Taiwan Today

Open house events at Taiwan manufacturers bring in visitors from home and abroad.

Among all the temples at Lugang Township in central Taiwan’s Changhua County, Lugang Mazu Temple built in 1725 is the most famous. It is perpetually wreathed in the smoke of incense and burning paper offerings from devotees, while its mysterious windowless interior is lit by twinkling candles making the gold decorations sparkle. Imagine then, the immense contrast when in 2012 a completely new style of temple opened to visitors. Taiwan Mirror Glass Enterprise Co. (TMG), together with a consortium of other Taiwan glass manufacturers, decided to construct a new temple entirely from the material. They created Hu Sheng Temple and dedicated it to the sea goddess Mazu. The divinity is one of the most beloved in Taiwan, and this modern take on a traditional place of worship added a unique site of religious devotion to the historical and cultural attractions of Lugang. The clear glass structure can be lit up in bright colors at night or illuminated by sunshine in the daylight hours. Light is split into rainbows by suspended prisms of glass and the whole temple is an iridescent vista of luminosity. 
 

The temple project was conceived after the successful 2006 opening of Taiwan Glass Gallery (TGG) in Lugang Township at Changhua Coastal Industrial Park (CCIP). Prior to that, the gallery had displayed industrial glassware products and art pieces from a TMG-led strategic business alliance comprising dozens of local firms. Now it features exciting displays showing the promise of the material, such as the Golden Tunnel, a 120-meter-long walkway made from over 4,000 glass panels etched with hologram effects to depict marine life, abstract shapes and endless reflections. “We wanted to demonstrate the potential and resilience of the glass industry in the face of business and social changes,” TMG Chairman Jackson Lin (林肇睢) said.

CCIP is home to other open house manufacturing experiences in addition to TGG. The Ribbon Museum offers visitors colorful outdoor displays that are popular photo opportunities and children’s activities like fishing for ­bottles. Inside, visitors can try out ­dyeing ­ribbons, learn how to tie different types of bows and receive hands-on experience in operating a ribbon-making machine. Another such facility is the Brand’s Health Museum, situated near the sea and home to the famous Essence of Chicken. It has a projection corridor on ecological conservation and interactive displays showing its manufacturing process. There is free visitor parking at both these facilities and a shuttle bus that runs from Lugang.

Currently, there are 15 factories offering open house experiences in Changhua and over 160 across Taiwan as a whole. They all operate under an accreditation system created by the state-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) headquartered in the northern county of Hsinchu. The facilities are divided into five categories: art and culture; daily necessities; health and beauty; homes; and food and beverage, the latter of which accounts for 40 percent of the total number. After meeting ITRI specifications, factories receive a certification allowing them to open to visitors, which is renewable every three years.

Transformative Experiences
  The open house manufacturing facility concept started back in 2003, when the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ (MOEA) Industrial Development Bureau approached ITRI to help traditional producers kickstart business transformation. The concept was devised to attract visitors through marketing campaigns for dedicated facilities showcasing intriguing modern manufacturing design. Industry revenues more than doubled at open house venues from NT$2.3 billion (US$72.3 million) in 2013 to around NT$5.5 billion (US$173 million) in the late 2010s before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to MOEA’s Department of Statistics. Leeson Shu (許立昇) heads Taiwan Tourism Factory Association (TTFA), which was established in 2007 and comprises over 100 ­ITRI-accredited plants. Shu’s own Taiwan Miso Cultural Museum in the central city of Taichung’s Fengyuan District is among them. Shu is the third-generation operator of Wei Jung Food Industry Co., a traditional maker of condiments such as miso and black soybean sauce, and he traces the concept of tourism factories to conservation and revitalization programs for industrial heritage sites in the U.K. and Europe. “Industrial roots are part of a place’s historical and cultural legacy, closely linked with local community development,” Shu said. “The open house factory model offers guided tours of ­production facilities, well-designed product displays, hands-on activities and immersive experiences.” Visitors to his miso factory, for example, can watch the production process, try their hand at ­mixing soybeans, salt, yeast cultures and other ingredients and then take the unfinished miso or soy sauce home to age before use.

As open house factories continue to invest in new facilities and services, Shu expects revived growth in ­visitor numbers and industry revenues in the post-pandemic era through the incorporation of experiential, educational components. With technological support from Taipei City-based Information Service Industry Association of ROC, the miso factory and nine other sites in the country plan to introduce service robots to intrigue visitors. “Before running our miso museum, I’d been ignorant of the past of Huludun,” he said, referring to Fengyuan by its old name meaning pine trees in the indigenous Pazeh people’s language. “Huludun has a long past as a political and economic center in Taichung, so one of our core missions is to spotlight and showcase its historical, commercial and cultural nuances,” he added.

Pleasurable Leisure
While the ITRI project initially focused on small and medium enterprises, larger companies have shown interest, too, due to potential to boost revenue and enhance brand image with corporate history and culture narratives. “In some cases, ­tourism didn’t come about as the result of a ­transformation process, but rather the sites were designed with visitors in mind,” Shu said. He cited cosmetic company Arwin Bio-Tech. Co.’s four facilities open free to the public. The Arwin Charisma Museum in northern Taiwan’s Taoyuan City includes a spa center and gardens; the Arwin Plant Factory in northern Taiwan’s Miaoli County offers herb and flower gardens together with a ­high-tech indoor leafy vegetable greenhouse; the Rose and Jasmin-orange Forest, also in Miaoli, offers large rose gardens, food and beverage facilities and product ­shopping; while the Arwin Bali Beach site in the western county of Yunlin is modeled on a vacation resort featuring palm trees, a white sand beach and palm leaf huts with hammocks.
  Another site designed for public enjoyment as much as commerce is Lion Pencil Co.’s Simbalion Art Studio in Taoyuan, which won a gold prize from U.S.-based MUSE Design Awards last year for the long-established stationery and art materials manufacturer. The government-certified green building was nominated in a commercial interior design category for its installations of interactive devices, airy workshops and visitor painting areas. The whole facility reflects the company’s slogan “Imagination is your superpower” so successfully that it was selected for ITRI’s International Spotlight Tourism Factory project. Since the initiative was launched in 2013, 19 sites have received official recognition for quality visitor experiences and are featured in international tourism campaigns. “We can help promote Taiwan and increase our profile internationally,” Simbalion Director Annie Lee (李怡璇) said. She described the open house initiative as a brand-new adventure for the veteran manufacturing company. “It takes us into new areas like food and beverage services,” she said. This is echoed by TTFA’s Shu. “In the past, we just concentrated on making products without thinking about much else,” he said. “Now it’s time to engage with the public and local environments on a deeper level.”

  For TMG’s Lin, his journey is part of inspiring people to know more about their surroundings and feel closer to their homeland. “Economic gains can go well with environmental and cultural interests,” he said. “You just need a different way of thinking.”
 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw