by Raoul Camus
When I entered the elevator of my hotel, I thanked the mother of a Taiwanese family who had held the door open for me. There were two children, a husband and a grandmother in the group. The smaller child, an absolutely adorable little girl no older than three, said something to me with a big smile. Her mother explained that she was welcoming me! I was a little taken back, never ever having had such a welcome in almost 70 years of traveling around the world! I bowed and said thank you, and would have loved to carry on a longer conversation with that delightful child, except that the elevator had come to my floor. Can there be any better proof of the genuine friendliness of the people of this nation and their culture?