Day 1, Sept 5 (Taoyuan, Taiwan)



Cihu Mausoleum



We arrived at Taoyuan International Airport.  There were six graduate students from Information Management faculty of National Chung Cheng University to welcome us.  During this 5-day Taiwan trip, they would help out for all the arrangements and made sure we were warmly hospitalized. 


On the first day of my trip "Business with Asia", we visited Cihu Mausoleum.  This place resembled late president Chiang Kai-Shek's hometown Fenghua, Zhejiang, and often reminded him of his mother, Mrs Wang, he changed its name from Beiwei to Cihu, meaning "Mercy Lake" in Chinese.  The place was converted into Chiang's graveyard after he died.  

Then, we went to Chiang Kai-Shek's son, Chiang Giang-Kwok's graveyard.  We saw the orderly shift-switching ritual of the honor guards.  They stood straight holding the heavy guns without showing any tiredness under almost 40 Celsius of hot weather.  I could see they were sweating all over their faces and bodies but they still performed their duties of guarding the graveyard.



Our next sightseeing point was Shimen Reservoir.  Due to the demand for farm irrigation, the Shimen Reservoir was built.  This reservoir had become the most important water supply channel in northern Taiwan.  There was also a big statue of Chiang Kai-Shek placed on the top of the mountain facing to the dame as if he was mastering the future of Taiwanese.   

Shimen Reservoir

Then, we headed to Chia Yi.  It took about 4 hours to get there.  The first day of our trip made everyone so tired due to the long flight and jet lag.  All of us made use of these 4 hours to have a nap.  We all slept like a baby until we arrived at the National Chung Cheng University.  The first 2 days we stayed in the dormitory.  As it was still summer holidays, there were not many students staying in the dormitory, so we had 18 people occupied the whole building. 







Day 13, Sept 17 (Beijing)

Today, we had an early wake-up call.  We needed to leave at 6:30am to go to Langfang for a company’s visit.  Langfang was an economic and technology development zone.  It was far away from Beijing.  Therefore, tour guide advised to change the itinerary at the last minute to go to the Temple of Heaven in the afternoon instead of Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.  This arrangement really screwed up my schedule.  I originally planned to take early flight back to Los Angeles (LAX) on 19 Sept.  Now I needed to try afternoon flight to Chicago (ORD) and flew the way back to LAX, making a big circle plus this was a small plane – 777.  The loading was full in solid.  I had a high risk not to get on the flight and being stuck in Beijing.  However, if we could make the trip back to Beijing before 3pm after the company’s visit, we still had enough time to go to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.  Therefore, I still wished that we could make it today and I kept my fingers crossed.     

Everyone was so exhausted after 17 days' trip.

Today’s weather was bad. It was heavy rain.  When we were on the way to Langfang, our tour bus’s windshield wiper was broken that the driver was impossible to see clearly the road condition.  The driver tried to fix it but in vein.  He then arranged another bus to pick us up.  At that time, it was already 8:45am.  Many of my classmates looked so tired and slept in the bus and some of them were sick for a few days already.  I did take care of 2 classmates who kept vomiting and throwing up because they could not stand for the smell of the restrooms and they also suffered from the stomach ache.      

Hebei Jiya Electronics Co Ltd

We finally arrived at Hebei Jiya Electronics Co Ltd in Langfang at around 10am.  Jiya was the first LCD supplier in china.  It was established in 1993.  Its production equipment and technology brought in from Japan.  The mission of Jiya was win-win situation with customers, growing together with employees and developing with society.  Jiya mainly produced auto electronics, 3D shutter, meters and instrument, smart electricity meters, domestic electrical appliance, fuel dispenser, medical and health equipment, office equipment, general electric equipment.  Jiya is also a joint venture company with Motorola, Lenovo, National Panasonic etc.  Its annual production capacity is 1.5 million. 

Production Line

Jiya made sure their products up to certain international verification standard such as quality system certification, verification of product declaration, and all the employees were under occupational health for employees’ certification.  This quality assurance gave its customer fully confidence on its products.

Workers wore the protection uniforms

After the introduction of the company’s background, we had a chance to visit the production line.  The workers needed to wear the protection uniform and made sure they were not contaminated during the production process.

Temple of Heaven

Due to the incident in the morning, we only needed to go for one company’s visit instead of two. However, we still could not make the way back to Beijing before 3pm.  Therefore, we went to the Temple of Heaven instead.

Local people enjoyed playing poker,
dancing, singing and playing music instrument.

The Temple of Heaven used to be a place where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties went to worship heaven and offered sacrifices to pray for harvests and rain.  Along the corridor to the Temple of Heaven, we saw a lot of local people playing poker, dancing, singing, and playing music instrument for leisure. 

Nine Dragon Juniper

Miranda – our tour guide also brought us to see a Nine Dragon Juniper.  This juniper was over 500 years old.  The trunk was covered all over with spiral grooves which twisted up vertically along as if nine coiling dragons were wreathing up into the sky; and hence the name of “the Nine Dragon Juniper”.

Heavenly Centre Stone

Heavenly centre stone was another interesting thing I experienced here.  As the surface of the uppermost terrace of the circular mound was paved with nine concentric rings of stone slabs, the round stone slab in the centre was called the Heavenly Centre Stone.  If one spoke standing on the Heavenly Centre Stone, their voice will be particularly resonant and sonorous.  It was really cool.  I could clearly hear the echo of my voice when I stood there. 

As this morning I really woke up early and felt exhausted after the whole day activities.  My roommate and I went back to the hotel for rest and did not join the rest to the bar district in Shalitun. 

Day 8, Sept 12 (Shanghai - Expo)

China Pavilion

I was so happy to have an opportunity to go to Expo in Shanghai.  However, the weather was terrible.  It was heavy rain. Crowded tourists carrying umbrellas, chairs, and tour buses were occupied in the park.  It made my mood going down a little bit.  Even though we made a reservation to go into the China Pavilion, we still had to wait outside at least 3 hours to get in.  All of us were hungry but nobody could leave because we all got stuck into the lines.   

Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival

When we finally got inside the China pavilion, the most impressed me was the enlarged and animated version of the timeless scroll of “Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival”.  It was so pretty and fascinated. I took the video and pictures in order to show my parents. 

Saudi Arabia Pavilion VIP Channel

Then, we went to Saudi Arabia VIP channel, we got our classmate, Freddie, who arranged the VIP service for us in Saudi Arabia Pavilion.  Our tour guide - Miranda told us that people at least had to wait 4 hours or maximum 9 hours to get into see the show in Saudi Arabia Pavilion.  Luckily, we did not need to wait on the line. 

Spheral Screen in Saudi Arabia Pavilion

The show in Saudi Arabia Pavilion compared with the China’s was way much better.  They invested a lot of money to build the high technical facility inside the pavilion.  Saudi Arabia displayed his high technology of showing its geography, people, and culture in a spheral screen.  It seemed we were flying into its world.  It was so cool.  I liked it the most. 

Qatar Pavilion

After Saudi Arabia Pavilion, we visited Qatar Pavilion without queuing lines.  We went through the VIP channel and saw how the Qatar women did housework and the culture of Qatar people.  After this, I left and went back to the hotel to get some rest.  Until my roommate came back, she told me I missed a chance to see the “King of Oil”.  They were invited to enter into the VIP room and met the Qatar governmental officials.  Moreover, they also went to UAE Pavilion.  They were invited to go to VIP room and had the traditional Arabia’s paintings on their hands.  I envied her that she had a chance to take pictures with “King of Oil” and received a whole bunch of souvenirs. 

Day 7, Sept 11 (Shanghai)

The Bund

After breakfast, we went to the Bund.  This was a very good view to see the modern buildings and some historical buildings in both sides along the river.  It looked gorgeous and made Shanghai look like a big modern city.

Yu Yuan

Then, we went to Yu Yuan Garden.  When we got to the garden, there was a heavy rain but it did not reduce any interest of our classmates to walk around the garden because Yu Yuan was also a very famous and popular shopping area for tourists to buy traditional Chinese products.  I was shocked when all my classmates carried full of their hands of souvenirs back to the tour bus.  I always felt interested to see what people bought and checked the price range for a certain products.  My classmates got a very good price and knew how to bargain with Chinese very well. 

Yu Yuan was crowded with tourists

Due to the Expo in Shanghai, there were so many tourists coming from different parts of China to visit Shanghai.  It made bargaining harder than before.  Not many shop owners were willing to bargain with us.  The price was almost fixed, no negotiating at all.  However, I did help my American classmates to bargain a few and did the translation. 

Mooncake Festvial celebrated in Yu Yuan

As there was a non-stop heavy rain, we decided to go back to the hotel and rest.  And I decided to stay in the hotel to finish some of my blogs.

        

Day 5, Sept 9 (Taiwan - Shanghai)

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

It would be the last day in Taiwan but we had one last sightseeing point to go which was National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.  This was to commemorate the memory of Taiwanese’s great leader – Chiang Kai-Shek.  In addition to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, the National Opera House, and the National Concert Hall were built on the same site.  The concepts of the design of these buildings were not only to express the spirit of Chinese culture but also to utilize of modern construction technology, with emphasis on economy and practical use.  When we entered into the National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, we would see a big statue of Chiang Kai-Shek sitting in the middle facing to the downtown of Taipei.  Moreover, there was another changing guard duty performed here as well.  There was a small museum in the lower level of the hall showing some of displays which were Chiang Kai- Shek’s commodities such as his cars, clothing, paintings, and bookcases containing the books he read when he was young. 

Thank You Jack, Alan, Kame, Rossetti, Caroline, and Jimmy

All the students made good use of this last opportunity to buy the souvenirs at the gift shops.  Many of them bought jade and other different kinds of stones accessories.  Then, we headed to Taoyuan International Airport to take a plane to Shanghai.  We were farewell to our dear Taiwanese students who helped us to arrange all the great programs and made sure we were safe during the trip.  They did contribute a lot and we all really appreciated their warm hospitality.  We treasured the last moment to take group pictures with the Taiwanese students and exchanged contact information.  At this moment, we had to say goodbye to Taiwan.  Shanghai, we are coming now. 

During these few days in Taiwan, there were so many restrooms we visited had squat style toilets rather than the normal toilet bowls.  My female classmates asked me how to squat.  They did not get used to go to pee in that way, so many of them messed up their pants and shoes. 

Traffic was serious in Shanghai

The flight time was short from Taipei to Shanghai.  It was about 2 hours.  I was just too tired and almost slept for the whole flight.  We were picked up at the Pudong airport and headed to the dinner place.  However, it took almost 1 and half hours to get there because of the traffic.  I was so hungry because the plane food only provided a small portion of lunch.  In China, there was one thing I hated most was people were smoking in the restaurant even though that was a non-smoking area.  I just wanted to go back to the hotel as soon as possible. 

Swissotel Grand Shanghai

In Shanghai, we stayed in a very fancy hotel called Swissotel Grand Shanghai.  This was the best hotel we stayed so far in this trip.  There was a swimming pool, jucuzzi, spa, and gym.  My roommate and I were so tired and both of us went to sleep early at 11pm.  

Day 4, Sept 8 (Taipei)

National Palace Museum

In the morning, we went to National Palace Museum.  The collection of cultural artifacts held by the National Palace Museum was composed of an enormous treasures inherited from the previous Sung, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.  The collections mainly dealt with art and artifacts of Chinese art.  Many of the works in the collection were masterpieces, leading the Museum to become known as a treasure trove of Chinese culture.  To me, the most impressed collection was the carvings of jade to make a cabbage.  The jade looked crystal clear as if it was a real cabbage.  Actually, what I wanted to see was the Chinese paintings.  Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to go through all the exhibition rooms. 

Taipei 101 Building

Next, we went to Taipei 101 building.  It was the 2^nd tallest building in the world.  It was composed of office building and a mall.  Taipei 101 was also an outstanding landmark in Taipei city which had 101 stories above ground and 5 stories below.   

Taipei city view on the observatory level, 89/F 

    

Taipei 101 mall has gathered together the finest in fashion and refined dining from around the world.  I had my lunch at the food court with a variety of food provided in a competitive price.  We were very happy to have an opportunity to go up to the top of Taipei 101 observatory on the 89^th floor to view different directions of Taipei city.  Elevators in Taipei 101 building were high-speed pressurized elevators, reaching speeds of 1,010 meters per minute.  It took only 37 seconds to take us from the 5^th floor to the 89^th floor.  The scenery was stunning and the architectural design of Taipei 101 building looked like several bowls putting together.  We could also go to 88^th floor to see the super big wind damper in order to avoid the building crash under earthquake. 

Then, we went to Guang Hua market.  This market consolidated its reputation as the go-to place in Taipei for computer equipment and other electronic gadgets, with over a hundred shops selling these high-tech items.  In addition to computers and other electronic peripherals, the new market sold branded sportswear and athletic gear, DVDs and CDs, posters, PC and console games, books, stereo equipment, mobile phones, and more.  This market was known for its wide variety, low prices and convenient comparison shopping.

A very special architectural restaurant

Dinner was in a very special architectural building.  The idea of this architectural design came from Spanish designer, Antonio Gaudi.  Many of us were very impressed of this weird design restaurant.  The sound of the flashing from cameras never stopped.  Needless to say, the food was yummy too.

 

Shi Lin Night Market

After dinner, we went to Shi Lin night market.  To really taste the flavor of Taiwanese life a trip to a night market was a must, and Shi Lin was one of the largest collections of vendors and eateries in Taiwan.  I liked Shi Lin night market because they had all the food and clothes I liked and the price was reasonable. I stayed behind in Shi Lin night market to enjoy the snacks and dessert in the food stalls after my classmates returned back to the hotel.