(near) Total Eclipse of the Sun

Today I had the pleasure of witnessing a nearly (86%) total eclipse. AJ told me that the government was handing out eclipse-viewing glasses at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, about 5 blocks from where I live, so I got up at 7am and walked over there.

The line was incredibly long, wrapping around the whole courtyard. it took me about 30 minutes to get my glasses


I'm planning a bigger post on the CKS Memorial soon, so I'll just say for now that it is built in rememberance of a General, one of the founding fathers of Taiwan. And, its really big.




After I got my glasses, I wandered around a bit. The eclipse had just started, the sun looked the same, but through the glasses it looked like someone had taken a bite out of it. There was a screen hooked up to a telescope that showed the progress.


The courtyard was absolutely filled with people, most of them looking up with the same expression on their face.




I snuck a shot of this kid sitting down, he looked sleepy.


The eclipse began around 8:30am. It reached its peak at around 9:30, and was nearly over an hour later.
As the morning went on, more and more people showed up, including busloads of kids, parents and children, or elderly people. The diverse crowd was what made the event memorable for me.

More pics..

Danshui

On Thursday I took the train up to Danshui, an old harbor town north of Taipei. It used to be a busy port and fishing community, but it seems to have become more of a tourist destination. Just outside the train station was a busy boardwalk, that reminded me of Santa Monica, or Galveston. Lots of food for sale, and carnival games. It was crowded, even on a weekday afternoon.

This is a panorama of the view from the boardwalk. The town of Bali is on the other side of the river. I'll be going there in a few weeks.


I walked past the boardwalk and found some less crowded shops for a picture.

Past the boardwalk was Fort San Domingo, the remains of a fort built in the 1600s by the Spanish. It has since been occupied by the Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese. From the late 1800s until the 1970s, The fort and nearby villa were home to the British Consulate.


This was one of the best 'tourist' spots I've been to. All of the signs and displays had well-written english translations, and the buildings were air-conditioned. They were clear to point out that the buildings had been restored or rebuilt to show how they were in the past, but they also left a few areas unrestored to show, for example, the different coats of paint on a wall where it had been repainted under different owners.

This is one of the hallways outside the consulate building.


And this is the view out the front door.


I've been learning more and more about the complicated political history of the country. Taiwan became the outpost of a Chinese general who was defeated by the communists, and the country was the last stronghold of old Chinese government. As the cold war heated up, many countries, including the US, supported Taiwan as an opposition to the People's Republic of China. However, China put great political pressure on the world to view Taiwan as a colony instead of a country on its own. In 1971 they lost their seat on the U.N., and the next year England called their Consulate home, as they ceased to recognize the Taiwan government.

Just up the street from the fort stands another historical site, Oxford college, the first western university in Taiwan. It was founded by a missionary, Dr George Mackay, who traveled from Canada to start a mission in the 1800s. When he reported to his superiors that he had been teaching classes underneath a tree, they sent back enough money to build a school. The building still stands, surrounded by the more modern Alethia University.

This is the old cross on top of the Oxford College building.


As I walked back down the bay, I saw more people sitting by the water. There were also old men fishing, though I cant imagine they'd catch anything worth eating. Several stray cats prowled the area, begging the fishermen for scraps.


As the sun began to set, the brown water turned blue, and almost looked inviting. It also made for some dramatic images.


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When I got back to the boardwalk I bought a corndog and an ice cream, and took the opportunity to take some more pictures.







I wanted to stay and watch the sunset, but I was dead tired. I'll have to come back another time.

Going to the Movies in Taiwan.

Went to the movies tonight. Sometimes the smallest things make the biggest difference. Let me break it down...

-The biggest difference is that when you buy a ticket, you also choose which seat you want. This means that most people buy tickets in advance so they don't end up in the very front or very back. I don't know if you can move up once the movie starts, probably not.

-Because of difference #1, most people reserve their tickets online of by phone. when you reserve your ticket, you type your number in and it sends you a text message with a number on it. when you go to the counter, you show the message to the girl at the counter (they were all girls) and she prints out your ticket.

-When you pay for your ticket, you also pay for soda or popcorn if you're planning on getting any. This means the line moves slower, as everyone spends time at the register deciding if they want something.

-You can bring food and drinks into the theater. I was told that this wasnt always the policy, but recently some people filed a lawsuit against the theaters, and they changed their policy. I cant imagine why this hasn't happened in America yet. Also, you can get caramel on your popcorn.

-There weren't nearly as may commercials before the movie, most of them were public service ads from government offices like the CDC and mass transit.

-English movies are shown in English, with Chinese subtitles at the bottom.

-As far as I can tell, the sense of humor over here is very different. People laugh at different things then an American audience would laugh at. They like slapstick and physical comedy.

The movie I went to see was Transformers 2. Its incredibly popular, I saw a 10 story ad on the side of a building last weekend. It was playing in probably half of the 18 screens of the theater we went to. As far as my thoughts on the movie, I think they can be best portrayed in a haiku.

Loud, defies logic.
Jive talking robots are just
not funny. nice lens flare.

Longshan Temple

I went to the Longshan Temple on Wednesday. Its one of the oldest temples in the city, and interestingly it houses shrines to gods from 3 different faiths. There was a lot that I saw that I don't fully understand, I'm trying to learn more about some of the local customs.

Some people would pick up sticks of incense and light them, then kneel on benches and pray. Others tossed red wedges on the ground over and over. I was told that if the wedges faced the same direction, then God would grant their wishes.


In front of the shrines, their were big tables where people would set food while they prayed, as an offering to the gods.



There was a stand in the entry of the temple selling food. It reminded me of the Bible story about Jesus throwing out the money-changers, and made me wonder if they make a profit selling the food. I guessing they do, since there was also a souvenir shop on the other side.

More pictures from the temple..







Monk with an ipod.



After I left, I walked around the Longshan neighborhood for a while, its one of the lower-class neighborhoods in the city. I was surprised to see people burning paper in metal cans in front of their shops. I looked closer and they were burning paper squares with gold squares in the center. I tried to take pictures of a few, but they waved me away (first time that's happened here). I found out later that that day was the first day of the lunar month, and that they burn the paper in place of money, as an offering to their gods.

I got a shot of one of the cans later.



There was a park outside the temple, and it was filled with elderly men, to the point that there was barely a place to sit.



some of them played chess, but mostly they just sat and waited.

I was told that they were all retired old men, and that they probably live with their children or grandchildren. They dont want to be in the house all day, so they go to parks and sit around. Kind of sad.

Taipei 101, and an overheard conversation

On Monday, July 6, I went to the Taipei 101 skyscraper, which holds the record for the tallest completed skyscraper in the world. It will give up this record in a few months when the Burj Dubai opens, but that doesn't make it any less impressive. The observatory is on the 88th-91st floors, and it offers an incredible view of the city and the mountains.

A few pictures.. The first two are composites. I've been playing with the photomerge feature in photoshop CS4.

Eastern Taipei.


North Taipei.


Western Taipei. The black arrow points to where I'm living.


Southern Taipei, and the mountains.


View from the street.



While I was in the outside observatory, I overheard a conversation between an American and what I assumed was his Taiwanese girlfriend. I'm guessing they were on vacation, to visit her hometown and tour around the area.

"I dunno. I mean, I like your town, it has culture. But this is just a city. I mean, I live in a city, and I hate it there."

First off, if you're on the 91st floor of the tallest skyscraper on earth, then you really don't have the right to complain about anything.

And second, I've heard this argument about cities vs towns or how someplaces have culture and some don't, and it just rings so hollow. This city is full of culture. You probably wont see it from your hotel room, or through the window of a taxi, but I promise its there. Every city has culture. Real culture, not somebody dressed in their grandfather's clothes making clay pots on the side of the road to sell to tourists for ten times what they're worth. Get of of your taxi, walk down the street, cram into the MRT train, go to a temple, buy a bowl of octopus soup from a guy on a street corner. Watch people haggle at a market, or do Tai Chi in the park. There is culture everywhere, its just not wrapped in plastic waiting for you to buy it.

First weekend - Culture Shock

After nearly 14 hours of sitting on a plane and 30 hours after getting any decent sleep, I landed in Taiwan at 11pm local time, Friday July 3. I was expecting some culture shock, but that still didnt prepare me. Coupled with jet lag and lack of sleep, I spent most of the first weekend in kind of a crabby daze. I remember making a pretty negative facebook note the night I arrived, and after re-reading it a few days later I wanted to delete it.

Anyway, we started off Saturday by going to the RT-mart to get me some necessities. RT-mart is similar to Walmart, but even more brightly lit and crowded. In the electronics section, there was a Michael Jackson concert video playing. this was just 4 days after he had died, and I was surprised at the crowd that was gathered around the screen. Its easy to forget that he was just as popular out here as he was in the states, if not more so. Little reminders throughout the week like displays at record stores, t shirts with his face for sale, or his music pouring out of a trendy shop have kept that in my mind

.

After that, we walked around the shopping district, and had lunch at a place that served hot pot. This was another new experience. A bowl of seaweed soup was put on a burner on my table, and I was brought trays of meat and veggies to cook in the boiling soup. I had beef and pork and cabbage, and a side of crab cakes. It was served with tea and tiny glasses of plum vinegar, which was incredibly sweet.



Yes, the waiter brought me a fork as soon as I sat down, along with an english menu.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the trendy downtown areas, including the SOGO shopping mall.



Cate Blanchett was the first white face I saw that day. The two other girls are local celebrities.



This girl is a local tv host, she was in the mall giving a presentation for a facial cleanser.




On Sunday, I got my first experience with the MRT, Taipei's transit system. Its surprisingly cheap and efficient, I'll post more about that later.

After lunch, we went to a museum called Taiwan Storyland. It aims to recreate how the city looked a generation ago. The whole place was underground, and kind of claustrophobic. It reminded me a little of Disney world or Epcot center, in that it seemed like a sugarcoated version of history.





It was divided into rooms, each room had a theme, like the police station, dentist office, etc. We went into the classroom, and AJ thought it would be funny to write my name on the chalkboard.


I met AJ while I was in school in Seattle back in 2001. She has been a good friend for the last 8 years, and she's been a tremendous help in planning this trip. I would not be out here if it wasn't for her. I'll post more about her soon.

After we left Storyland, it started raining, and we were forced to wait it out in a shop.



After the rain stopped we went to Ximending Circle, the even trendier shopping district. The entire area was FILLED with people, while 10 story tall billboards for harry potter and transformers towered overhead.





After leaving Ximending Circle, we went back to SOGO for dinner at a Japanese-style restaurant. Their specialty was an omelette-style pie consisting of noodles, egg and meat cooked on a hot skillet at the center of the table. Side dishes included a soup with squid meat, and a salad that looked suspiciously like taco salad.



The pie was striped with mustard and garlic sauce and was delicious.




That's it for my first weekend. I apologize it took so long to get this going. I'm going to try and get caught up by this weekend, and then start posting every few days. Thanks for reading!