2016.01.14 Meeting the President of the Republic of China

Early in the morning, I took bus from my apartment to Howard Hotel, it took me almost an hour on the bus and I couldn’t get even a sear since it was rush hour, I did it instead of taking a taxi was for the budget reason. When I arrived the hotel, I found that I was the last one, everybody was waiting for me. They were very nice Americans as we hit it off very quickly. Later on, the bus took us straight to the presidential hall, we entered in from the front gate which was super special since only VIPs can have the access to do that. I felt very privileged. All electrical devices were not allowed to be brought in side so we had it kept in lockers. The guided tour of the hall was very amusing for me, as a Taiwanese I didn’t know much about this unique and historic building before. For example, the Japanese made some angles when they built the rooms, the angles made the building become earthquake-resistant; the front gate was built in the direction to Tokyo, Japan, according to FengShui masters. The speech from President Ma followed the tour. We were sitting and waiting for the president. Finally, he came in with some press and a few very powerful bigheads. He addressed his personal experiences and the agreements he had concluded within his tenure. He is also a person with humor, for example he once made a joke to George W. Bush, “ you graduated from Yale university, and you are doing a good job”, said Mr. Ma. Our president graduated from Harvard university. Another story is when he attended a conference in Berlin with Margaret Thatcher who was the prime minister of the United Kingdom. During that period of time, Germany was still separated into western and eastern part. When they were at the Berlin wall, they saw soldiers from eastern Germany looking at them. Ms. Thatcher said: let them see! Let them see how democracy operates! This story made me goose bumped, so spine-tangling. We also had the privilege to take and shake hands with him individually.

 To me, that was something I had been dreaming for long. We proceeded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to have lunch with the American students along with some bigheads from that bureau. That was a very well-organized, high-end banquet. I could picture that the life of a diplomat when he/she becomes a senior, hosting a banquet like this would be just a daily routine! In the afternoon, we engaged ourselves in the headquarter of Jiang Hui Zhen, legislator candidate for New Taipei City. The local supporters were very welcoming and we had a joyful time there, we even got dressed in their campaign vests.

 At night, we held another banquet and we invited entrepreneurs to come. They could broaden their network and to me, it was a great experience! I wish I could join in this kind of platforms more in the future.

Kai