In 3 weeks I’ll be back in Taiwan. I lived there for a year before studying Chinese and teaching English. I blogged about my time there on my old blog. Last time I was in Taipei, the capitol. This time I’ll be about an hour southwest in a city called Hsinchu and I’ll be the Librarian at an international school.

Hsinchu is known for its high-tech sector (the “Hsinchu Science Park”) and has offices of many foreign companies there, both business. manufacturing and some R&D. The school I’ll be at (Hsinchu International School) was founded by the Dutch company Phillips, for the purpose of educating the children of their employees. Phillips no longer has as strong a presence in Hsinchu, but the school remains, as does its mission and its original name.

Image from http://www.pin1yin1.com

So while people call it “Hsinchu International School”, its legal name is still “Hsinchu Dutch International School”.  There are a few other schools focused on foreign education in Hsinchu: “Hsinchu American School” (which today I found out will be where another friend will be teaching) and “Pacific American School” .

It has been very hot in Taiwan lately and friends report it to be about as hot as it has been here in Pennsylvania which I find interesting because the fount of all internet wisdom (wikipedia) claims Hsinchu has a nickname of “The Windy City” which would make me think it is cooler, but I guess sometimes the internet is wrong.

And in case you wondered: Hsinchu [spelled Xinzhu in Hanyu Pinyin and not Wade-Giles] 新竹,  literally means “new bamboo”.  Two of the surrounding suburbs mean respectively, “North Bamboo” (竹北) and “East Bamboo” (竹東).  Can you guess where they are in relation to Hsinchu?