Characters, Smartphones, and Bridges: Taiwan Uniquely

Two Taiwanese Girls Make Learning Chinese Characters Easy Through Six Stamps

• With the goal to preserve and promote traditional Chinese characters, two Taiwanese girls designed a set of 6 stamps that guarantee to let you produce all characters in traditional Chinese.
• Their innovative design has won them the Gold Pin Concept Design Award as well as the Red Dot Design Award, while they successfully raised over NT$200,000 through a crowdfunding platform in just three days.
• The idea originated from the “Character Design Class” they took in college, and they started a Facebook page to promote the beauty of traditional Chinese characters in 2015. Then they decided to reorganize the eight basic strokes in traditional Chinese characters and created two sets of new characters.

Google Acquires the Smartphone Team at HTC with US$1.1 Billion

• Google announced on Thursday that it would use US$1.1 billion to acquire the smartphone team at Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC that developed the Pixel, Google’s latest smartphone. Google also received a non-exclusive license of HTC’s smartphone IP.
• The partnership between HTC and Google started in 2010 when HTC helped to develop Nexus One.
• HTC also helps Google develop the VR headset equipments for Daydream. Despite the acquisition, HTC will continue to own its brand and work on developing new smartphones.

Introducing the Longest Suspension Bridge in Taiwan

• After almost 10 years of designing and building, the longest suspension bridge in Taiwan, the Tai-Ping Cloud Bridge, was officially open to public yesterday, making it the newest edition to the growing list of touristic suspension bridges throughout Taiwan.
• The Tai-Ping Cloud Bridge is 281 meters long, and at 1,000 meters altitude, is the longest and highest suspension bridge in Taiwan. Visitors would be able to overlook the entire Chianan Plains and even the Taiwan Strait. To control the number of tourists, tickets are sold online through reservations.

A Quiet Afternoon at Ecole Cafe

• Taipei has gradually nurtured a vibrant cafe scene, but with so many options to choose from, you may often run into the trouble of not knowing which one to pick. This week, Taipei Love Notes introduce us to a quiet cafe right by an elementary school in the busy Daan District.

(Feature photo by William Yang)