Hello Guys!

I'm Pauline Tremelat. and next semester I will be in this university, in Taiwan ! I'm so happy to spend 4 months in Chung Li! Chung li is a little city just near Taipei which is the biggest city in taiwan. Anyway, i'm leaving to taiwan with 3 other guys of my school. 

About Yuan Ze 

      Yuan Ze was established in 1989. Yuan Ze was the first and the only university to win the National Quality Award in 2003, and in 2005 Yuan Ze received an award from the Ministry of Education for the Teaching Excellence Project. Moreover, it has been designated as one of the top 12 universities by the MOE. There are over 9,000 students (and we are approximately 30 exchange students this semester).

Yuan Ze has five colleges :

• College of Engineering,
• Informatics, Management
• Humanities and Social Sciences,
• Electrical
• Communications Engineering.

The campus is huge, with 5 tennis courts, a swimming pool, gym, football fiel and many more. There are 7 buildings, and each building has his own architecture, that's very nice.

"Come to Yuan Ze, Make Your Dreams Come True"
 (Welcome Message from President Tsong P. Perng)

Video of Yuan Ze University :

ESDES-YUAN ZE.

朋友你好

  ("Hello my friends !!)

Already spent one month on  the taiwanese ground and.... I have still not eaten in a local restaurant! Oh no, I'm wrong, we ate once in a local restaurant ... "Bravo" frenchies!

I recently decided the subject of my first article ..... as a real french, the topic I have chosen deals with Taiwanese food.

The question is : why do we only eat burger and pizzas for the moment ? Our answer is the following : the first week, with my 3 french friends, we decided to try the local food and unfortunately we had so bad experiences so we went back to the known food like pasta and burger and then.... we didn't have bad surprises ! 

What does taiwanese food looks like ? For the moment, we tried stuff like marshmallow that was eaten with rice and beef for example ! That was so weird !!! The only problem is that they put a strange sauce in every meal ! Be careful, I'm not saying that I am going to eat burger during 4 months, I'm juste saying that there is a time to adapt to the local life.  

Besides that, I would like to say that I have never seen people so nice. The Taiwanese are lovely, they always try to help you when you have a problem or if you are lost ! We were all pleasantly surprised the first day when we were looking for a bank and  girl came to us and helped us to find this bank ! 

See you in 2 weeks guys!!

ESDES-YUAN ZE.

About Taipei...

Taipei City, literally "Northern Taiwan City" is the capital of Taiwan. Taipei is the largest city in Taiwan with 2,618,772 inhabitants intramural.

It is the political, cultural and economic capital of the island. Its industry is particularly modern (including electronics).Taipei as a special municipality administered directly by the central government. It is surrounded by another special municipality, the city of New Taipei. 

The city lies in the narrow valley of the Danshui River basin and its two main tributaries, Keelung and Xindian rivers. The most impressive monument of the city is without hesitation Taipei 101, which until 2007 was the tallest building in the world (dethroned by the Burj Khalifa). 

This picture was taken by a friend of mine, in the memorial of Chiang Kai-shek. The memorial was inaugurated April 5, 1980, 5 years after the death of the ex president.

This district was amazing ! Its name is Ximending, it is the young district of Taipei, with lots of fashion shops and tags on the walls! I loved it !

As these pictures show, Taipei is a very original city where every district  shows a different picture of life here. I love this city which combines culture, music, art and shopping!

What is the sunflower movement?

The protests started on March 19, with the occupation of Taiwan's Parliament. The protests were against a services trade agreement with Beijing.  The protesters perceived the trade pact with the People's Republic of China would hurt Taiwan's economy and leave it vulnerable to political pressure from Beijing.

Since 9 months, negotiations have stalled, so the President of the Parliament decided to move directly to a vote, as law permits it. Three opposition members began a hunger strike, supported by hundreds of people who now occupy the parliament (as I told it before).

In the country, the text is highly controversial. It plans to open 64 sectors to Chinese companies. In exchange, Taiwanese investors may be implanted in 80 Chinese sectors. At the heart of the Taiwanese economy, the market for services weighs nearly 70% of its GDP. 

Protesters fear that chinese companies will be competing with local PME, which is more than 98% of the economic fabric of the island.

But what especially many Taiwanese fear is to be integrated into the Communist fold term, and become an autonomous region under the control of Beijing, as is already the case for Hong Kong and Macao.

Sunday March 30, thousands of taiwanese paraded through the streets of Taipei to persuade President Ma Ying-jeou to withdraw its controversial trade agreement with China, after nearly two weeks of occupation of parliament.

The demonstrators carried banners pledging to "defend democracy" and "Remove trade pact on services." They walked through the streets leading to the Presidency, under the eye of some 3,500 police officers.

ESDES-YUAN ZE.

We woke up at 5 to go to this mountain for a one-day trip. This place is full of trees like 1700 years old trees.  Lala Mountain in is the center of the island (3hours of bus)

We walked during 2 hours to visit all the park and saw lots of things like waterfall, huge trees or insects that you never see in France! But after this long walk, we decided to leave this place and go back to our city (Chung-Li), but we didn't know when was the bus so we wait for 1 hour and finally, the bus came! Nevertheless, I caught a sunburn during the hour of waiting...! First sunburn of the year youhouuuuu it hurts!!!! 

      For the spring break (4 days of holidays) we decided to leave our little city to go to the south of the island. The city which is in the further south of Taiwan is called Kenting. We took a train from Taoyuan to Kaohsiung (which is the 2nd biggest city of Taiwan). After 6hours of train, we finally arrived in Kaohsiung and decided to sleep in a little hotel for one night.  The next morning we took the road to get to Kenting. The holidays can finally begin!!! We decided to sleep in tents beside a music festival. The 3 nights there were epic (but very nice!).

(this is the main beach of Kenting)

    Taiwan could soon be the first country in Asia to legalize wedding for same-sex couples. But the project divides people (about four out of ten Taiwanese are opposed to this idea). Thousands of people gathered Sunday, March 16, 2014 in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial in the heart of the capital Taipei. 

Streamers are the same as the "Manif pour tous" in France. "Mom, Dad, I love you," were singing the demonstrators. Most are here Christian associations known under the name of  "The Alliance for the Family in Taiwan" for example.

Taiwanese parliamentarians review from October 2013 a law providing for open marriage to same-sex couples. An affront to Taiwanese family, consider many Taiwanese.

Indeed, for the moment, there is no form of union for two million Taiwanese homosexuals. 

If the legislation is not approved by the Parliament, a special union could be created for same-sex couples.

ESDES-YUAN ZE.

Today, I have decided to talk about a taiwanese advertising. In fact, we realized when we arrived here that the advertising were totally different beetween Taiwan and France. 

I found a poster of a taiwanese serie called Invincible Shan Bao Mei which explains my point of view and what I think. Indeed, when I saw this poster in a magazine I definitly understood that the 2 countries were totally differents.

What I find very funny in the pub and posters in Taiwan is the colors and how they make it all very childish. Indeed, whatever the pub (apart Western products) there is always a style that is reminiscent of the manga. I do not know if this is the japanese influence that led to this but it is pretty funny.
In Taiwanese commercials, there is often a mix between drawings and  real images ; it may be a way to make consumers dream. Here, what I found pretty funny is the fact that   this poster represents perfectly a Taiwanese advertising.

There is a mix of bright colors such as red, pink, green, orange. In France, the colors most represented are often sober colors and advertisements are mostly very clean, either on a poster or a pub.

It is true that at the beginning, we had a little trouble with this kind of pub but I must admit that the more time passes the more I find that their ads are attractive because there is always one side a little funny and childish !

Taroko National Park is situated in the east part of Taiwan. We decided to spend 3 days there with my parents. Taroko is at approximately 5 hours of car from Taipei. We took a road that ran along the east coast of Taiwan. 

Taroko is well known in Taiwan, this is one of the most important thing to do. I known why now ! 

The Taroko Gorge was formed by a river that has carved its way through the mountains of marble and granite. A path carved into the rock winds through spectacular wooded and rugged mountains hundreds of meters, while only a few meters down the river roars into the gigantic marble boulders. In other places, waterfalls escape rocky faults to slide down the steep sides. 

We did lots of trail like Yanzikou, Jiuqudong and the trail of Shakadong. 

The rock of the Taroko Gorge is made of marble and granit which crumble so we had to be careful due to rock falls. Indeed, lots of trails were closed because of rock falls!

Wonderful waterfalls, tunnels, suspension bridges and breathtaking views made Taroko Gorge an unforgettable experience for me.

For China, Taiwan is clearly a Chinese possession that history and law make incontestable. For Taiwan, its right to exist is a fact that nothing can challenge. For both of them, the issue of unification is a crucial issue for their domestic and foreign policy and each intends to assert their legitimate rights.

 China is now facing real challenges, they were not met with success, could ultimately undermine not only the rise of a country that intends to find its rightful place on the world stage  but also at the same time, the  existence of the almighty Chinese Communist Party. These internal and external challenges, Taiwan plays therefore a major role in the sense that the island is not only a key strategic point for the control of the straits, and thus the sea routes including China and its competitors depend for their supplies essential to their growth, but also a point of attachment of "Chinese nationalism" privileged tools wear the authorities of the Party as a foil and distract populations undermined by the social consequences of growth.

In this respect, the Taiwan question is for all players dispute a crucial issue. For China, the unification is an absolute obligation but act by force is a consequent risk while doing nothing high risk of discrediting the party and upsetting image of strength and power he intends to give. For the United States, it is about finding a balance between strategic needs that require them to take account of Chinese power, while ensuring the defense of Taiwan if necessary. Taiwan finally, it comes to finding ways to ensure its independence without declaring it, which would be unacceptable to China for its allies. If today all agree on the necessity of the status quo, nothing says it will be possible to preserve, each continuing to claim that there is "one China" while everyone knows although in reality, there is "one China, one Taiwan." The status quo does not solve the underlying problems: Taiwan and China are separate, and that is unacceptable for a country of one billion three hundred million people who intend to occupy its rightful place in the world.

My parents had the wonderful idea to come visit me in Taiwan in early May. I organized the whole trip before their arrival to make their task easier. So we rented a 4x4 for 10 days so as not to waste time on public transport.

The itinerary I had chosen was the following: from Taipei, go up to Sun Moon Lake (2 days) and then down south in Tainan (1 day) then go to Kenting (2 days) and back in the north (I had class) so they had the time to visit Taipei and after we decided to go to Taroko Gorges for the end of the trip !

Sun Moon Lake 

Sun moon lake is the largest body of water in Taiwan as well as a tourist attraction. It's almost the most famous attraction in Taiwan.

Situated in Yuchi, Nantou, the area around the Sun Moon Lake is home to the Thao tribe, one of aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. Sun Moon Lake surrounds a tiny island called Lalu. The east side of the lake looks like  a sun while the west side looks like a moon, hence the name.

The sunrise and sunset view attracts everyone. This place is also well known for the honey moon, for its very romantic side.

Tainan 

Tainan is a city near Koaschiung (second biggest town of Taiwan). We choose to go there because Tainan is very famous for its old town and its temples. Indeed, we visited for example the Confucius temple (which was built in 1666) and a fort where many battles took place between Chinese and Dutch for example.

Kenting 

For the second time, i went to kenning ! I love this place!!!! This is a little piece of paradise. As we had a car, we had the opportunity to visit the all national park. We discovered a little bay called Baisha Bay, which is not very known by visitors so that was perfect to have some rest after 4 days of visiting and travelling around Taiwan.