Our Day started out early with a 6:45 wake up to catch a bullet train to Xinzhu Science park. Xinzhu is 1 of 13 science parks in Taiwan and it is also the biggest. It currently has 600+ companies in the park. These could be companies HQs, research and development, factories or any other kind of building.
We started the tour with a visit to small museum that showcased some of the technology that is being or has been developed in the science park. There are 6 main fields/industries in the science park; IC industry, Computers , Communications, electronics, pressions machinery, and Bio Tech.
After the museum we where given a well rounded presentation on the science park that have some historical context as well as the current status of the park and where it might go in the future. We where also given a small tour of the science park itself to showcase some of the more well known companies like TSMC, Foxconn and so own. We even stopped to take a picture in front of the the TSMC museum. It is very interesting to see a Taiwanese version of silicon valley and even more baffling that there are 12 more throughout this island.
Besides the park we also made a stop at the city god temple or Chenghuangmiao located in around the city center. This god is a mixture of a police and judge like god with it being somewhat of the record keeper as seen by a large abacus located inside the temple.
Before checking into the hotel we made a stop at the famous rainbow village. This village which was preserved among the tall apartment building was painted by one man who started to paint murals as a way to cope with not being able to return home to mainland China as he was once a soldier that fled with the KMT to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil war. I had noticed that some of the sides of building where covered with canvas instead of the original walls. This is because a few years ago some of the walls where vandalized which is extremely disappointing but many of the canvas painting are made by young school children as a way to continue what the man had started.
Later in the evening one of our professors had heard from a local that a huge night market was happening in Hanxi so we decided to go. We tried lots of different food and a drink and happened to run into some Mormons from Utah. It was nice to exchange some small talk with them and wish them best on their mission.