About Taiwan

HTC, the Taiwanese mobile phone maker, is successful not without reasons, HTC has always managed to surprise pleasantly the paying public who forms its valued customer base by somehow introducing unique features that is up to the standards set by say the Apple iPhones are the RIM produced Blackberries. And what is more, HTC is able to sell its smartphones in the UK for half the cost of what a typical Apple iPhone costs.

Now, the din created by the arrival of HTC Desire has hardly gone that, HTC has come with yet another marvel of a mobile phone. The HTC Wildfire. Expected to make a proper entry into the UK market by June middle, 2010 or so, the HTC Wildfire also does not disappoint its avid fans. A mere look at its specifications will tell you this. A 3.2 inches wide capacitive touchscreen looks at you as welcome even as your welcome jingle begins its jig. Much to your pleasing senses.

The camera that this smartphone provides is a good five mega pixel one and is equipped with auto focus and LED flash. No doubt, you will be delighted with the high resolution quality of the pictures, images and videos that you click and shoot. Spoiling you further are the MP 3 player and radio that this mobile device affords. Enabling your listening experience s the 3.5 mm audio jack.

Run on Android 2.1, the cheap HTC wildfire contract is wi-fi enabled and promises a rocking time on the social networking sites to you. It does not matter whether you want to interact through Facebook, Twitter or Flickr, you are bound to have a great trouble-free time.

It is learnt reliably that T-Mobile will be releasing this smartphone on June 14, 2010 in the UK. Expectedly, there will be some really lucrative cheap HTC Wildfire contract in the offing. T-Mobile has offered a 20 per month with a 24 month contract for giving the mobile handset for free.

After experiencing firsthand the arrival of the Taiwan President in one of our most liberal cities, I had to ask myself, “Did Freedom take one on the Chen in San Francisco?”

Chen, of course being, Chen Shu-Bian, democratically elected leader of the eastern Asia island of Taiwan.

It’s not every day in the life of a Chauffeur that we get to be a part of escorting a diplomatic party. It was like what you might see on TV or one of these portrayals of some factionary character on a DVD.

When they started trotting out the bomb-sniffing dogs and rolling those curved concave mirrors under our vehicles, we knew this wasn’t an average day.

But who was Chen Shui-bian and why was his visit to San Francisco filled with so much controversy?

Apparently the Taiwanese consulate in San Francisco had ordered about 14 vehicles to pick up their party at SFO (San Francisco International Airport). Later I would find out they do not even have an official consulate in San Francisco. I anticipated we might have to drive their party there, so looked it up on the net. The building was non -descript. Seemed odd for an official site, but than as I was to find out, nothing was exactly as it seemed with Taiwan’s presence in the U.S. Again, i thought why is this?

More would be revealed.

Already there was some good fortune that i would be a part of only four vehicles that would get to go on the actual commercial tarmac to pick up the President and his immediate party. This in itself never happens. They just don’t let our vehicles go out on general landing space. Right away, it was like whoa! this is different.

Backtracking a little bit we got our first glimpse of the Taiwanese people when we arrived at our first destination, the St. Regis hotel on 3rd st.

The St. Regis is really no second cousin to high profile people staying at their hotel, but this event was on another level.

Our first objective as Chauffeurs was to find our contact. Apparently the party we were going to pick up at the hotel was going to drive out to the airport to pick up the President’s party. This was a good time to talk with some of those associated with their group and find out what was happening.

I found a congenial and willing enough Taiwanese gentleman who spoke English well and was relatively eager to enlighten me to the climate surrounding the Presidents (Taiwan) visit here.

A camera crew also approached me from Los Angeles who was hoping i could provide some inside details about the President’s arrival.

It didn’t take a lot of common sense to figure out there were at least two camps there, those that were very supportive of Chen’ visit and another group that were lining up to discredit him for being here.

Chen apparently was beloved by his supporters, who were starting to mingle in. They wore green as the color of Chen’s democratic party in Taiwan. There were also present a second group who wore red and these were Chinese people also, whether or not they were from mainland China or the island of Taiwan wasn’t clear, but i think they were living in San Francisco. That is where I first learned of the one China policy. Chen’s supporters wanted to have autonomy from Mainland China’s autocratic rule. They wanted to operate independently, perhaps even seeking their own sovereignty. Seemed reasonable to me. China is a communist regime. Taiwan wanted its freedom. They (Taiwan) were already operating as a viable, prosperous democratic model. These people in the red wanted there to not be two different Chinas, they called it “two state.” assertion. There seemed to be a deep divide. It also seemed to be complicated.