Bottlemate, CL Saxophone Factory, and the last night in Taiwan

At the Bottlemate Factory

Today would be the final day in Taiwan. Tomorrow morning would be when we would fly to Japan to begin the second part of the study abroad. However, we still had a busy day ahead of us. The first stop of the day was at the Bottlemate Factory. While Bottlemate does do perfume, the factory we had just made the bottles that the perfume and other products would be put in. Honestly, the presentation had a rough start. I'm not sure if the company knew that we did not speak Mandarin or not, but the one who started going over the PowerPoint slide show was talking in Mandarin. Thankfully, Dr. Peng got a microphone and translated for us. From then on, the rest of the presentation went quite smoothly. After hearing about the background of the company, we split into two groups. One group was only guys and the other was only girls. The guys left for the tour first, while the girls stayed behind and sampled some of their products. I was actually very impressed by the factory, especially with just how precise the products had to be. Not only were each of the workers checking each product as it passed them, but there were line-end checkers that would go over the finished product one final time. Some of the products that were marked as "defective" only had the slightest of scratches (most of which had to be pointed out) or some other very minor defect, but ones that they noticed. Bottlemate proved to be a company that has very high standards and will do anything they can in order to meet their standards.

Part of the factory at Bottlemate

My favorite saxophone at CL

After leaving Bottlemate and grabbing lunch at a huge mall/department store, it was time to go to CL Saxophone. They started off the tour in a very entertaining way. First, they showed us a video of the history of CL Saxophone, which included a part showing that the original owner's four granddaughters all play the saxophone and have even been featured in commercials and have been asked to perform for prestigious people. After the video, our attention was brought over to the three saxophones out on stage. They then let us try playing them. The saxophones themselves were very beautiful and well crafted. Matt and I went first and then a few other students tried playing them as well. After everyone who wanted to had a chance to play, the tour began. The factory itself really was more of a museum then a factory. The tour we had showed us the history of the company and also a variety of the different kinds of saxophones they produce. At one point, were were even able to make a design on a valve piece of a saxophone that we all got to keep as a souvenir. While the tour was entertaining and the saxophones we were able to see were very beautiful, I wish we could have seen a bit more into the process of  making the saxophones. Especially the beautiful etchings in the saxophones themselves.

With all the business visits out of the way, it was time for our last group meal in Taiwan. We went to a restaurant on Tunghai University's campus. Dr. Chen-Jui Huang and one other faculty of Tunghai University joined us on our goodbye/thank you dinner. The dinner itself was huge. It had everything from shrimp, to fish, to pork, to rice, to ice cream! We all sat around a round table and the food was placed on a spinning tray in the middle. This way, the food was more of a community grab, meaning everyone could just grab what food they wanted and how much of it they wanted. It was really nice to sit down and just talk about everything we had experienced so far in Taiwan. By this point, all of us have become good friends and we all enjoyed sitting and having the chance to just talk about whatever we wanted. I would have to say this was a perfect way to end our trip in Taiwan and I really look forward to seeing what new experiences Japan will bring.