Jet lag compelled me to sleep immediately after arriving to the hotel, so this will be a combined reflection of the first two days we’ve spent here in Taiwan! We arrived at 6 AM on Tuesday, so we got a lot done despite having just got off our 16 hour flight (ouch, but not as bad as I thought it would be to be honest).
First, we visited the Chiang Kai-Shek Hall. Imagine a larger scale Lincoln Memorial, with a stairway with 89 steps and framed by beautiful, traditional Chinese architecture and trimmed hedges (see below). One half of the hall had photos and artifacts from Chiang Kai-Shek’s rule in Taiwan, celebrating him, and the other half was an exhibit on free speech and democracy, which are a subject of controversy surrounding him. I had a moment of sonder while walking through these exhibits, witnessing an ongoing political discussion in Taiwan that people my age likely grew up with.
Next up was Taipei 101, which, you guessed it, is a 101 story building (if you don’t count the basements) with shopping, food courts, and an observatory that we were able to visit on the upper floors. I was most fascinated to see the 660 ton pendulum (see below) that hangs at around the 88th floor, which is the first of its kind that was built to stablize the building during strong, typhoon winds and earthquakes.
The view was dizzying, but striking nonetheless:
The twisted building with the helicopter pad on the bottom right corner is the Tao Zhu Yin Yuan apartment building, with each floor consisting of one residence and costing about NT$900 million, or US$27.46 million according to my quick Google search. Taipei is very expensive, so all I have to do is look back at this post to convince myself not to stay here forever (other cities in Taiwan though…).
Day One ended in a welcome dinner at the Grand Hotel, which was established by Madame Chiang and was used to host foreign dignitaries and guests (see below, you can also see my classmates April and Joelle posing in the midground). The buffet was amazing, they had so many different kinds of fancy foods and desserts, I ended up with 3-4 plates by the end of it.
On Day Two we had two company visits. Similar to my experience at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, our visit to the American Institute in Taiwan also enlightened me to an unfamiliar politicoeconomic scenery. Christian, the representative from AIT, spoke to us at length about Taiwan’s complex relationship with the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and by the end I felt infinitely more knowledgable despite having only skimmed the surface. We talked about TSMC, of course, and I hope I get a chance to visit their headquarters in Hsinchu Science Park or even a fab!
We then proceeded to SCM Solutions, a small company owned by an American, Kara Atchison. She, the COO William Young, and the CEO of the trading company next door all spoke to us about supply chain management, the difference between ODM and OEM suppliers, and the difference between supply chain management and trading companies. As someone without much background in business or management, this day was very informative and really set the tone for future company visits in Taiwan. I am so grateful to everyone who took time out of their day to speak to us, and I look forward to meeting many more people.
^ From left to right: Hanna, Jenn, me, and Malli in Ximending.