Hello, everyone! This is Lauly, your host for this week’s #techAsia. I just came back from a weekend trip with my college friends to the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan, my favourite one on this island. Tech industry people know it as the place where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. produces its cutting-edge chips, but the city is also a beautiful place where four centuries of history and modernity seamlessly intertwine.
It has Taiwan’s highest density of temples — more than 1,500 — many of which were built in the 17th and 18th centuries. Wandering the city’s lanes and alleys, it is easy to pass by small temples built in the Ming or Qing dynasties. Hipster cafés and bars (really, really good bars) are often remodelled from old houses and are hidden gems. Food is of course the soul of Tainan. I once tried having 10 iconic local dishes in eight hours, such as beef soup, seafood congee and danzai noodles. I felt like my stomach would burst, but I was content.
During this trip, I was surprised that my longtime friends talked with me about the stock market, a topic they never cared about before. The Taiwanese bourse recently exceeded those of Canada and the UK to become the world’s 6th-largest by value. Driven by AI, the market has been lifted by so many tech stocks that trading has almost become a national pastime.