Tulane in Taiwan: Day 8

We started the day with a visit to the Bureau of Health Promotion which is part of the Department of Health. This organization promotes healthy lifestyles by encouraging many things such as breast feeding, healthy diet and regular exercise, and smoking cessation. We learned mostly about the smoking cessation. Smoking exposure in public areas has been reduced along with the exposure rates in schools, but there is more work that needs to be done. We also talked about the need for a tax on cigarettes, to hopefully make them unaffordable. This is what we were petitioning for last week.

A director of the Bureau of Health Promotion.

Pig intestines that some people ate for lunch. Not me!

Our next stop was Chang Bing Show Chwan Memorial Hospital Facility. This included a teaching facility where surgeons from all over the world can come to learn state of the art techniques, a mental health facility, and a hospital. The mental health facility was pretty much a spa equipped with a gym, a movie room, a place for massages, and much more. I think we all would have loved to stay there for a few days. The hospital was beautiful. They built it to look like a hotel so people wouldn't dread coming to stay there. There is shopping and coffee shops to occupy you time while you wait to see the doctor.

The outside of the hospital

The lady is demonstrating how light effects how surgeons see during surgery.

Where doctors come to learn new surgery techniques.

The food court at the hospital. They want it to look tropical and relaxing.

On the way to dinner, we stopped to see another temple and town.

Lukang Lung-shan Temple

This is a water well. One side opens to the street and one to a house. This is because the owners of the home want to share their water with poor people.

Theresa showing off the signs surrounding the entrance to a home. They change these signs every year.

These people are burning money in honor of one of the Gods. They are burning the money so the God will have it to use.

Tonight we were treated to dinner by the directors of the hospital that we visited earlier today. They took us to a Japanese restaurant. To be treated to a Japanese restaurant in Taiwan is a high honor. The food consisted mainly of seafood. They kept bringing out more and more courses. I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves tonight.