justin making dessert

go justin!

King Car Food Industrial Co.

Today we took a tour of King Car Industrial Food Company in Chung-Li

First we watched a short video about the company and each division.

King Car Group Consist of six major divisons:

• King Car Food Industrial Co.
• Chu Chen Industrial
• King Car Biotechnology
• King Car Logistics
• Mr. Brown Coffee Industrial Co.
• King Car Education Foundation

The company is evolving to meet the average customers needs such as whiskey, beauty & soap. King Car's main goal is to produce the best products for their customers to improve their daily diet and overall quality of life.

We mainly focused on the quality aspects of the company during todays tour. Liu Hsin-Li, a recent CYCU graduate in Industrial engineering, was our guide today. He oversees quality control at the Chung-Li plant. King Car is focused on the efficiency and quality of their products. Everything from employee training to the use of automated systems and aseptic filling techniqueto are needed in order to achieve quality control. King Car is ISO and GMP certified meeting quality standards in Taiwan and worldwide. King Car has an overall gross profit of $200 Million US Dollars per year. The Chung-Li factory that we visited today contributes about $100 Million US dollars!

Mr. Brown Coffee is King Car's #1 product!

• Mr. Brown original coffee: holds 70% in the Taiwan market
• The raw materials (ie coffee beans) come from Indonesia & Brazil
• The US is the largest country King Car exports to. Mr. Coffee is the #1 product that is exported
• Currently the Mr. Brown brand is focused on marketing to area convenience stores

Presenting Mr. Liu Hsin-Li with gifts from CYCU

American Food in Taiwan... if you get home sick

You never have to look to far if you start to crave your favorite food from home.

Pizza Hut

Yes. It taste the same as it does in the US

Dunkin' Donuts!!

I love sweets so this is one of my personal favorites.

McDonald's

This picture was actually taken at the Tokyo airport but you can find McDonald's all over Taiwan

Taiwan's Tourism

Characteristics of Taiwan's Tourism Industry: Non-smoking Industry: Tourism service and products are made to satisfy tourist demands. 21st century's major industry providing job opportunities and foreign exchange. Even though the government lacks support of the tourism industry, Taiwan still has a competitive advantage with other Asian destinations.

Competitive Advantage with other Asian destinations:

• Taiwan's support of natural resources
• Creative resources (recreation, festival, night leisure)
• Endowed resources (scenery, historical relics, food & fruit)
• Price of goods Factor (vs. Japan and Singapore)

The classes image of Taiwan: Friendly people, the natural resources, information guides, museums, variety of food(Thai, Italian, diff types of meat and vegetarian food), low prices, rich history and culture, 7-11 store, several Science Parks to bring in business and specialist in various fields,

Right now they're trying to put together a festival to give foreigners an insight on Taiwan's culture.

My favorite food in Taiwan

Here are some pictures of some of my favorite things to eat in Taiwan.


The Kid-O lemon cracker for a snack











Corn Soup















Italian food.
Chicken Alfredo

A great resturaunt called UpStairs in Taipei.

YUM!!

Presentation Time!!

Today Jeremy "JJ" Johnson and I gave a presentation on Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. We discussed How New Technologies Help Create An Innovative Business Model.

Over the last 10years, the music industry has seen a steady decline in record sales while live music and large festivals thrived. Today, the average music fan listens to a broad range of music ranging from hip-hop to r&b to country to alternative.

In 2002, the idea of promoting a music and arts festival on a large 700-acre farm area in Manchester, TN seemed like a daunting task. At the time, music fans already established an intricate network of sites and blogs for exchanging tour dates, like/dislikes, downloads etc. Superfly and AC Entertainment wanted to tap into this and bring a Program Concept with a Web-minded vibe. Bonnaroo managed to be a success in its first year with no traditional advertising. Everything was word of mouth and online. Tickets were even sold only on their website to cut out cost.

In its first year, the festival sold out its then 70,000-seat capacity and made a $10million profit. Today, Bonnaroo executives are constantly exploring different opportunities to reach their fans. In order to re-engage their fans, Bonnaroo 2010 lineup was announced through the individual websites, MySpace pages, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages of the performing acts. This sent a surge of excitment through fans who wanted to know who was perfroming weeks before the offical list was actually posted. Today, Bonnaroo is the 3rd huighest grossing music event in the world and has been named one of the "50 moments that changed the history of Rock and Roll" by Rolling Stone magazine.

Guest Speaker: Yea-Mow Chen

Yea-Mow Chen, professor of Finance from San Fransisco State University, was our guest speaker this morning in class. His presentation was titled "Global Economic Developments and Some Critical Issues."

We discussed the recent turbulence in financial market, how leverage can cause a lot of problems and How concerns over sovereign spilled into the banking sectors in Europe.

A term that I wasn't familiar with is Basis Points (1% = 100bps). The Basis point spread can reflect investors feelings (A high spread = concern). Currently, Greece is a risky investment. For every $100 of protection, Greece has to pay 6% (BP=600)

We also discussed the possibility of a Great Depression or Double Dip.

How to get by with No Internet...

So far, the most frustrating part of my trip is not having access to a computer. My roommate and I didn't bring our laptops because we thought we would have regular access to a computer while we were here. We didn't plan for the unexpected so it has been a challenge to get things done. Here's a list of how I have gotten by:

• I used the business computer lab when it was open during the first full week of the program.

• I used the engineers computer lab

• I singned up for unlimited e-mail (sending/recieving) before I left the US. It cost less than $15 US and it was well worth it. I was able to e-mail my family to let them know that I was ok since I couldn't skype.

• I went to the Internet Cafe. My roommate Paulina and I stumbled in here today. What a life saver (the business and engineering labs were closed)! It cost only 20NT for 1hour or 50NT for 3hours. You can't beat that!

• Dig, Search, Climb, hang just right from the side of a building to get wifi...its well worth it! One thing my roommate and I did bring was an apple ipod touch. We're surfing the web like mad women when we can find a little wifi. You will usually see me with my ipod and my cell phone going at the same time. My cell phone has wifi capabilities so I can surf the web, text, and make phone calls for free with my cell phone. I LOVE MY BLACKBERRY!

Hsinchu Science Park (wed 7/14/28)

After our morning class we too a charter bus to visit Hsinchu Science Park. HSP is located about 45 minutes away from Chung-Li in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Over 400 high-tech companies are located in HSP. Some examples are:

• Elan Microelectronics Corporation
• Logitech
• MediaTek
• Microtek
• Philips
• TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company)
• United Microelectronics Corporation
  
  

Rapid Transit Company and the Traffic Control Center

Today we took a tour of the Rapid Transit Company and the Traffic Control Center. We took a bus from Chung Li to Taipei which took about an hour with morning traffic.



Our first stop in Taipei was the Rapid Transit Company. We got to see the control center and the future developments of the metro system. We took a tour of the Traffic Control Center next. we watch a short video about the past, present and future of the Traffic Control Center.

The most interesting part of the trip was learning about the Easy Pass. You can use the easy pass to take the bus, rent a bike, pay your bills at the seven eleven, and so much more. I wish we had a convient system like that in the US.

After our morning tours, we met in The Q Square to eat lunch and go shopping. Once we finished, we took the MRT to Tamshui. We visited Tamshui Old Street, shopped at many vendor shops. ate local food, and visited traditional shops. We took a bus to Valentine's Bridge.


Bonnie told me about an old legend that if a couple walks across the bridge together, they will break up. You can see the beautiful mountains and local fishers loft at Valentine's Bridge. We took a boat ride back to Tamshui where we ate dinner.

bowling in taiwan

Good Times. Great Day!

At the arcade

So much for rest...

We were suppose to rest our first weekend so we could adjust to our new time zone ( Its a 13hr difference). We arrived on Thursday evening and by Sunday I was well adjusted and ready to sightsee. Luckily, some of our new friends and classmates took us out to enjoy Bowling, Baseball, Billards, and Darts. What an amazing day with my great new friends!

Day 1

Bonnie, a student & fellow classmate at CYCU, invited us to the Chung-Li toastmasters club. Toastmasters is a speech club that helps its members gain confidence to communicate effectively and sharpen their leadership skills. We didn't know what to expect but we wanted to experience everything that we could in Taiwan. Members asked Paulina, Ankit, Ivan and I to participate by giving a short speech. Overall this was a great learning experience.