Many people use the digital world daily, whether through Zoom calls, rides in smart cars, or interacting with screens, but few know that the heart of this global digital system is located in a small Asian city. The city of Hsinchu in Taiwan is critically important to modern human civilization.
Even when the whole world is asleep, for example, at two in the morning, work is bustling in the Hsinchu Science Park. This activity is not related to noisy entertainment, but to the blue light of cleanrooms where semiconductor chips are produced—incredibly tiny, thousands of times smaller than a human hair. Hsinchu is what the world calls the 'chip capital.'
More than ninety percent of the most advanced semiconductor chips (less than 10 nanometers) produced globally today come from Taiwan, and Hsinchu serves as the main center for this production. Chips created in Hsinchu are used everywhere: from iPhones to artificial intelligence supercomputers and modern electric vehicles. Because the headquarters of giants like TSMC are located here, the city is a key node in the global technology supply chain, the failure of which could paralyze the world's digital economy.
The modern appearance of Hsinchu is defined by the Hsinchu Science Park, established in 1980. Entering this park, visitors feel as if they have stepped into the future, surrounded by gleaming glass buildings and young engineers who are constantly in motion.
However, the human aspect of life here is quite complex. Life in Hsinchu is dictated not by people, but by data, yield rates, and deadlines. The daily routine of engineers includes working for hours in protective suits in cleanrooms without using phones and experiencing severe stress due to the slightest errors at the nanometer level. Even in Hsinchu cafes, friends' conversations revolve not around the weather or movies, but around new factory (fab) technologies.
Despite high income levels and a good standard of living, the faces returning after grueling 12–14 hour shifts demonstrate the true price this city pays.