An Interesting Experience in Taiwan – Winter 2019 Abroad

While in Taiwan, we visited so many places! We went 89 floors up in Taipei 101, visited several new night markets, ventured to a farm and museum in Yilan, stayed at a very cool hostel, toured the Tzu Chi Temple along with seeing many beautiful scenic spots and mountainous regions in Hualien, and lastly attended the Chinese Opera last night! I have had so many new experiences I never would have expected to have but want to just focus on the Tzu Chi Temple Foundation and its relation to healthcare along with the differences in roads in the United States versus Taiwan.

Upon visiting the temple in Hualien, I learned all about the life of Cheng Yen and how she revolutionized Taiwan to the point that she was named the “Mother Teresa of Taiwan.” She started as a Buddhist monk and later converted to a Catholic nun and devoted the rest of her life to the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation. This organization was created in 1966 and their mission is to basically go where ever there is a disaster, man-made or not, and give help to the victims. However, as they grew in numbers from the original 30 housewives that pledged themselves to help Cheng Yen, they extended their mission from just charity to also include medicine, education, humanistic culture, international relief, bone marrow donation, environmental protection, and also community volunteerism.

I was most impressed with their mission of medicine since upon our arrival at the temple, our course instructor, Dr. Liu, mentioned that the entire hospital next to the temple was sponsored by the temple. Consequently so, poor people do also not have to pay any deposits when they are admitted. I was so shocked by this information since healthcare and hospital visits are usually outrageously high in the United States, sometimes even with quality insurance. The story goes that Cheng Yen began this mission after she witnessed a pregnant woman and her baby die after being turned away from a hospital when she was ready to give birth. She was not admitted because she was unable to make the down payment or deposit that the hospitals charged at the time. This story really stuck with me since Cheng Yen was able to turn something so awful into a source of inspiration to create good in the world. After the building of her “no deposit” hospital next to the temple (which was no simple feat and she almost did not raise enough money in time for), the Taiwanese government also changed their hospital to be deposit free. So hopefully a situation like the pregnant woman’s death will not be repeated. Below is a picture of the next door hospital.

In regards to the infrastructure of Taiwan, I was so amazed at the roads that we traveled on to get to Hualien from Yilan this weekend. Since both of these towns are in the eastern part of Taiwan, there is a lot of mountains that you have to travel around and through to get to them. The eastern part of Taiwan obviously runs right along the ocean so the views simply from my bus seat were incredible. The main reason why I was so amazed at the roads was because of how narrow yet widely traveled they were. We were a relatively large bus so the driver drove slow since the road was constantly curving to hug the mountain. However, cars would drive super fast past us on the curves, not at all seeming like they were the least bit concerned about a head on collision. Of the all the places I have traveled in the United States, I have never been on a road so narrow and so high up in the mountains. It was quite an experience to just ride on the bus and look at the beautiful view of the ombre blue ocean with varying depths. Beyond this, there were quite a few tunnels that we traveled through but several of them were one lane tunnels. This is quite rare in the United States since more people are going through tunnels underwater and a single lane or even two lane road could lead to a traffic nightmare if there is an accident. Below are some pictures of the view from the bus on these roads.