Taiwan, or Maybe I should Get an Actual Camera

   Worked on Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman on the plane. Periodically read this in place of 3g-access withdrawal when there was nothing to do. Managed to finish the book. Flew into TaoYuan instead of Taipei because Hongqiao airport in Shanghai is way too far from my house compared to Pudong.

                  Initially, my impression of Taiwan was a lot of interspersed jungle and factories, but as we moved closer to the center of Taipei, the buildings started looking better. Dominant colors were kind of brown-grey for buildings, with pretty vibrant green mountains in the background. Most buildings seemed to be either somewhat old; perhaps a result of a warmer climate that leads to more weathering? In places closer to the jungle mountains, you can see trees actively digging into walls. Of course, there were areas of Taipei that were gleaming, such as luxury shopping courts near the Taipei 101. In comparison to Shanghai though, I would say most buildings are a bit shorter and older looking on average.

                  The people were nice and polite. Fashion wise, clothing was closer to styles I would see in California than in Shanghai, which was a nice change of pace.

                  The first evening, we took the metro to the Taipei 101 area. The Taiwan metro is also older-looking, but much more organized than the Shanghai metro. I though the plastic-coin ticket was pretty unique. Once we got off, we kind of expected to be able to find the 101 easily, as it is the tallest building in Taiwan. Oddly enough, this wasn’t the case, and we ended up circling around the metro station constantly looking up. We ended up getting our first taste of Taiwanese food in one of the food courts near there. I remember the brown sugar milk tea and the egg/seafood omelets with… pink sauce the best. Soon after we had… teppanyaki. Apparently most good places are closed during Chinese new year; go figure. They did have some life sized chibi figures outside the 101 that were cute and were popular photographic subjects though, which was pretty asian.

                  The Palace museum the next day looked small on a map, but we ended up spending around five hours going through every gallery. I do enjoy museums, so I didn’t mind, but there might have been a tad too much Qing dynasty ceramics. The jade carvings were definitely the highlight, although I found that the piece of imitation pork was more impressive than the jade cabbage. Due to the number of mainland tourists, the entire third floor was basically a huge line weaving slowly through galleries. Things that I found of interest:

Tiny carvings in walnuts

San Bernadino, California is apparently one of four major Jadeite quarries in the world. The other type is Nephrite.

Out of the many, many ceramics on display, the type I liked best was “Jun ware” because of the red/purple color.

Red pigment for ceramics has microscopic flecks of gold in it.

Curio cabinets look awesome. I don’t know what I would do with it, but I want one.

I also briefly entertained stoneworking as a hobby. Apparently you need a lot of high power tools nowadays. Maybe when I have space/money/time. Wait, that's a lot.

                  Going to the natural hot springs in the mountains in the evening was somewhat worrisome. We chose a random taxi from a taxi queue outside the museum, and then spent 40 minutes driving up a two lane road into the gathering dark. Not the safest travel practices, but hey, we’re alive right? The hotsprings themselves were probably the highlight of this trip for me. There were multiple small outdoor pools, with less than ten people there in the entire area. I chose to spend the majority of my time in the hottest uncovered pool. It was a pretty picturesque and relaxing experience: a light drizzle, a tree partially hanging over the mineral-clouded water, small pink flowers on the water surface, dark sky with only a dim lamppost for light… quite nice. A minor quibble would be the drops falling off the tree above were much bigger than the drizzle, leading to a tiny shock when they inevitably fell on your face.

                  The night market afterwards was vibrant and crowded. We didn’t really buy anything to eat other than roasted corn on the cob. Probably a waste, but after the salmonella poisoning I had the week before, I wasn’t quite ready for street food. It all smelled quite overpowering though. I’ll probably have to go again to get a legitimate experience.

                  The third day we went to Jiu Fen, which is basically a small snacks shopping district that retains the character of older Taiwan under Japan. Lots of snack shops selling Taro ____, but the most interesting two stores there was one that sold old-timey candies and snacks (I received one of those soda bottles which are sealed by some sort of glass marble) and this shop with walls just covered in clay masks. Apparently he gets “visited by apparations in his dreams”, and the masks are the various spirits and monsters he sees. They are creative, if a bit crude looking: some with multiple noses, some with oozing sores, some with genitalia on their faces, ect. The main take-home impression, though, was that the walls of this two room gallery were covered in them, with masks overlapping masks. I would not want to live in this place at night; it seems like something that would appear in a surreal book.

                  Lunch was at one of those fish markets where you buy live fish, then go across the promenade and pay someone to cook them for you. The variety of offerings was pretty staggering; everything from conches, to geoduck, to what I can only call a horseshoe crab without the tail (it tasted like odd lobster... not something I was enthusiastic about eating). It was insanely crowded though; one cookery had a 2-hour waiting line. We ended up having to walk a ways to find an open restaurant. I was more partial to the fish than the shellfish overall, unfortunately.

                  The day was rounded out through the purchase of tea. Although we have a Tenren tea place in Cupertino, I was told that the good stuff didn’t get imported out of Taiwan. I can’t really confirm or deny that though. It was pretty good tea. I also ventured on my own to get dinner at ten, and ended up just gesturing to menu items as the owners of some hole in the wall shop talked Taiwanese at me. On a side note, the Taiwanese accent is more noticeable than I thought it was. Dinner was a super cheap meal of that rice + pork mix and a vegetable + pork mix. Pretty simple, but it was fast and convenient.

                  

The half-day cab ride to HuaLian was fairly unremarkable, although Taiwan’s coastline is pretty spectacular in a vertical sort of way. Unlike every other day in Taiwan, it was actually sunny and clear, so the drive was enjoyable. Naturally I slept most of the time. We stopped in the middle to visit a temple; it had 3 levels, with three buddhas on each one: one made of ceramic, one of gold, and one of jade. The temple itself was pretty ornate, but seemed to be somewhat new compared to some of the ones in china. I thought it was nice, though, how they had free pumpkin porridge outside for whoever wanted it.

Once we got to the southern area, we had some of the local wontons, and then went to the national park there, which was famous for the mountains, flowering trees, and monkeys. Our cab driver was quite knowledgeable, and we ended up eating some sort of lamb hot pot meal together.

                  The last day consisted of the drive back to Taipei and a last bit of food. We bought a lot of mocha and pineapple cakes (except I chose green tea) to eat and bring back to coworkers. Fresh mocha is pretty good. We had lunch at the original Din Tai Feng, which tasted different than the ones in Shanghai, but still were very tasty. As usual, we ordered way too much.

                  I think if I were asked to choose between the two, I would want to work in Shanghai. It changes faster, has more things to do, and has more opportunities. However, I would want to live in Taiwan because of the atmosphere (figuratively and literally… haha) and the smaller, more stable atmosphere. Also wax apples are pretty tasty.

                  Then again, my opinion of the place will probably change drastically if I go again with someone else my age. As far as a trip where the purpose is to leisurely move around the country and relax, I’m happy with it.