Newtown Rotary Club Hosts Young Business Team From Taiwan

Newtown Rotary had the pleasure this week of hosting a young Rotary Business Team from Taipei, Taiwan, and learned a little about the economic, social, and political life on the island of Taiwan. This is part of Rotary’s many international programs whose aim is to foster “World Peace Through Understanding.”

The program is called the Rotary International Group Study Exchange Program because teams are exchanged between countries. Currently a team from Connecticut is in Taipei; earlier this year another Connecticut team spent four weeks in the London area.

This program provides for more than 600 teams of young men and women in the early stages of their business and professional careers to travel abroad and trade vocational information with representatives of their respective professions in another country. Team members spend four seeks studying the host country’s economy and culture, while observing how their professions are practiced abroad. Each team member stays with a different Rotary family as they travel through the state from Greenwich to New London. Many times, lifelong bonds are developed between the team member and the host family.

Py Shen, the team leader from Taipei, has been a Rotarian for 30 years and is a senior manager at Dragon Tours, which offers tours to the USA, Europe, and other destinations. Ariel Tzu-Chin Lin is also involved in the travel industry and in 1998 had the honor of presenting her thesis on “Cruise Sales and Marketing Development in Taiwan” to the International Conference of 4th Asia Pacific Tourism Association held in Korea.

Team member Nova Hui-Yu Lu is an account executive in the sales department of The Grand Hotel in Taipei, a bright red grandiose hotel on a hill in the middle of the city. Edward Tao-Shun Chang is planning to marry his sweetheart (for the past seven years) Joyce in November. While in Connecticut, he is learning more about the travel opportunities, since he is founder and CEO of TES International Company, whose purpose is to serve those from 7 to 77 who would like to learn English and travel _abroad.

Daniel Shih-Fsng Liao, 31, is the youngest member of the team and is working at Desktop Publishing. When asked what he would like to see while in Rotary District (the four lower counties from Greenwich to Stonington), his reply was, “Every interesting thing.”

At the same time that this team from Taiwan is visiting here this week, another team from London, England is learning about Westport/ Ridgefield area.

On Tuesday, both teams were taken to the State Capitol building. They visited the Senate and House chambers and met with a number of government officials, discussing the differences between the Taiwanese, British, and American systems of government.

In the early part of year 2002, Rotary will be offering young (25-40) business and professional men and women the opportunity to travel to Brazil in an area between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and also to Central America, where the Rotary district covers four countries – El Salvador, Nicaragua, _Honduras, and Costa Rica. Anyone interested should contact local Rotary club members.