To see the view of Taiwan from sky, it's beautiful.

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
Connecting the dots around the world ,that's what the Forum does best.

Electronics makes it possible ,smaller world...bigger picture.
 

Thread Starter

ScottWang

Joined Aug 23, 2012
7,397
Connecting the dots around the world ,that's what the Forum does best.

Electronics makes it possible ,smaller world...bigger picture.
That's spent 400hrs during three years to cut a 1:33 hrs film, this just a preview of the film.

Through internet Beyond the Time Barrier, bring the people together from all over the world, so I can see you, and you can see me.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,930
I think I recognize a few of the places in that video. My wife and I spent nearly three weeks circumnavigating the island on our honeymoon. My wife -- who's from Taiwan -- did all the planning and did a wonderful job of mixing the local flavor with the touristy things throughout the country. I was amazed at how varied the geography was and how beautiful much of the country is. Having said that, I notice that the video completely ignores the cities and the congestion that dominates a good portion of the country.
 

Thread Starter

ScottWang

Joined Aug 23, 2012
7,397
I think I recognize a few of the places in that video. My wife and I spent nearly three weeks circumnavigating the island on our honeymoon. My wife -- who's from Taiwan -- did all the planning and did a wonderful job of mixing the local flavor with the touristy things throughout the country. I was amazed at how varied the geography was and how beautiful much of the country is. Having said that, I notice that the video completely ignores the cities and the congestion that dominates a good portion of the country.
Haha, I knew some foreigners they came from other countries and lived here, they also married with the Taiwanese girls, some of them were came from USA, some were from France and Germany and Italy.

I didn't travel around Taiwan for a circle, only once travel around half Taiwan over 20 years ago with two friends, and I lived near Taipei city that we called new Taipei city, I have to go back to Tainan (south of Taiwan) to see my mother about once two months, I was born and lived in Tainan about 35 years, I lived in the country side of Tainan, that is my hometown, when I back to Tainan with my elder brother, sometimes we will go some where to take a trip.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Scott,
I spent a week in Taipei last year. Mostly work. I was amazed how easy it is for an American to survive in a foreign country. Everything is labelled in English. It was also cool that my hosts were very proud of their country and insisted on showing me something interesting every night.

I have been to many tall buildings around the world but Taipei 101 is really nice. The anti-earthquake protection system in full display is great.

I can't wait to go back for a pleasure trip.

 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
Nothing like seeing the world in photos ,as a worker....can you find your self in

serious trouble not knowing the local laws. Are you warned.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,930
Scott,
I spent a week in Taipei last year. Mostly work. I was amazed how easy it is for an American to survive in a foreign country. Everything is labelled in English.
I found the same thing. While it was very, very nice to have my wife available, I was able to function reasonably easily when needed. As my wife explained to me, English education is compulsory throughout public education in Taiwan, at least to a certain degree. But on top of that, English-speaking trade and tourism is such a big part of the economy (as it is in many countries around the world) that self-interest compels a large fraction of businesses to accommodate English-only transactions and have strong incentive to make that accommodatation easy and visible.

What amazed me was how people everywhere were eager to talk to me in English as soon as they heard me speak it. My wife pointed out that most people (especially people engaged in public commerce, such as street vendors) look for every opportunity to practice their English, especially with anyone that spot as speaking American-english. It made for a very enjoyable trip.

I think that Americans, especially, don't realize how easy our lives are because of things like this. America has so dominated the international political and economic landscape for so many decades that Americans (and other English-speaking peoples) reap a huge benefit in being able to function in such a large fraction of the world without having to accommodate to local language and customs (and, of course, a downside of this benefit is that we lack the incentives to learn other languages and customs even of the people that we have extensive interactions with).

But while this benefit is nice and useful, we take it for granted far too easily and don't realize that we have this benefit because the generations before us worked really, really hard to make America the dominant political and economic power in the world. But, while there is a self-sustaining aspect to it, it is not guaranteed to last. If we want to continue reaping that benefit, then it is up to us to continue working really really hard to maintain that position. But others want to play on that stage too and, by the very nature of things, it becomes easier for them to do so over time. So we would have to work even harder to hold our own -- and all indications are that we are not only unwilling to work harder, we are unwilling to work nearly as hard. But, that's life -- civilization is a self-defeating concept.
 

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,763
I found the same thing. While it was very, very nice to have my wife available, I was able to function reasonably easily when needed. As my wife explained to me, English education is compulsory throughout public education in Taiwan, at least to a certain degree. But on top of that, English-speaking trade and tourism is such a big part of the economy (as it is in many countries around the world) that self-interest compels a large fraction of businesses to accommodate English-only transactions and have strong incentive to make that accommodatation easy and visible.

What amazed me was how people everywhere were eager to talk to me in English as soon as they heard me speak it. My wife pointed out that most people (especially people engaged in public commerce, such as street vendors) look for every opportunity to practice their English, especially with anyone that spot as speaking American-english. It made for a very enjoyable trip.

I think that Americans, especially, don't realize how easy our lives are because of things like this. America has so dominated the international political and economic landscape for so many decades that Americans (and other English-speaking peoples) reap a huge benefit in being able to function in such a large fraction of the world without having to accommodate to local language and customs (and, of course, a downside of this benefit is that we lack the incentives to learn other languages and customs even of the people that we have extensive interactions with).

But while this benefit is nice and useful, we take it for granted far too easily and don't realize that we have this benefit because the generations before us worked really, really hard to make America the dominant political and economic power in the world. But, while there is a self-sustaining aspect to it, it is not guaranteed to last. If we want to continue reaping that benefit, then it is up to us to continue working really really hard to maintain that position. But others want to play on that stage too and, by the very nature of things, it becomes easier for them to do so over time. So we would have to work even harder to hold our own -- and all indications are that we are not only unwilling to work harder, we are unwilling to work nearly as hard. But, that's life -- civilization is a self-defeating concept.
British were there (at least in MOST of them) before.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Nothing like seeing the world in photos ,as a worker....can you find your self in

serious trouble not knowing the local laws. Are you warned.
The way I understand your question, (paraphraseing), "if unusual laws exist in foreign countries that I must visit as part of my job, does my company warn me befor I leave?"

The answer is, yes, my company does. We have a travel reservations website run by American Express Business Travel. Our Corporate Security Office gives us a call when AmEx informs them an overseas ticket has been booked. For our first trip to each country, we are told if vaccinations are recommended, any unusual security/immigration procedures, security threats, banned items (e.g. No fresh fruit or nuts when returning to the US), even some differences in local traffic laws if we plan to rent a car.

Working for a large company has some benefits (working for a small company seems to be more fun and rewarding).
 

tracecom

Joined Apr 16, 2010
3,944
I made several trips to Taiwan in the 1980s and 90s, and found the people there to friendly and helpful, and many spoke English, but not all. I stayed for a while in Hsin Chu, and no one at the hotel spoke English. I had to point at pictures in the menu to order meals.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
I made several trips to Taiwan in the 1980s and 90s, and found the people there to friendly and helpful, and many spoke English, but not all. I stayed for a while in Hsin Chu, and no one at the hotel spoke English. I had to point at pictures in the menu to order meals.
If you go back today, you will find a much different place. Everyone under 45 years old seems to speak English very well. We also made a game of finding the most obscure thing labelled in English. I think the winner was the instructions on the firefighting hose spool in the hotel stairwell. It was a separate plastic engraved plaque with in English instructions. We were only in this back stairwell because my host used to date a hotel employee and knew a short cut to the street. No tourists were ever intended to be back there!

It was definately the easiest foreign country to visit ever, including the UK! They use American style plugs with 120 volt outlets, several American television channels (history channel, discovery channel, NBC and CNN international) in the hotel. I didn't even have to put up with people mispronouncing words like "schedule":D in a pompous accent:p.

If you get the chance and you can tolerate a 12 hour airplane ride, then drop everything and go. Especially if you have a tour guide to bring you around the country side. The high speed train system is great too. Across the island in a few hours.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,930
British were there (at least in MOST of them) before.
Oh, most definitely. That was a significant factor that made the rise of American influence much easier, though I suspect that the post-WWII era was such that it would have been inevitable anyway.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,930
I made several trips to Taiwan in the 1980s and 90s, and found the people there to friendly and helpful, and many spoke English, but not all. I stayed for a while in Hsin Chu, and no one at the hotel spoke English. I had to point at pictures in the menu to order meals.
I definitely second the statement that the people are friendly and helpful. We had a blowout on a mountain road around midnight. It was her brother's car and there was no spare and no tools. One guy stopped and picked us up and gave us a ride into the small town we were headed to (about fifteen miles, IIRC). No shops were open but the gal at our motel said that the owner of a repair shop also lived in the shop and to just go bang on the door until we woke him up. We did so and the guy came out and very promptly and pleasantly mounted up a tire on a wheel, threw some stuff in his truck, and took us back to the car and fixed it, and then followed us back into town because the front brake had been slightly damaged and he wanted to make sure we got down safely.

The entire country is just full of very nice people.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,930
If you get the chance and you can tolerate a 12 hour airplane ride, then drop everything and go. Especially if you have a tour guide to bring you around the country side. The high speed train system is great too. Across the island in a few hours.
That was one thing we didn't do, which was take the high speed train anywhere. We chose to drive and my wife did a wonderful job of picking places for us to stay each night that were extremely varied.

With the entire island being less than 250 miles long, I was surprised how little progress we made each day. We drove for a good portion each day and yet it took many days to get down to the southern tip. Now, we went down the east coast, which is very mountainous. It took far less time to come up the west coast. But being from the western U.S. where things are very open, I'm used to a 250 mile trip being a matter of under four hours. I've gone to meetings that were further away than that and didn't even think about staying overnight!
 

Thread Starter

ScottWang

Joined Aug 23, 2012
7,397
Introducing of Taiwan - Unknow Taiwan, the most beautiful places of Taiwan, Hualien and Taitung, because these two places only a few factories, the last paradise of Taiwan.

Unknow Taiwan - voiceover in english.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,930
We visited Toroku Gorge and it was truly spectacular and beautiful. It is perhaps the strongest memory of Taiwan from my brief time there. I was able to get a brief overview of the history of the region, but this video really expanded up it. Thanks for posting.
 
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