My Visit Impressions - Taiwan

When I first visited Taipei, Taiwan, I felt very much at home on arrival at CKS Airport in the mid-80s. It was still sort of in military rule but life on the streets was about normal.

I heard many speak Minanyu, similar to my Hokien dialect, and Mandarin Chinese. Most people there were very courteous warm and polite.

I visited the Hsinchu Science Park and a few factories in Keelung and Taoyuan. One 'Company' I visited was the home of a husband and wife plus a young man said to be their R&D engineer. Their pet dog greeted me at their door.

I explained our new generation of networking chips, etc. They're fascinated and wanted to try out with 500 pcs at US $60 each. But they had no money. I was stuck.

Later I was introduced to a local rep company which acted as the in-between agent. They paid for the chips and then did the resale. That became turning point history to me.

That Company went on to design in many more of their products and did very well. In less than 5 years they moved into a large factory and in 10 years doing the work for Cisco, the world's most famous router corp.

The singular story was a reflection of hundreds of others in Taiwan. I grew with the success story of Taiwan's tech wonders in the days gone by. It was totally unplanned for me. But a really rewarding experience indeed.