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-   -   Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/85181-business-pleasure-land-silicon-electronic-gadgets-taiwan-4.html)

@Star whats the windmill doing in the midst?
A throwback to the retro?

There is a saying in Sanskrit

"Grahinim Graham Uchhyate"

meaning... Home is defined by the Homemaker (lady of the house). The lady of the house can take the home to Uchha (=top) sthana (=position) or she can even take it into dumps. In the modern days Homemaker definition has been expanded to include both wife and husband.

Similarly a country is defined by the people who leave there. if our beaches, public areas, community places are in shabby manner, there is no one but we who are responsible for it.

This is a subject which is similar to Chicken came first or the egg, most probably the scientists would find answer to the chicken or egg problem, but it is difficult to find the solution to the pathetic situation of some of our public places and our way of dealing with it.

probably yes. Windmills were made popular around the world by Dutch people. Philips being one of the largest MNC having invested in Taiwan and having lots of expats working there, i have no surprise that the resorts there sport a windmill.

thanks arindam, some more coming up


While my colleague was taking shower and getting ready, let me take you through the evolution of Taiwan Electronics Manufacturing from 1960s till 2000+

Below image was found on some taiwan govt website. I extended it by inserting the evolution during 2000 and beyond.


One can easily see that Taiwan industry has been evolving since 1960s taking inspiration from Japan, building up capability is components, materials, manufacturing techniques, quality processes, building capabilities among the people/labour, automation as well as investment in technology transfers, licensing etc. Taiwanese entreprenuers were ablu supported by Taiwan Government as well as the hard/smart working labour force.

This has resulted in Taiwan being one of the top exporters of electronic products to global markets. During 2000+ Taiwan faced severe competition from China, but taiwanese businessmen intelligently invested in China and migrated the manufacturing to china, but still controlled the business. But now Chinese companies are taking big leaps ahead.

in the next post i will talk about some of the Taiwanese National Prides i.e. the companies which have made Taiwan famous in the world.

@StarVB - Completely agree with you; its all in our hands. I can't stand to see people spitting on roads too!!!

The thought that you've provoked in me is the fierce competition of China vs Taiwan on the electronics front. Not sure how a small country like Taiwan is handling this. Would be interesting to read the competition. So what happened next? Waiting for more pics & travelogue.

There's one company that will make headlines here I guess - Foxconn.

Since you asked for it, here it is...

Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd is the real name for Foxconn Technology Group. Foxconn is the socalled "English name" for the Taiwanese company. It was founded in 1974 by Mr. Terry Gou for making connectors (the conn in the name) and plastic products.

As of 2009, the combined revenues of Hon Hai (or Foxconn) stands at ~62B$ or RS 279000 Crores and boasts a customer base of Apple (iPhone, iPad, Ipod, iMacs) Sony (Playstations, consumer electronics), notebooks for HP, Dell, Lenovo etc, Cellular Phones for Nokia, Motorola, Network equipments for CISCO, Gaming boxes for microsoft, nitendo,

Company employes more than 500000+ employees and offlate has been in news for wrong reasons viz few employee suicides. But providing employment for 500000 people is remarkable.

I had the opportunity to visit Foxconn city both in Taiwan as well as China near Shenzhen. Amazing place i would say.

Manufacturing is said to be a 3% profit margin game. Scale is only a competitive advatage. every cent counts and every innovation is important. Despite Chinese onslaught on high volume manufacturing foxconn had stood its ground, grown over the years, remained profitable, mastered the chinese highvolume game on their own turf.

Complete Vertical integration e.g. Foxconn makes eveything in house except semiconductors and memory, well..almost eveything, Quality of manufactuirng, Scale and puschasing power and relationships with the cusotmers are the critical success factors that drive Foxconn today.

Foxconn has been looking to climb up the value chain by getting into design, engineering, complete product development, branding, distribution etc.

It is roumoured that iPhone's single button phone enclosure design is made by foxconn. that is the strenght of design team at foxconn which also acquired several design teams from motorola etc.

I am not surprised in a few years time the world's largest electronics factory becomes world's largest electronics brand. One never know.

one can find more general info about foxconn here on the wiki page
Foxconn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

more official information can be found here on the company website.
Foxconn Technology Group

How true SVB! More or less it is supposed to be connected to the education too. But what I find surprising is that in India you can find educated people doing all the wrong things.

BTW thats some very wonderful information. I never heard about Foxconn before. 500000+ employees and a consumer base of almost all the leading brands. Awesome!

We checked out and boarded the bus by 12 noon as planned.

061 Wanli beach and the Yehliu geo park area we visited


062 Lunch at Seafood restaurant


063 Vegetarian food for me + lots of courtesy, request not to remain hungry


064 Yehliu Geo Park


065 inside is the Yehliu cape (i found the photo on the internet)


I have provided here the 720 degree view video from the resort website
http://720.hoteloceanvista.com.tw/html/720/s8.htm

066/067 inside is also the queen's head (i again found the photo on www, thanks to the photographer)



I have provided here the 720 degree view video from the resort website
http://720.hoteloceanvista.com.tw/html/720/s/s01.htm

068 An aquarium


069/070 Yehliu port, look at the light bulbs on the boat.



071 the economy seems to be centered around fish


072 found some handmade toy cars


073/074 among several cars, found one real good one



075 nearby area


after lunch we started towards Taipei city by 1.15 PM

076 Entering Taipei once again (this photo was found on www, i thought of using as i had missed shooting this bridge)


we reached the office premises by 2:30, it is back to work for all of us.

Do we find a similarity here Star? See the food I'm having?

Nice pics SVB.

When I look at the lunch and compare with yours I feel really pity for you. As per narration, the Queen's Head looks like to be located on the beach but the area looks like desert.

Foxconn - every morning I see several number of busses plying through my place speeding towards Sriperambadur. Never knew its such a huge company. Thanks for the info.

What's the last object in the home made toys? It looks like a crab to me among the scooters, cars, motorcycles, ship & war tank.

yes very much, your picture seems to be from Singapore. am i correct ?

from the picture it appears i had a humble lunch, but i had a tummy full meal consisting of Guava juice, Soup, Rice, Green vegetables, some noodles, cut fruits (water melon, guava), plus lots of courtesy, push to eat some more. Hospitality really makes one feel very full.

Foxconn has a factory in chennai, as a part of Nokia SEZ.
Yes, it is wooden crab.


Let me share some information on public transport here. Taipei has metro train connectivity everywhere. I had traveled in the train way back in 2002-03 probably when i was in Taipei for few weeks. off late it is Taxi for me.

Taxi's are real good, clean, well maintained, they are relatively cheap, minimum fare is ~100 NT$ (approx 140 RS). Drivers are local, able to converse only in Taiwanese, probably Mandarin as well. They some times give discounts as well when one book the taxi via phone call or from the hotel parking.

One can book the taxi over phone. A local mobile phone holder can call taxi from any of the 6 pre-programed locations by just dialing the number and selecting the locations 1 to 6. Taxi will reach within 6 minutes. Fare is always to be paid by the meter. No tipping is required

Taxi drivers are courteous with the foreigners (at least i have found them so), always return the spare change even if it is couple of NT$. They have a coin box full of coins. Receipt (=fapiyo) is given only when asked. One is most of the time welcomed by "Neehao" (= Hello) and while aligning wished "xie xie" (=thank you).

077 Typically the taxis are full of gadges..have a look, this one has a Taxi company installed monitoring unit, GPS, Toll card, Mobile TV, Music System, Coffee cup holder, mobile phone etc.


i am often wondering how these drivers concentrate on driving with all those things around them.

078 Taxi is also a advertisement location. have a look at the number of catalogs kept here from the broadband connections, to holiday packages, to restaurant offerings to several other things being advertised.


079 often i have found drivers wearing business suits, jackets and tie, here is one example. comparing them with drivers in mumbai, delhi or bangalore is bound to frustrate anyone.


Generally a foreigner is advised to carry an address of the location he/she wants to go written in local language. the Hotel guys generally have pre-printed address of key tourist attractions in local as well as english language, the bell boys explain the location to the taxi driver in local language and then it is very easy, one will definitely dropped to his destination.

Travel advisory states that the lone female passengers to avoid taxi ride after late evening hours. Also the advisory discourages a foreigner to hire a car and self drive in Taiwan.

Thats a very nice way you are building the thread.

Thats a lots of gadgets..wow. Even dont see these many in fully-loaded private vehicles.

Drivers here in Egypt are also well dressed though very few with suit and tie. But far better that India. But IMO the fares in India is damn cheap. I am sure the taxi fares in Taiwan must be very high. Basically we you are paying for his clothes. Nevertheless, I wish the drivers in India could dress better.

Yep..they have Taiwanese or is it Chinese? Are they similar? How is the understanding of English among common people?

Is there a security problem there with females or foreigners or is it just a play safe advisory? Any reasons for discouraging the foreigners to drive?

BTW rated 5*, actually should have done earlier. Better late than never.

Sorry for the off-topic, but thought of sharing this:

The list of products Foxconn (China) manufactures includes iPod, Ipad, iPhone for apple company.

When iPhone 4G is still under prototype, one of the 16 units of iPhone went missing in a shipping process. The employee who is responsible for shipping was severely beaten by company officials and he committed suicide by jumping from 12th floor of his apartment building. This happened in China.

StarVegabond: nice pics. What is the structure in post #52?

As i said before minimum fare is about 100 NT$ (~140 RS). I do not agree that we pay for the cloths the driver wear. It is simple, we may not choose to travel in a car if the driver is naked and charges no fee.

if we expect the taxi fares to be cheaper like bus/train etc, then ours is only a wishful thinking. In India also the taxi fares are now RS 15 per KM. but many drivers still dress shabby. This will change only by education, experience and exposure. I already see things changing slowly at least in Bangalore.


Mandarin, Cantonese are the two main languages from mainland china. Taiwanese is probably a mix-variant of these two. Mandarin is the language spoken by maximum number of people in a given geography including China, HK, Taiwan, Macau, Singapore etc.

Spoken English skills is not so great on the streets with common people, but people who are working in MNCs and generally deals with foreign companies can converse english. Knowing English is is considered a competitive advantage. there are English coaching classes like this one.

080 typical English learning center in Taipei


In mainland china, English teachers are in demand. Wives of the Indian people working in china they become English teachers and probably earn as much as their husband only working part time.

I think it is standard advisory, better be cautious than sorry. Taiean taxi drivers were notorious during 1990s, but now said to be lot more sobered.
Foreigners not knowing the local language is a key reason, one could be easily misunderstand or be misunderstood.

Thanks very much :)

even i have heard about this, but i am not sure about the authenticity of this. I would leave it at that.

which structure you are talking about. there are several pictures/structure in post #52



Typhoons of Taiwan are very notorious

The word "typhoon" comes from the mandarin term tai feng, which means supreme winds. It's the same thing as a hurricane in the States or a cyclone in the U.K. - a powerful storm that brings intense rain and fierce winds. Most typhoons hit Taiwan during the summer months, between July and September, usually have four to five typhoons a year

081 A typical Typhoon..a satellite image


more about Typhoons and how to survive it is mentioned here by an expat.
Typhoon Taiwan - Words of Advice From an Expat! Pictures!

Earthquakes are also very frequent in Taiwan. most of the building are designed to withstand earthquakes. When i was there on one morning between 8AM-8:30 AM, an earthquake was experienced. It was said to be the grade of five point some one. but the center was said to be somewhere in the mainland china

But life was normal in Taipei...it was just another earthquake

Veg food? He he :uncontrol

Nice to see One side table loaded with all the things in the world, while on the other side all you get is cut fruits, vegetables and bread!

Ever forgotten to say Asian Veg at the time of booking in a Lufthansa? Yes? Enjoy! Bread, Salad and Juice.