First Day in Taipei

Hi all,

Yesterday morning Josh and I headed out to the Taipei Institute of Economic Research. I was responsible for getting us lost, so we ended up having to ask 6-7 different people where to go before someone actually printed us out a map of where we were. The people here are really friendly and really willing to speak Chinese and try to understand my Chinese. The building was pretty obscure so I think we walked past it twice before realizing where it was. We showed the receptionist our letter and an English speaking woman came to meet us. They brought us up to the Presidents office and had a man named Gordon Sun, a deputy director in Macroeconomic Forecasting let us ask all of our questions while the woman translated. They also brought in an American, who I don't think had any purpose in meeting with us besides being American, but it turns out he is a Foreign Serivce Officer and actually studied Chinese at FSI for 10 months and is going to be Matthew O'Connor's (my contact at AIT) replacement. It is such a small world and they were shocked when they found out I new him!

They had a lot of interesting things to tell us. What I think I found most interesting, and refreshing from the GMU perspective is what Dr. Sun said about how the income gap has effected the poorer people's outlook. He basically said, before everyone was poor so there was hope for everyone, no one felt left behind. But now, he said, they feel like they've been left behind so they have lost hope and incentive to continue trying and rather just sort of accept their fate. He also said the current recession has made this worst because it has hit the exports industry, so the manufacturing and labor jobs are being cut down. He also spent quite a while talking about the relationship between China and Taiwan. He said rural areas in China are comparable to the development level of Taiwan in the 1960's. The interview was so interesting and we really got a lot of interesting information from them.

After that we had lunch at a market, and I had "stinky tofu". Mom, you would have loved it! Then we headed down to the Taipei 101 building, and the huge outdoor mall there. It was the really ritzy part of town, but it was nice. This hostel is really great, its like having a home it Taipei, and everyone is so friendly. Of course two owners speak German, so I feel like my German will probably get better with my Chinese on this trip. Two girls actually asked my to go along with them on a trip around Taiwan. They were renting a car and going to a few major places over the next two days. It's funny how in this sort of situation, what would be considered strangers in any other aspect of life, feel like close friends. They had actually just met as well, and one woman was Dutch, and 37, and the other woman was Australian. Last night, I headed out to the night market to pick up dinner. The night market is pretty neat. It's right near our house and it was so crowded.

Besides all of this, the flight went well. I took a bus from the airport for about $3, and I have been using the metro to get around which is probably the best metro system I've been on. I find I can understand quite a bit more Chinese than I thought I could, and I have been using it whenever I can. Being here really reminds me why I am learning Chinese and how much I would love to live in Asia.