Location: Hsinchu Gongdao 5th Road Jingyan Banquet Hall
Travel note: Second visit to Jingyan Banquet Hall on Gongdao 5th Road, Hsinchu, and Zhubei 201 Bistro. For the third consecutive year, I attended the Taichung First Senior High School Hsinchu alumni event at noon. Most at our table were alumni from classes 56–59. Before the banquet, Director Qiu, class 45 from the Industrial Development Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, gave a speech: "AI Development Trends in the Era of New U.S. Tariffs." Taiwan is small—chatting with Zhengnan, a lawyer from the same class living in Shanghai at our table, I found out we both worked at Polaris Group around 2008–2009, and we both reported to General Manager Shi at the time, just in different departments. Also, Zhengnan is familiar with Deputy General Manager Zhenkun and former colleague Steve. Zhengnan sent our photo to General Manager Shi, and after all these years, General Manager Shi still remembered me—touching. Afterward, I went to the home of Bowen, a junior from class 62. He turned the rooftop into a private glass house bar, only for friends and colleagues, and even made a 201 Bistro sign. We drank an Italian …
