Hong Kong

Brian had a business trip to Hong Kong and I was able to tag along. I found Hong Kong to be fascinating; it was the most diverse mix of cultures I have ever experienced in one place. Standing in an elevator I heard several different conversations going on, all in different languages.



This reminded me of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, in the middle of the city there is a huge park. The little pink dots you see by the lake are Flamingos.

What am I eating? Looks pretty interesting.

It is actually just waffle mix cooked in a different shaped waffle iron.

Hong Kong has a complex history. It has been a Chinese territory, colonized by the British, occupied by Japan, a British crown colony and transfered to the People's Republic of China. It is currently one of the world's leading financial centers and growing. They have the second highest value of IPO (company issues common stock to the public for the fist time); first place is London.

Here is a picture of the Hong Kong skyline in 1950.


Here is the Hong Kong skyline as of July 2008. Pretty impressive growth!

It took 5 shots to try to get it all in and I still didn't capture what was further off to the left.

This is the 2 International Finance Centre. It is currently the tallest building in Hong Kong.

However, it will only be the tallest building in Hong Kong for another few years. The International Commerce Center is currently planned to be completed in 2010 and will be 80 meters taller than 2 International finance Centre.

This is the view from the 45th floor. It looks like a forest of buildings. I cannot see a street anywhere.

The land looks very densely populated and that's because it is. The overall density is more than 6,407 people per square kilometer versus the United States which is about 31 people per square kilometer. However, the fertility rate is .95 children per woman which is one of the lowest in the world.

When looking and the Finance Centre, it looked taller than Taipei 101 to me.

What do you think? Here are the stats:
Number of floors: Finance Centre 90, Taipei 101 101
Height to the roof: Finance Centre 406.9m, Taipei 101 448m
World height ranking: Finance Centre #6, Taipei 101 #1
Think tall buildings are neat? Here is the link, in case you missed it from the previous post. Tall buildings are neat.

This was something I saw pretty often when walking around.

What is over to the right? Historic monuments? Or maybe they don't want me to see what is on the left? No, they are trying to remind everyone who comes from a land where you drive on the right side of the road to look in the correct direction for oncoming cars, they drive on the left side of the road. Probably due to the British influence.

When Brian returned from his meetings we walked around to find a place for dinner and found a great street. All the little restaurants were lined up side by side. One would be Italian, then French, then Spanish, Thai, and so on. There were probably around a dozen or so restaurants offering different varieties of food.


I tried to get a picture of the street but, not sure it is represented well in this photograph.

You can see the flags descending off into the distance, each one of strings of flags was for a different restaurant.

Although Brian and I are not major fans of French foods, I am a huge fan of their desserts. Brian and I went to the French restaurant each night we were there to try items on their dessert menu.

Here is a chocolate soufflé and some sorbet. My favorite items were the soufflé and cheese plate.

Would you like to learn more about Hong Kong? Please go to the following link: Hong Kong.

Trip to Yeliou

On Stacey's last day we went to Yeliou. Before we started our trip, we stopped by 7-11 to get some water and snacks. One of the popular food items you can fine in almost every 7-11 are boiled eggs. The water they are boiled in is brown from tea and other spices. On the day of our trip to Yeliou, Stacey and Brian decided to try one. When Brian and I first saw them, we were a little concerned about the eggs floating in what seemed like very dirty water.

Stacey and Brian tried their eggs at the same time. They could not put their finger on the spices/flavors of the egg. They determined it was not bad or as strong as they though it would but, both of them prefer their hardboiled eggs plain over tea soaked.

Yeliou is a long cape located on the Northeast coast of Taiwan formed by Dantun Mountain. The park is famous for its strange rock formations. Some of the rocks here are more than 200 million years old. What the heck was going on 200 million years ago? According to National Geographic, the first small furry animals started to appear and Dinosaurs were well on their way to dominating the Earth. Would you like to see the time line of earth (estimated 4.6 billion year history)? Please click on the following link: National Geographic time line.

Here we are starting our walk/hike around the cape.


When we began our walk on the rocks. We noticed the rocks were crawling with swarms of some kind of beach creature. They would scatter as you walked closed to them and moved with similar speed and motion as a cockroach. I got a close up of one and it is definitely not a cockroach but, we have no idea what they were.

Do you have any ideas what these could be? I did some unsuccessful searches on the internet and have no answers yet.

This looked like a doughnut surrounded by doughnut holes.

Perhaps mother nature was having some sugar cravings?

Brian is standing above "honey comb" rock and sweating buckets. We did not realize our walk would turn into a hike in what felt like 100+ degree weather.


Stacey and I are pictured here at the peak of our walk/hike. This was by far the sweatiest we had been on all of our adventures.

Luckily, the camera was very forgiving and we do not appear as disgusting as we felt.

So, why does humid heat feel hotter than dry heat? There are a few reasons and the explanations get pretty technical but, the gist of it goes something like this: the body prevents internal temperature increase by releasing the heat from the surface of the skin through the evaporation of sweat. However, in humid conditions, humid heat does not allow sweat to evaporate from the skin. This makes you stay hot longer and prevents the body from cooling down quickly. So, its not that you actually sweat more than you would in dry heat, its just that your sweat has nowhere to go. Would you like to learn more about humidity and the heat index? Go to the following link: humidity and the heat index.

Here is the most famous rock formation, the "Queen's head."

Can you see it? Her face is looking to the right and it looks like she has a very elaborate headpiece on.

This group of formations is referred to as the mushroom rocks. Almost looks like a field of mushrooms.

So, how did these rocks get this way? Aliens? Humans? This cove contains limestone which is subject to sea erosion, weathering and earth movements. Would you like to learn about coastal erosion? Click here.

You can see in the following pictures where earth movements caused the rocks to shift and project.


Would you like to learn more about Yeliou? Please go click on the link: I want to know more!

Stacey and I go to the mines

On Stacey's 4th day we took a trip to Jinguashi and Jioufen to see the remains of a gold mine. Jinguashi means "golden gourd stone." The town earned its name because the top of the mountain resembles a pumpkin and pumpkins are called jin-gua or "golden-gourd."

From the train station Stacey and I took a very scary bus ride to the Gold Ecological Park. The bus ride consisted of quick turns up and down the switchbacks of the mountain on a very narrow street in the rain.

One of the parks activities was a tour through a preserved mining tunnel; Benshan Five Tunnel.

When we purchased our tickets to go into the tunnel the cashier gave us two little blue paper hats. We thought that was a little odd, because what good would paper hats do in a mine?

We realized later that the little blue paper hats were sanitary barriers to wear underneath the plastic hardhats; which is probably why the attendant taking our picture was laughing.


Once inside the mine the temperature dropped dramatically. It was a nice change from the outside hot and humid air.

Stacey and I are at the end of the mine tunnel. Our mining experience was a pleasant break from the heat. However, we were also not working with explosives or in fear of thousands of tonnes of mountain collapsing on our heads.


After our tour, I was very curious about the conditions and history of the mine. Most of the information I found on mining and the life of miners was about California. However, this is the limited information I could find about Jinguashi. Gold was discovered in 1889, and the Ching Dynasty government set up a mining bureau between 1892 and 1893. In 1895, Taiwan was ceded to Japan, and Japan took over the mining operations. In 1905, copper was also discovered here and began to be extracted.


In 1942, the Japanese brought Allied POWs from Southeast Asia (most were British) to work the mines as slaves. In total 1,135 Allied POWs worked the Jinguashi mines during WWII. The mine and the refinery operated until 1987.

Here are some random mining facts I found doing research:
1) Between 1848 and 1852 California's population grew from 14,000 to 223,000.
2) In 1854 the largest gold nugget ever found was in Carson Hill, CA it weighed 195 lbs. valued at $43,534.
3) For each pound of aluminum you recycle you eliminate the need to mine 4 lbs. of bauxite ore.
4) The Detroit Salt mine is approximately 1160 ft deep. If the mine shaft were a building it would be close to the Empire State Building which is 1260 ft.

Would you like to become a miner? Learn about metal prices, properties for sale and job listings at www.minersmanual.com

Here I am at the end of our hike up the mine hill. You may not be able to see it but, I am giving the double peace signs.




Here is Tea Pot Mountain. It received its name because it resembles a tea pot with no handle.

Can you see it?

One of the things that has impressed me the most about Taiwan is how green everything is. Once outside the city, everything looks so lush and fertile.


This is the remains of one of the mining buildings. Although it was up and running until the early 1980's, it looks like it has been abandon for centuries.



This is Cyuanji Temple. It was built in 1896.


At the time the temple was constructed this was the only golden-faced Guan Gong in Taiwan. The statue weighs over 25 tons.


Would you like to learn more about Gold Ecological Park? Please visit the following site:
www.gep-en.tpc.gov.tw/econtent/about/about.asp

Our day at the Beach

On Stacey's 3rd day we went to the beach. One of the things on Stacey's list of things to do in Taiwan was to go to a beach and relax in the sun. Baishawan beach was listed in the Lonely Planet book as on of the best beaches to go to in Northern Taiwan. Baishwan translates to "white sand bay."


Isn't this beautiful? Why is there no one on the beach? Because this picture is off the internet.

We did not experience such picture perfect weather on the day we visited. Our view of the beach looked more like this....


When we arrived we realized that the sun was not very bright and we looked behind us to see a large dark rain cloud moving closer towards the beach.

Despite the possibility of getting caught in more rain, we decided to make the most of it and enjoy ourselves at the beach.

We wanted to go into the water and I proceeded to strip down to my bathing suit when I looked around and saw this...

What do you notice here? There are some men in bathing suits but NO women are in bathing suits. They would be going into the water completely clothed. At that moment it occurred to me that I might be completely offending everyone on the beach and put my clothes back on and told Stacey, "I think I just exposed myself to the beach. There are no women in bathing suits."

After we looked very carefully around us, we could not find any women in bathing suits. We went to a local woman on the beach who had sold us our beach mat to see if we could ask her if it was okay for us to wear bathing suits. However, my limited vocabulary did not help us very much so Stacey decided to try to ask using charades and body language.

Here is Stacey trying to explain that everyone on the beach has clothes on.


Here is Stacey trying to draw stick figures in the sand; one person with cloths on and one person with a bathing suit on.


Our efforts did not get us the information we needed. We did find out where to change our clothes and where to buy bathing suits but that's about it.

Later, we met a local couple and she was wearing a bathing suit top. We asked her if it was okay for us to wear bathing suits (with limited vocabulary and charades) and determined that it would be okay. We later played some volleyball with them and took a series of pictures.


After playing volleyball and hearing thunder getting louder we decided to bring our beach day to a close.

On the way home we stopped by a local bread store. Taiwan is famous for their bread stores and having a lot of them. There are an estimated 2,000 bread stores in the Taipei area alone. They carry a variety of bread that look very interesting. We decided to get all the bread we thought looked good and try it.

Stacey and I did not keep track but, we probably ended up trying about 15 to 20 different types of bread during her visit.

Stacey and I go to Wulai

On Stacey's second day we went to Wulai, a forest area which is famous for its beautiful scenery and waterfall.

The Atayal, an aboriginal tribe, occupied the area until the early 19th century when the Chinese and Japanese became interested in the area for the forest resources. Logging continued until the 1970s when Wulai was listed as a scenic area.

The Atayal were known as great warriors. Upon their enemy's defeat, they would display the decapitated heads. They are known for using facial tattooing and teeth filing as rituals of initiation.

In the past, men had to take the head of an enemy to show his valor as a hunter to protect and provide for his people (talk about taking it to the mattresses!). In order for the women to get their facial tattoos they had to weave cloth. Would you like to learn more about the Atayal and other indigenous tribes of Taiwan? Please visit the following website: www.atayal.org

This is the Wulai river. On the left is a small hydroelectric power plant. Wikipedia says: It is the most widely used form of renewable energy, producing no waste or carbon dioxide.

So, how the heck does water become electricity? The power plant uses the water as a power source to turn a propeller type device (turbine), which turns the electric generator, which produces energy. Get it? For more information on how a hydroelectric power plant works please visit: http://science.howstuffworks.com/hydropower-plant1.htm

This is the the Wulai water fall. It is 80 meters in height, the tallest waterfall in Taiwan.

You may not be able to tell in this picture but, Stacey and I are extremely sweaty from our walk to the waterfall.

This is a picture of me taking the Gondola ride to the resort area above the waterfall. At this point it started raining and by the time we got to the top, it was pouring.


This is a small lake area where you can feed Koi fish and enjoy the scenery.


There were also paddle boats and small row boats you could rent to go in circles around the pond. Given the small size of the pond and the weather, we passed on the boats.


We continued to hike from the pond area and came across what seemed like some kind of field exercise area. Stacey is crossing the rope bridge.

When she first started crossing, a black lizard started to scurry up the ropes towards her left hand. Unfortunately for the lizard, each step Stacey took resulted in the ropes shaking. One of her steps resulted in the lizard loosing his grip and falling several feet below. We both looked to see if he "got up" but, could not see him. We think he walked it off.

Stacey and I are posed for a traditional Atayal wedding ceremony.

However, Stacey did not take a head of her enemy and I did not weave any cloth. So, we did not earn our facial tattoos.

*** We dedicate this post in the loving memory of our courageous lizard friend. May he/she be happy living in harmony in lizard heaven. ***

Stacey and I go to Danshui and the top of 101

On my return to Taiwan my girlfriend, Stacey, was able to visit for a week.

On our first day we went to the town of Danshui and the fishermen's wharf. Most of our destinations would start by getting on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit). Here is Stacey's first trip on the MRT.


One of our first stops was to a foot massage parlor. Before our foot massages we soaked our feet in warm yellow water which smelled like sulfur. Not sure exactly what it was.


Foot massages in Taiwan are not the traditional foot massages you would receive in the States when getting a pedicure or body massage. The goal of the massage is not to feel good but, to improve your health. Foot Reflexology involves pressing reflex areas on the feet. These areas correspond to organs and systems of the body (shown on diagram below). Would you like to learn more about Foot Reflexology? Please visit the following site: www.reflexology-research.com/whatis.htm


A few minutes into our foot massage we discovered that is was rather painful. When I asked Stacey how her massage was she responded with the following facial expression...


Nothing a little ice cream can't fix!

This is a very popular ice cream on the boardwalk. During peak business hours the ice cream vendor will try to make a tower of ice cream as high as they can without it collapsing onto itself.

Here is Stacey's first Taiwanese meal. It comes with chicken as the main dish, a side of cold noodles, cold pickled vegetables, rice, fish dumplings and sweet beans.


After lunch we walked to the Fisherman's Wharf. On the way, we ran into some pigs.


Aren't these little pigs cute?


Our walk to the Fisherman's Wharf was a bit longer than we had anticipated. When we arrived we discovered that the Wharf is pretty dead on Tuesdays in the middle of the afternoon. There was very little activity and it was a little disappointing.

This is Lovers Bridge. It is a local hang out for hormone raging teens. Just kidding, it received its name because construction of the bridge started on February 14, 2003.

Stacey found out that the moisture in the air did not bode well with her flip flops and we needed to stop to get some band aids for a temporary fix.

After her first day of walking in flip-flops Stacey would resort to my fashionable running shoes and socks touristy look for the remainder of her trip.

After our visit to Danshui, we headed back to the apartment. Since it was a relatively clear day we went to the top of Taipei 101 (currently the world's tallest building).

To get to the observation area, we were anticipating a very long elevator ride. However, Taipei 101 also has the world's fastest elevators. To climb 89 stories, we were in the elevator for 36 seconds.

Here is a view from the observation deck on the 91st floor.


Some people have commented that all of my pictures look a bit hazy. That is not haze or dirt on my lens, it is just that humid.


I was able to find our apartment from one of the viewing angles. I was trying to point it out to Stacey but, it was nearly impossible to explain... "See that building? Now look across the street to the other building and three buildings South of that... See it?"


Would you like to know more about the world's tallest sky scrapers? Please visit the following link to see a diagram of sky scrapers lined up against one another as well as those currently being built. http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?1178316

Being on the 91st floor was pretty amazing but it did not sink in how high I was until I saw the following view:

This is the stair well down to the bottom of the building. It looks like an endless journey. Almost like I was inside a M.C. Escher painting (1941-1954 period) www.mcesher.com.