My company transferred me to Taiwan. I haven’t written anything in this internet blog for a while because I have been busy closing down my Shanghai operations, attending farewell dinners and seeing for how cheap I can get a Rolex (3 bucks). My parents also stopped by for a week so I had to be in charge of them to make sure they didn’t get hit by a bus (mom nearly did).
I have gone from one of the largest cities in the world to a sleepy town of 400,000 in Taiwan called Hsinchu. It is about a 30 minute train ride to Taipei. It is like the silicon valley of Taiwan. The difference from California is that there are wild dogs roaming the streets, there are Buddhist shrines in the restaurants and your dinner costs 2 dollars instead of 200 dollars. Since the place is small, the plan is that I will get a car. Since I can’t read the signs, I can’t imagine it is a really good idea to let me on the roadways. I guess I will be like the foreigner with a driver’s license and no clue that we all love to hate back home.
Before I left China, mom and dad showed up to see some Chinese stuff. They didn’t see many pointy hats but they did see some fights, some random poultry slaughter, a guy blowing his nose on my shoes, duck tongue appetizers, beer girls, cocktails in the 4th tallest building in the world, squat toilets, overpriced trinkets and me saying, “I don’t understand” a lot. So they saw some Chinese stuff. Dad’s quote on the way to the airport was, “On most vacations, I don’t want to leave. For China, one week is plenty”. Good times.
While I was a bit sad to say goodbye to Red China, I am getting pretty pumped to see what is happening in the breakaway republic. I am hoping there is no communist invasion while I am here. I think I will keep writing in this internet blog because Taiwan also has some stuff that is not like home so I should find some good material.
I suppose I could try to write some profound essay about living and doing business in China. But the truth is that I really don’t know what is happening over there and if you are like me, you don’t have the attention span to stick with the intro, body and conclusion. So if you really want to know about it, buy me a beer when I come home and I will be happy to tell you a bunch of half baked ideas about what I think is happening in China.
Instead of boring you, take a look at some of my favorite photos. Enjoy:
Water Village
Prayer Flags
Tibetan Rappers--(the kid with the robe had a full pantry of food in there)
Child Labor is Alive and Well (but look how happy they are)
Some Temple
Gate Keeper
Typical Dinner--This one was particularly good
Some of these people had never seen their own photo
Yak at 15,000 Feet
Great Wall of China 
Forbidden City (I heard they cancelled Starbucks)
More Great Wall
Great Wall Again
These guys are everywhere but this one is particularly cool.
Bike Up Chicken Slaughter
Fish Market (shopping in pajamas is normal)
I met some strange yet friendly people 
This guy was also a friendly whack job
Water Village at Night
