Friendly People

Even though I'm perhaps biased by my own heritage, I have to say that the Taiwanese in general are some of the nicest people around. Take yesterday for example:

I spent half a day visiting my friends at Nan Shan Life Insurance (南山人壽). They not only invited me out to lunch, but with their usual warmth, had me stay for Friday afternoon tea. After that, they bid me to stay for their meeting followed by their monthly birthday celebration (mine is in November as well). Some pictures:

First, an instructive cake-cutting tutorial:

Trainees manage to cut the cake with great success:



Group picture of my hungry friends and I:



It's not common that one gets to befriend a whole department at a particular company, but somehow I had that privilege today, getting to observe a random meeting and sharing in their activities. I must say that too rarely have I seen such a happy, harmonious group of people working together in the corporate world. The meeting was genuinely fun and interactive; in some ways it seemed like a big family get together than actual work.

Afterwards, I visited my uncle, a dentist in Taipei. I decided to stay for a bit and chatted with some of my other relatives while my uncle worked on patients. What struck me was once again the friendly neighborhood atmosphere. Neighbors would drop in to say hello, and friends of the family hung out at the office. My aunt went to buy some of Taipei's famous peppered meat buns (胡椒餅), and when patients were done, my uncle would offer them each meat buns to go. When was the last time you were offered food at the dentist's office?

My aunt then took me out to dinner, and along the way, we saw a couple lost Canadians looking at a map. I had glanced in their direction and walked on, but my aunt stopped and noted that they looked lost. Even though she did not know much English, she approached them anyways, and we ended up walking them to the restaurant they were looking for. They thanked us, and mentioned that Taiwan is one of the friendliest places they've ever been to.

So to my friends and family in Taiwan, I just want to thank you all on behalf of all visitors to the island. It's really a great place with wonderful people, and it's a shame it doesn't get as many tourists as some of the other places in Asia. However, for anyone who wants to visit a beautiful island with great food, convenient transportation, and hospitable people, all at relatively inexpensive costs, Taiwan, as always, is highly recommended.