EMPERORS OF THE SUN
PAGE 7 OF 9
| Chen regularly dons a white smock and spends long hours in Sunrider's main laboratory in its City of Industry building. |
ear Kao Shiung, in Southern Taiwan, Sunrider owns a botanical garden which
Chen uses to produce high quality herbs to compare with those provided by
suppliers. "We research everything, how to make it better, when is best time
to harvest. So the raw material we use are the best in the world."
    
Raw herbs are shipped to Sunrider's washing plant in Hong Kong where they
are thoroughly cleansed. "All the water that goes into the products have
been filtered through activated charcoal, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet
light sterilized. This is a health product so we like to keep it pure, no
preservatives in the products, all pure.
    
To produce the herbal extract that form the basis of many Sunrider products,
four to seven pounds of raw herbs are dried to produce one pound of raw
material. That pound is then boiled to produce a kind of tea, thereby
separating the active ingredients from bulky fibers. The solution is then
condensed to remove most of the water and spray-dried to produce a fine
powder. The powder is later remixed with purified water to produce a half
pound of concentrate.
    
Passionate about quality, Chen perforsonally conceives and develops new or
improved products. He shows me scent strips he is currently working with in
developing a new line of herbal cosmetics in consultation with Oi Lin. He goes
into minute detail about specific research and production techniques. "I get
my hands wet," he tells me with a gentle smile. Though he is dressed in a
tasteful blue-gray suit and subdued blue tie, I am convinced that Chen
regularly dons a white smock and spends long hours in Sunrider's main
laboratory in its City of Industry building.
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