Two Great Days in Changhua, Taiwan

As we were told would happen, from the moment we arrived in Taiwan, we have been treated with great care, been fed more food than we could eat in the next month, met delightful people, and visited treasured places.

On Monday, March 16, Barry, Kyle, Natalie, and I (Hailey) hopped on a 6:45am flight from Orlando to San Francisco. (Due to his post-Taiwan travels, Fabio was on another flight route to Taiwan.) Soon after, we boarded our plane and made the 14-hour journey to Taipei, Taiwan... and arrived on their Tuesday evening. We were greeted by Philip, Yvonne and C.S. and then we drove an hour+ to the Hotel National of Taichung City where we rested well.

Our first full day in Taiwan - Wednesday, March 18 - was an overwhelming experience, in a good way! District Governor Jim and about 15 others came to the hotel for a special breakfast and we gave our first presentation to about 15 people. Good morning, GSE Team!

Wednesday and Thursday were spent with the members of the Changhua County Rotary Clubs. They were a fun bunch of people who loved taking pictures and enjoyed the sights just as much as we did. First, they took us around the historic town of Lu Kang, where we visited Baker's meatball shop. He is the 8th generation to run this store that makes the best dumplings in the area, and his daughter opened a French bakery and coffee shop next door after years of living in France and Italy.

Baker 

and

Claire

The rest of Day 1 included a spontaneous tour of the Folk Art Museum, the Taiwan Glass Gallery, a walk down "O Street" and lots and lots of food!

Thankfully, Day 2 had a slower pace and started with a tour of the Wann Ying Art Garden, which is famous for award winning bonsai trees, enormous pieces of jade, and an impressive art collection from China, Japan and Southeast Asia.

After lunch, we visited the Changhua Roundhouse and got a scenic overlook of the city - next to the Big Buddha. We had some downtown before our first Rotary meeting, and so we did what Taiwanese people love to do in their free time: sing karaoke.

Ivan and Barry were totally in their element. They really stole the show!

Singing our jet lag away, we were amped up for our first Rotary meeting with several Rotary Clubs of Changhua County. To be honest, I don't know how many clubs were represented... there were too many to count! Our sponsoring clubs need to start making space for all the Rotary banners we are bringing back with us. There are over 5,400 Rotarians in this one district of Taiwan (D3460) and over 30,000 in all of Taiwan!

The first two days were a wonderful start to our month long journey in Taiwan. We really enjoyed our hosts families and our host clubs, who took such great interest in us and showed us the best of their city. To them, we say "Xie Xie!"