Taiwanese actress Lien Ching-Wen has been actively expanding her business ventures in recent years. Last month, she and her team were invited to participate in a company’s leadership tour to Dubai and Abu Dhabi for a ten-day trip. Surprisingly, they encountered the largest rainstorm in the Arab region in 75 years, exclaiming, “It was truly terrifying!”
It was Lien Ching-Wen’s first time participating in the company’s top-level CEO tour. On the first day, they headed to the F1 Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi for a private welcome dinner, followed by a celebratory banquet next to a sailboat hotel. They also visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, went dune bashing in the Dubai desert, saw camels, and visited the old city area of Dubai for some sightseeing.
However, during the trip, they encountered the largest rainstorm in 75 years in the local area. While on their journey, the staff suddenly notified them that there might be heavy rain in the afternoon, leading to the cancellation of their trip to the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Inside the hotel, Lien Ching-Wen witnessed the heavy downpour outside.
She remarked, “It was truly exaggerated, even scarier than a typhoon. Some of our partners who were outside got stuck on the roads and couldn’t come back. Because it’s a desert area, there is actually no drainage system on the roads, so they were flooded, and the cars couldn’t move. It took our partners 3 to 4 hours to return!”
Fortunately, she was in Abu Dhabi at the time, not in the most severely affected Dubai. The next day when she traveled to Dubai, they also encountered delays of two to three hours due to flooded roads.
During this trip, Lien Ching-Wen personally paid extra to fly business class with Emirates Airlines. She experienced the extravagant luxury of the in-flight bar and mentioned, “I usually don’t pay much attention to the cost, but on that day, when I arrived at the VIP lounge, I asked about it. Business class was three to four times more expensive than economy class, but it was really worth it.”
She listed the exclusive treatment she received, starting with a private car pick-up from home, a dedicated airport lane, airport VIP lounge access, priority boarding, various champagnes, hors d’oeuvres, the ability to fully recline during the ten-hour flight, and a private car transfer to the hotel upon arrival at the destination.