The Center is the island's first Cabinet-sponsored consultancy office dedicated to helping international visitors and foreign immigrants solve problems they encounter in Taiwan.

Located at No. 107 Zhong Yang Road in Hsinchu City, the assistance center is a collaboration project of Hsinchu City Government, Hsinchu County Government, and Miaoli County Government. It is supervised by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, Executive Yuan. The center's services cover Hsinchu City and County, Miaoli County, Hsinchu Science Park, and other related administrative areas.

Its office is staffed with professional consultants and young men serving alternative military service who speak fluent English or Japanese. It has a reading area and 10 computers with Internet access. International visitors are highly advised to come by the center in person or visit the website http://foreigner.hccg.gov.tw/ if they need help in getting settled in Taiwan, planning travel itineraries, doing business and investing, finding houses and obtaining medical care, as well as acquiring transportation, education and culture information.

"With so many foreign professionals working at Hsinchu Science Park and universities with foreign students nearby, we need a foreigner assistance center to make our friends feel at home," said Hsinchu City Mayor Lin Junq-tzer in an interview with the Taiwan News on September 8.

Lin expressed his gratitude to the Cabinet-level Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, Executive Yuan. for providing the necessary funds and human resources to complete the project.

Hsinchu hosts Taiwan's best-known science park, six universities, and some 300 high-tech manufacturers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, the world's largest made-to-order chip factory.

The mayor said he hoped that the Center could cover more aspects of life in providing assistance that suits the needs of international visitors.

"We will conduct more surveys to see what foreigners really need, and make changes to meet those needs."

"We also need to know the locals who can speak foreign languages. Say if Russians or Mongolians come here to work or visit, we can have translators give the foreign friends instant help," said Lin. "To reach this objective, the three local governments involved in this project plan to set up a talent database in the future."

Ask and be answered

in minutes

Hsu Mei-hsiu, Conrad Kiang, Victor Pan, and Charlie Wang are the four regular staff currently working at the Center.

Hsu said that when the Center first opened last December, she and the other staff spent a lot of time giving out fliers on the street and at restaurants to promote the office.

"We really need more publicity; many foreigners still don't know that we're here and ready to help them," she said.

Whenever a foreigner comes in, the staff gives all they can to solve the problems that usually come from living in a new environment. According to Hsu, so far most foreigners who have visited the Center made enquiries on visa application or tourism information.

She recalled an interesting encounter with Phoebe Lubono from the United States. Lubono's husband was on a 10-day business trip to Hsinchu, and she had to make her own sightseeing plans in the daytime.

Lubono came to the Center one early morning and asked Hsu how she could visit all the famous scenic spots in Hsinchu City in one day. Hsu wrote down the bus numbers and travel routes for Lubono and reminded her to get on and off at the right bus stop.

The next morning Lubono showed up again, this time asking for help on getting to the seaside.

"I was quite happy to see her again," Hsu said, "wrote down the information she needed, and said goodbye."

But Lubono was back in the evening.

"She bought us a lot of bread from Hsinchu's most famous bread store and said she had great fun in Hsinchu and that Hsinchu people are really friendly."

Hsinchu boasts several museums of which the Hsinchu Municipal Glass Arts and Crafts Museum and Hsinchu Arts Museum, are the most famous. National historic sites such as Hsinchu State City Affairs Office, the Hsinchu Train Station, and the State Library and Monopoly Bureau were built by Japanese architects during the 1920s and 1930s.

When it comes to scenery, Hsu said Hsinchu's Eighteen Peak Mountain or the 17km Coastline Scenic Area sightseeing route along the splendid coastline, the former residence of late General Chang Hsueh-liang in northern Hsinchu County, and Miaoli’s Baishatun Matsu Temple and wood carving in Sanyi are not to be missed.

In addition to providing tourism information, Wang said there was one time he assisted Hendrik Brand from South Africa to write a complaint letter and appear in court for litigation on a used-car he had bought from a local Hsinchu car shop. It turned out that the car had some serious problems that could not be fixed. Brand went back to the shop and asked for a full refund, but the shop owner refused. Nowhere to turn to, he went to the Center one day to try his luck. "Although he only got a partial refund in the end, he said he was very happy to have found someone who was willing to help him," said Wang.

Multilingual service

Kiang said that foreigners who come in are taught how to use the website, which has Chinese, Japanese, and English interfaces. "On top of that we inform them of all the events that are happening during the month in Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, and Miaoli County."

"This is very useful information for people who are not familiar with the region," he said.

The Center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. Beyond those hours, foreigners can always leave their questions on the website's message board that the staff check and answer questions every morning.

Foreigners can also call the 24-hour Information for Foreigners Hotline (0800-024-111) whose operators speak English.

Some foreigners would come by and chat with the staff, asking their advice on how and where to open up their own shops.

Generally, foreigners who visit the center are in Hsinchu for a short stay or have just arrived in Taiwan. The Center currently functions like those one finds in the United States, Kiang observed. "Many foreigners are happy with this center; they say it makes them feel at home."

As of September, a total of 104 international visitors have come for assistance, most of them from the United States, Canada, and South Africa. More than 180,000 people have used the website.