Taiwanese Alumni Reunite in Taipei

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

In November, WFI Director Sara Wu visited Taiwan and had the opportunity to meet with all of WFI’s Taiwanese alumni, most of them from the Taiwan Forest Research Institute.

The reunion kicked off atop the Taipei World Trade Center, where dinner was held in a suite overlooking the city nightscape. Those attending included Mr. Yen-Chang Chen and his wife and younger son, Dr. Chiung-Pin “Bonnie” Liu, Dr. Jiunn-Cheng "David" Lin and his wife and two sons, I-Shang Chen, Dr. John Wu, Min-Chung “Galy” Yang, and Dr. Pei-Jung Wang and her husband and baby son. Hosting the event were Sara Wu, her father and his wife.

Many of the alumni had to travel far to attend the dinner, as David is director of the remote Taimali research station, Yen-Chang is now director of the Fushan forest recreation reserve, and Bonnie teaches at a university in Tai-chung. The effort they made to attend the dinner was greatly appreciated and it was an opportunity to catch up on what everyone has been doing.

In the days following the alumni reunion, Bonnie accompanied Sara and her family to Fushan, where the Taiwan Forest Research Institute operates an experimental research forest that is also a popular tourist site. Yen-Chang Chen is now the director of the research station. The Fushan watershed feeds into Taipei’s drinking water catchment and visitors are restricted to 300 persons a day to protect the wildlife habitat and watershed. Director Chen invited the Wus to stay the night at the TFRI research facilities, which includes living quarters. Wildlife is plentiful at the reserve, including monkeys, various birds, wild pigs, bats, and insects. There are also fern gardens, a rhododendron garden and rare native species. University students and faculty routinely conduct studies at Fushan, and a small but effective staff, along with hundreds of volunteers, help to maintain trails and provide educational interpretation. Some of the plants at Fushan have medicinal potential and are being analyzed to produce commercial applications.

After Fushan, Bonnie met the Wus in Taichung, where they took Taiwan’s new high-speed rail to get there in less than an hour from Taipei. Bonnie is a professor of watershed ecology, the only female faculty in the entire forestry department. One of her students toured the group through the newly opened National Museum of Natural Science, where a large indoor arboretum houses a waterfall, canopy walk and many tropical plants. The museum also boasts a life-size, multi-million dollar robotic T-Rex dinosaur. The museum is one of many new recreational parks and visitor centers that Taiwan is building to attract tourists. WFI sends heartfelt thanks to our Taiwanese alumni for facilitating these trips!

For more photos, click on the group picture.