from dark until around 2 am. They are extremely busy and crowded. Visiting the universities has been a great experience. The students teach us a lot about life in Taiwan and, because they are business students, we get to compare American and Taiwanese business, leadership, government, economics, etc.

Lots of food at the night market.
Most of it smells very bad.

The place to be

National Taiwan Normal University

5/6/11 – 7:00 pm (From Taichung)

Our second university visit was to National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). Again we were able to sit in on a class, which was taught in English. This was an MBA class that focused on marketing. Again the material was no different than what I have been studying and it was presented in a familiar way. I really enjoyed the professor. He was very knowledgeable and interacted well with the students, although the Taiwanese students did not interact a lot. They seemed a little shy and hesitant to speak up. Three of us from the U of M group are MBA students (the rest are undergraduate students) so we were familiar with the material and got the dialog started. We did most of the talking, but I do not think that was a result of us knowing the material and the Taiwanese students not. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Taiwanese people are very humble. When they speak to us in English they tend to get a little embarrassed because they do not speak it perfectly. We think most of them speak English very well and we are able to communicate with them with little problem, yet sometimes they tend to be reserved like they were in class that day. After class we had lunch with the students and they really opened up. They turned out to be a lot of fun and we learned a lot from them. 

To give you an idea of how some of them feel about their English: I talked to one girl, Connie, all through lunch. She was very friendly and we talked nonstop for an hour. She spoke English well and had little to no problem communicating with me. Towards the end of lunch she asked me if I spoke any other languages. Of course I said no, and asked her how many she knew. She said “Two; Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese.” I asked “What about English?” She got a little embarrassed and said, “No, I do not speak English very well.

The second half of our time at NTNU was spent listing to a presentation by the marketing director of ASUS, a Taiwanese computer company. She was very sharp. It was evident that their marketing strategies are very similar to the ones we are familiar with on our side of the world. I was not familiar with ASUS before the presentation, but I got the impression that it is a leader in technology. Computers, computer components, etc. This presentation was one experience (one of many on this trip) that is leading me to change my impression of Taiwan, Taiwanese businesses, and Taiwanese products.

It is customary to exchange gifts when meeting

Tamkang University

5/6/11 – 6:00 pm (From Taichung)

Earlier in the week we made our first university visit. It was to Tamkang University (TKU) just outside of Taipei. The university has about 28,000 students and a very beautiful campus. Besides touring the campus and learning about the schools history, we were able sit in on an international business class. The class was taught in English, as are most of the other classes at the university, so we were able to participate. We started with a presentation/lecture by the professor and then broke up into groups with the Taiwanese students to solve a case problem and give a short presentation. The lesson focused on hedging risks. It was a great experience and answered several questions I had. Do they learn the same stuff we do? Are the classes structured the same way? Are they smarter than us? I was a little relieved to find out they study the same material I have been studying, the material was presented in the same manner, and the students needed my help to answer the questions. A super friendly and helpful group of students and faculty. One of the students is Echo (see earlier post below).

Living in a Barbie World

5/6/11 – 9:30 am (From Taichung)

Earlier in the trip we visited the Meining Workshop, Inc. It is located in Taishan Township (in Taipei County). In 1959 Mettel began producing Barbie and in 1966 opened the Taishan factory to make the very popular dolls and their clothes. In the 1960’s and 70’s the plant employed one third of Taishan’s population. It was definitely a Barbie town and the employees loved their jobs. Barbie became a part of the town, a part of the culture, and a part of the workers. In 1987 Mattel relocated its productions to cheaper locations, such as mainland China, and Taishan was devastated.

Much of Taishan was left unemployed, but still maintained the skills of making the doll clothing. For the former workers, making the outfits was a labor of love which is why they are preserving the Barbie memory by making exquisite dresses for the popular doll. The Meining Workshop hopes the sale of the dresses continues to grow and creates more opportunities for Taishan.  

What impressed me most about the Meining Workshop was the organizational culture and citizenship. Can you think of an example that illustrates a stronger commitment? In this case the dress makers loved their jobs and took pride in what they did. When Mattel left, they took it upon themselves to start their own operation and continue a business that brought them so much joy and a strong community bond.     

My daughter, Isabella, loves Barbies and is going to be very jealous of my visit. I wish I would have been able to purchase one of the beautiful dresses for her Barbies, but they are very elegant and I don’t think one would survive the suitcase ride to the other side of the planet.

The Taiwanese People

5/5/11 – 10:00 am (From Taichung)

I am way behind on my posts. It’s been hard to keep up because we have had some long days and now we are moving around. We are working our way down the west coast of the island nation. We have been meeting a lot of Taiwanese people at businesses and universities. Based on my experience so far, this is how I would describe them:

  

Friendly

Hospitable

Intelligent

HUMBLE

One of my new friends.
His English name is Echo.
I cannot pronounce his Chinese name.
Most other Taiwanese have more typical English
names, such as Frank, Sam, Amanda, Connie, etc.

More detailed posts to come about the places we’ve visited and the people we’ve meet. I just need to find the time and energy!

Holy Scooters!

5/4/11 – 8:00 am (From Taipei) 

Now I know why we don’t see many scooters (mopeds) in North America. It’s because they have almost all of them in Taiwan. The streets here are very narrow, traffic is congested, and there is very limited parking space. All of these factors make it convenient to have one, which is why 90% of the families in Taiwan own at least one scooter. The population of Taiwan is about 23 million and there are around 12 million scooters. Taiwan has the highest concentration of scooters in the world. I’ve seen men and women in business suits heading to work on scooters as well as a few children riding with their mom and/or dad. Although much of Taipei moves by way of scooters, I think even more commuting is done by bus and light rail (subway). They have bullet trains too, which I think I will be riding on before this trip is over.

Look close. That is a sea of scooters.
It is like this everywhere you look.

More scooters

Pizza via scooter

Look out!

Check out more photos of Taipei: Photos

Finally In Taiwan

5/1/11 – 11:00 pm (From Taipei)

I left Detroit on Wednesday and arrived at my final destination Friday night around midnight. Taipei is a little more of what I expected in an Asian metropolis. Very crowded and rich with culture. You can compare the pictures to the ones of Tokyo…..

Finally

View out of my hotel window.

Typical building

Street shopping can be a little crowded

More Photos

5/3/11 – 6:30 am (From Taipei)

I will try to include one or two pictures in my posts, the rest I will make available on my "Photos" page (see link at the top of this page/blog). You can click on a picture to see it larger if you would like.

I have been visiting some very cool places the last couple of days and I have some blog posts to catch up on, but as I said before I am very busy during the day and evening and by the time I get back to my room all I want to do is go to bed. Jet lag is still kicking my butt.

I was able to watch the news on CNN for a little bit last night. There is a travel warning now for Americans, but I am okay in Taiwan and Japan.

Go to my "Photos" page to view more pictures of Tokyo (just posted) and be sure to continue checking out that page each time I make a new post.

A Day In Tokyo

5/1/11 – 10:00 pm (From Taipei)

It has been a couple of days since I left Tokyo, but I have been so busy and tired that I have not been able to keep up with my posts. Tokyo was very nice, but not what I expected. It was a lot like many American cities. There were a few places where the Japanese culture was evident, but besides that it was very westernized. The buildings were not crammed in as much as I thought they would be and the streets were not crowded, although I think that had to do with the fact that Japan was on a national holiday. It was the cleanest place I have ever been and the people were very friendly. I wish I would have had more time to see other parts of Japan where the culture is more evident, but I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to at least hang out in Tokyo for a day and night.

Stranded in Tokyo with Pat and Josh

View outside my hotel room in Tokyo; or is it Minnesota?

Disney - Tokyo

BigEcho. Karaoke is very popular.

Millions of bikers. Most with baskets.

Didn't see any American cars, but apparently we make bikes.
Yes, that is a Chevrolet....with the bow tie.

Typical architecture in Tokyo

Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Closed for the holiday.

From the tour bus

Miles of shopping malls under the city streets

 One of the entrances to the Imperial Palace.

Beautiful compound with beautiful gardens.

Nice architecture, but not a lot of it

A lot of new construction and train stations

Unique restaurants here and there