Dear Mr. ... Thank you very much for your kind reply, I truly appreciate it

[Tamar]

Hi everyone!

I work for an Israeli company who represents a Taiwanese company and I want to thank a very important manager who's Taiwanese.
I don't know him in person, and we're only in contact by emails. Also, he is in a much higher position than me (there are several other managers btwn us).

I'd like to know how can I thank him in Chinese - besides "Xie xie ni.... "

I want to tell him:
Dear Mr. X
Thank you very much for your kind reply, I truly appreciate it.

The rest I will write in English....

Pls write in pinyin, as I've only been learning Chinese for several months, so I only know pinyin for now.

Thank you!

 

[Messquito]

感謝您的回覆，萬分感激！ (Thanks a million for your reply)
gǎn xiè nín de huí fù ，wàn fēn gǎn jī

or

感謝您撥空回覆，麻煩您了，萬分感激！(Thank you for taking your time out to reply. Sorry to have bothered you, thanks a million!)
gǎn xiè nín bō kòng huí fù ，má fán nín le ，wàn fēn gǎn jī

(您(nín) is more polite than 你(nǐ), like vous/U is more polite than tu/Jij in French/Dutch)

The start is a little tricky, because in Chinese we tend to refer to business people with their position:
X經理您好：(經理=mamager/executive)
X jīng lǐ nín hǎo ：
X主任您好：(主任=manager/chief/director)
X zhǔ rèn nín hǎo ：
X老闆您好：(老闆=boss/proprietor/supervisor(anyone who is higher in position than you))
X lǎo pǎn nín hǎo ：

However, this is in Israel, I don't think following a few English uses is unacceptable, and moreover, names of positions of different nations might vary and it is sometimes hard to translate an English position into Chinese accurately without detailed definition, so this one, without the mentioning of his position, I think, is just fine:
X先生您好：(先生=sir/Mr.)
X xiān shēng nín hǎo ：

To show more respect and sound a little more polite, you can add 敬愛的(honorable) or 親愛的(dear) before it:
敬愛的X先生您好：
jìng ài de X xiān shēng nín hǎo ：
親愛的X先生您好：
qīn ài de X xiān shēng nín hǎo ：

P.s. I don't recommend writing in pinyin because...
First of all, we have a whole different phonetic system exclusive to Taiwan--注音zhùyīn(ㄅㄆㄇㄈㄉㄊㄋㄍㄎㄏ......), it is highly unlikely that a Taiwanese is familiar with the pinyin system (e.g. he might not know what they mean by cái), although he could just as well guess a little following the English phonetic system.
Second, even a Chinese, Cantonese, Singaporean, etc. wouldn't ever write in pinyin, so just copy the terms in Chinese characters and paste them.

 

[YangMuye]

I do not recommend overdoing it. If you do not know his formal Chinese title or how your Chinese colleagues call him, just addressing him as 老闆 or 總裁 sounds funny.

I think you can just write

Dear Mr. X
Thank you very much for your kind reply. Wǒ zhēnde fēicháng gǎnxiè nín!
(The rest part in English)
​

All the words in pinyin are easy to guess even for people who are not familiar with pinyin, and they are extremely basic words for learners.
The sentence is a bit stilted, but just it sounds fine for a beginner.

 

[Skatinginbc]

I want to thank a very important manager who's Taiwanese. I don't know him in person...Pls write in pinyin, as I've only been learning Chinese for several months, so I only know pinyin for now.

If you are not willing/able to write in Traditional Chinese characters, I suggest you not to write any Chinese sentences to that Taiwanese manager at all. You surely do not want to risk the chance of annoying someone by creating extra work for him (Yes, deciphering pinyin is WORK, not natural, for most Taiwanese people) or by touching his "sensitive" spot (i.e., what we call 拍馬屁拍到馬腿上, that is, you may "get kicked by the horse when you try to pat its butts" or offend someone when you kiss his "ass"). You don't know the manager well enough (and vice versa). You don't know how he will interpret the fact that you know he is Taiwanese and still force upon him with a Mainland writing system. Will he interpret it as a political stand of yours or your lack of sensitivity and thus form a wrong impression about you? Probably he won't, but what if he will? It does not worth the risk.

 

[Lucevan le stelle]

If you are not willing/able to write in Traditional Chinese characters, I suggest you not to write any Chinese sentences to that Taiwanese manager at all.

I agree. Reading pinyin is work even for Mainland Chinese people, because normally no one writes in pinyin (unless they're stuck with a computer that doesn't have Chinese input). It's much easier to read characters than pinyin. And yes, some/many Taiwanese people don't like simplified Chinese, or can't even read it.

 

[stephenlearner]

I also suggest you write Chinese characters. Use Taiwanese writing system, the traditional characters, because you are writing to a Taiwanese boss. If you are writing to a boss from Mainland China, use the simplified characters.

 

[M Mira]

All the words in pinyin are easy to guess even for people who are not familiar with pinyin

Actually, that's not true at all. I remember a hard time reading pinyin-spelt words back in junior high school, e.g. "Cixi" was totally unexpected for something that should have been "Tsz-Hsi" in my mind, and remembering what z, c, zh, q, x, ui, iu are supposed to sound like requires efforts too. Furthermore, my Chinese professor gave us pinyin quizzes during freshman year, which I believe is on par with elementary school quizzes in the Mainland, but from what I saw, it's not a cakewalk even for university students, let alone people who have next to no knowledge with it.

 

[OneStroke]

To show more respect and sound a little more polite, you can add 敬愛的(honorable) or 親愛的(dear) before it:
敬愛的X先生您好：
jìng ài de X xiān shēng nín hǎo ：
親愛的X先生您好：
qīn ài de X xiān shēng nín hǎo ：

This may be a regional difference, but is it really acceptable to start letters like this in Taiwan? In Hong Kong, adding 您好 and 敬愛的 are not acceptable format at all... If a student writes that, he/she will likely be sentenced to a couple of supplementary lessons after school.

Here's how I'd put it:

X經理／主任[尊鑒]：

來函敬悉。


To the OP:
You can find more polite ways to thank people for their letters by searching 公函用語 on Google. When it comes to letter writing, it's best not to invent our own sentences, since it's easy to get it wrong. The best way is to recite a bunch of examples and letter-writing vocabulary and use them as appropriate.

 

[Messquito]

I didn't take that into consideration. I would put 您好 at the start of the context, putting it before ":" is wrong. However 敬愛的 is not wrong from what I've seen. But I think you are right, maybe we should simplify the format as much as possible and show our respect or something else only in the context.
But speaking of the format, (to the OP) I now think it's not a really good idea to blend both languages into an official document, because there maybe two different standards and since it might seem awkward.

 

[SuperXW]

This may be a regional difference, but is it really acceptable to start letters like this in Taiwan? In Hong Kong, adding 您好 and 敬愛的 are not acceptable format at all... If a student writes that, he/she will likely be sentenced to a couple of supplementary lessons after school.

Here's how I'd put it:
X經理／主任[尊鑒]：
來函敬悉。

There are noticeable differences in styles when Hong Kongese and Mainland Chinese writing a letter, and I bet it differs with Taiwanese too.
In general, Hong Kong formal letters contain much more traditional written phrases and elements (usually shorter), which are considered antique and hard to understand to Mainland Chinese.
Wordings like 尊鉴, 来函敬悉 are not used or well-received by most Mainland people, except some professional writers.
Actually, I just got a letter from a bank in Hong Kong yesterday and I could hardly make sure what it was claiming in Chinese.
Spoken language and written language tend to merge in the Mainland (seems also in Taiwan), but not in Hong Kong. 由于官话白话文并未在香港被强制推广，本地书信保留较多古文特色。