Merida Bikes

According to our investigation, bikes made in Taiwan were worth nothing to foreigners more than forty years ago. A bike stores in a foreign country even posted “We refuse to repair bikes made in Taiwan”. Therefore, in 1972, the young aspiring Mr. Ting-huang Tseng founded Merida, with the philosophy of “With stable path and honest management, Merida is committed to delivering the best to the society and developing an unlimited competitiveness in business.” Merida focuses on the development and production of high quality bicycles. Nowadays, due to the trends of energy saving, carbon reduction, and anti-global warming, Merida is strongly promoting the most vital, healthy, and environmentally friendly bicycle sport. The following timeline lists the development of the famous Merida Bikes:Between 1970 and 1980, the famous leading brand “Ridley Bikes” was the incarnation of Merida Bikes.

Between 1970 and 1980, the famous leading brand “Ridley Bikes” was the incarnation of Merida Bikes.

²In 1987, Merida started to build their own brand, Merida Bikes.

²In 2001, the Chinese movie Beijing Bicycle, a story about Merida Bikes, participated in the Berlin Film Festival and won the Silver Bear for Best Film and Best Artist Award.

²In September 2002, Gunn-Rita Dahle from Norway rode a Merida magnesium alloy bike and won the annual world championship, which kicked off the Merida mountain bike dynasty.

²In August 2003, the biking family, Chin-pao Huang and his family, rode Black Wolfs that Merida specially made for their long-distance trip to complete a global adventure in 13 months.

From 2004 to 2008, Merida Bikes accompanied the world’s top athletes to win gold and silver medals in Athens Olympic games. Merida’s international mountain bike team won the world’s best bike team for four consecutive years.

²In 2008, Merida’s Ninety Six, a full-suspension mountain bike, won a Taiwan Excellence Gold Award and the Car of the Year award of the European magazine Bike Milestone.

²In 2009, Merida’s international biking team won 1^st place in the World Cup and ranked the number 1 worldwide. Merida was named one of Taiwan’s top 20 best global brands (ranked 16^th).

²In 2010, Merida’s international biking team won 1^st place in the World Cup and ranked the number 1 worldwide. Merida was named one of Taiwan’s top 20 best global brands (ranked 15^th).

²In 2011, Merida acquired the certification of China’s Famous Trademark and was named one of Taiwan’s top 20 best global brands (ranked 13^th).

²In 2012, Merida became the only bicycle enterprise awarded two Taiwan Excellence Gold Awards. Merida was named one of Taiwan’s Top 20 Best Global Brands (ranked 12^th) as well as one of the Top 10 Enterprises in China’s Bicycle Industry (ranked 2^nd).

²In 2013, Merida was named one of Taiwan’s Top 10 Best Global Brands by Interbrand.

Merida sponsored Team Lampre-Merida, a professional road bicycle racing team, to take part in World Tour events.

Merida won the Taiwan Excellence Gold and Silver Awards.

Merida became the first domestic bicycle enterprise certified by Japan’s TPM (Total Productive Maintenance).

Merida was ranked first among the Top 100 Enterprises in China’s Light Industry.

²In 2014, Merida was named one of Taiwan’s Top 10 Best Global Brands by Interbrand (ranked 8^th).
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

　 Yuanlin Township where we live has a reputation as Taiwan’s Akron (Akron is a town of tire production in Ohio, USA). Three famous tire companies, including Cheng Shin Rubber, Kenda Rubber, and Hwa Fong Rubber, have made Yuanlin Township a tire production center. They have created numerous business opportunities as well as job opportunities. This tire production area, about 20 km radius around Yuanlin Township, produces over 100 billion NTD annual output value. A factory even posted an eighty thousand monthly salary for recruiting a field technician in front of gate. Averagely every one out of ten townspeople of Yuanlin Township does a job related to the tire industry. Lots of tires, from the most upscale tubular tires for Tour De France to the super large tires for mining vehicles are related to this place. Yuanlin’s tire industry, affecting the development of the global tire industry, has created lots of fortune and brought Yuanlin the title of rich town.

The history of Yuanlin’s tire industry:

In 1946, Ko-chung Yen, Chin-pao Yang, and Hu Chang established Hwa Fong Rubber in Yuanlin that specially produced bicycle inner tube. It was the origin of the tire kingdom in central Taiwan.

In 1962, Chin-pao Rubber established Kenda Rubber that produced tires.

Cheng Shin Rubber even became a legend of the tire kingdom. Cheng Shin was established in 1967 for making inner tubes and tires for all kinds of vehicles and the radiation layer tires for cars, light trucks, and trailers. Its revenue and foreign sales are on the top of Taiwan’s rubber tire enterprises and 10th of the world rubber tire enterprises.

The brand MAXXIS has consecutively been rated one of the top ten international brands in Taiwan for many years. Moreover, it was appraised and rated, by Commonwealth Magazine, 40th among top thousand manufacturers in Taiwan. The founder Ji Luo, over 80 years old and the top 10 billionaires in Taiwan, is still leading his group.

Kenda Rubber founded by Chin-pao Yang majorly producing bicycle inner tubes is the first light reflecting tire manufacturer in Taiwan. Also, Hwa Fong Rubber founded in 1945 has become the biggest recycled tire manufacturer in Taiwan. The high quality tires they developed highly secure car drivers’ safety. The tire manufactories in Yuanlin continuously develop and produce high quality products that affect the lifeblood of the car tires of the world. The fame of the tire kingdom follows their merits.

(Source: Internet, and Business Weekly)

Among the top 50 tire factories of the world, at least 30 tire factories are from Yuanlin Township, Changhua County. Yuanlin Township does contribute a lot in this particular area.

The image shows the tire equipment in Allwell Industry Company. (Photo/Wen-cai Yang, Business Weekly)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The story of Yuanlin preserved fruits:

Dad and Mom often told us that they liked to eat sweet when they were little, so they frequently bought candies from grocery stores. That’s their childhood memory. Today, the candies become preserved fruits. The preserved fruits with sour and sweet taste in your mouth taste delicious and don’t stick to teeth. With the improvement of technology, there are more tastes of preserved fruits you can choose now. The attraction of preserved fruits is so huge that both adults and children love it. I guarantee that you cannot stop eating it.

How are preserved fruits created? People did not have refrigerator in the past, and some fruits rotted away in two or three days after being picked. The fruits were delivered to south or north by trains. Once a train was behind schedule, or too much fruit was harvested, they could all rot away. It was a big pity, so some people suggested to make fruit cans or preserved fruits to preserve the freshness of fruits. This idea started the history of preserved fruits and fruit cans.

You may not know that preserved fruits were called “salty, sour, and sweet”, but Japanese did not like the name, so they changed it to preserved fruits. Baiguo Mt. area abounds in fruits. It has sufficient sunlight and enough annual sunny days, so it provides the advantage for developing the preserved fruit industry. The preserved fruit industry started to develop from the Qing Dynasty, but the scale was not big then. It started its golden age from about 1951 for 30 years. The most prosperous period was in the beginning of 1981 when there were more than 100 factories. The industry of the town started to decline from the beginning of 1991. There were many factors for this. In the beginning, due to the rapid development of Yuanlin Industry and Commerce Department, rural labor force gradually ran away. Also, the production of raw materials reduced, and temporary labor force was insufficient.

Grandpa said that 1971 was the year for the big changes. Taiwan’s economy took off, so the family-style preserved fruit factories no longer conformed to the trend of the world. After Suntai moved to a big village to set up a modernized plant, it successfully entered international markets and sold products to the whole world. Yuanlin’s preserved fruits had created a success of 3.1 billion yearly output value, and hence the fame of preserved fruit kingdom and fruits kingdom in Yuanlin were spread out.

At the end of the 80s, due to the rising of convenience stores, the channels of domestic preserved fruit market had to be changed. The packs of preserved fruits were changed to pouches or gift boxes so that they could be easily displayed in store shelves and conformed to the popular trend.

Unfortunately, many businessmen with evil minds started to show up gradually for this change. They added many kinds of preservative and dietary supplements, which could harm our health, in their products, so that people lost their confidence in purchase.

The website for preserved fruits are as follows:

1.http://510.tw.tranews.com/Show/Style3/Column/c1_Column.asp?SItemId=0131030&ProgramNo=A100060000001&SubjectNo=3036

2. http://www.turtle-family.com/Discuz50/viewthread.php?tid=40622

3. http://fund.sme.gov.tw/upload_file/plan/p20130116155743.pdf

Produced by Yu-ling Lo