Every city needs some colour, especially if the city concerned is famous for being a city nobody wants to visit. Or live in. Or work in. Kaohsiung is exactly that city. It may be the southern capital of Taiwan and a … Continue reading Transformation by Colour @ Kaohsiung 高雄 Street Art ~ and more!
Ah yes, and as with every Chinese New Year, food featured highly! Food, food and more delicious food. YUMMY! For most people, the New Year celebrations revolve around family reunions, gatherings with old friends, temple visits to pray for blessings for the new year, preparing food offerings and worship at the family ancestor shrine, and of course the enjoyment of meals and delicacies of every kind. Many people also take the chance to travel, but just as many people say they can’t face the traffic jams and prefer to stay home. Meanwhile those in the tourism and transport business work … Continue reading Chinese New Year 2018!
What a beautiful dawn and sunrise this morning, viewed from the 8th floor of St. James’ Church, Taichung! The start of a day of gorgeous weather! One of the great traditions of Chinese New Year is catching up with old friends, often those not seen for a whole year or even longer. I’ve been riding around Taichung on a u-bike all week doing this – and today was special, because I visited Fr. Toon Maes, CICM, at St. Paul’s RC Church, Taichung, where he is enjoying the sun after all those cold, wet and windy years up near us on … Continue reading Happy Chinese New Year’s Eve 2018!
Please pray for Hualien on the Taiwan’s east coast, battered by a legion of earthquakes, starting with a magnitude 5.8 earthquake on Sunday February 4 that peaked with the main quake, magnitude 6.4 (registered as 7 in downtown Hualien) at 11:50 pm, last night, Tuesday February 6. Between those 2 major earthquakes, 94 shocks were recorded, with five of them reaching magnitude 5.0 or higher. Since last night, there have been seemingly non-stop aftershocks. Many of these have been felt throughout Taiwan. So although last night’s earthquake was not totally unexpected, the fact that 4 major high-rise buildings in Hualien … Continue reading Hualien Earthquake, Taiwan’s East Coast, February 2018
Yes, finally, at long last, after 10 days of non-stop rain and more rain, and getting colder by the hour, today the rain has finally stopped, people’s moods have lifted, the skies have sort of cleared and in the far distance on Yang-Ming Shan Mountains 陽明山, just above Taipei City, there is SNOW! YIPPEE! The grey snow-laden sky is kinda merged with the white snow, but hey, check it out. Ha ha, it’s there, honest. And just in case you’re still not sure what you’re supposed to be looking at – check out the arrows below! There’s no snow down … Continue reading YIPPEE, SNOW!
A beautiful 3-minute video of Taiwan from the air, in memory of Mr. Chi Po-lin, photographer extraordinaire…. So do plan to come and visit! Continue reading Taiwan from above
Wow, the sun’s out! Yippee! After days and days of non-stop rain and wind, hey, today’s beautiful. Maybe Spring is coming?! And the Cherry Blossom is just starting here in Sanzhi. Yes Yes Yes! I just love Cherry Blossom! Continue reading Cherry Blossom’s Just Starting!
Today is THE day, the climax of 5 days of celebrations, and as I write this, events are ongoing, with firecrackers and drums and trumpets and singing and offerings and all sorts of activity, and being attended by nearly everyone in the whole town. And all in the rain and cold! It’s been like this all weekend, but hey, when there’s a festival in town, a bit of rain and cold won’t stop anyone. But this was the scene on Thursday, the last time that the sun appeared in Sanzhi! Two weeks ago, I wrote here about the preparations for the … Continue reading Sanzhi 三芝 Matzu Temple Centenary Celebrations, 1917-2017
Been doing a bit of research among some of our students in the 15-17 year age group to find out who their pop idols are ~ part of my English conversation classes, so bringing you up to speed, here goes! Top of the list by far for everyone are the boy bands from S. Korea – all brought together on TV talent shows and promoted by the mega-entertainment industry that is so big in S. Korea. And currently top of the list of all of them is BTS. Super Junior is long over, now it is BTS. Our girls say … Continue reading Pop idols @ Taiwan-Style!
Catherine Lee 