Yesterday managed to get a front seat on the Taipei Metro…. Today is October 10 (10/10 Double Ten), Taiwan’s National Day ~ and yesterday was a day off in lieu, so Taipei was very quiet and, well, very wet! Continue reading Rain, rain and more rain….
Three people died and 376 were injured as Typhoon Dujuan pummeled the nation with torrential rainfall and strong winds, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday. Source: Typhoon kills three, injures 376, disrupts supplies – Taipei Times Continue reading Typhoon kills three, injures 376, disrupts supplies – Taipei Times
It’s Mid-Autumn Moon Festival today, one of the most important festivals of the year, celebrated with barbecues and moon-gazing, visits home and moon cakes. We even have a day off on Monday to make the most of it all. Yippee! It’s also the weekend of Taiwan’s annual North Coast Kite Festival at Baishawan Beach 白沙灣 just a mile or so up the road from here. Must-go! Ah yes, and to top it all, we have a typhoon on the way! Hopefully the last of the season. Typhoons mean rain and wind, and certainly no moon-gazing, but the wind is of course … Continue reading North Coast Kite Festival 2015 @ Baishawan 白沙灣 !
Within walking distance of Sanzhi 三芝 is a beautiful area, Hengshan Terraced Fields ~ and now is the time of the year to go, when the water bamboo (water oats) are almost at their full height, almost ready for harvest. This evening as the sun was going down, they were at their best! Y’know, Sanzhi is quite an amazing place! Continue reading Hengshan Terraced Fields 橫山梯田 @ Sanzhi 三芝
Just 5 minutes on a bus up the road from here in Sanzhi 三芝 and then a 1 km walk, and there is the northern tip of Taiwan, and the famous Fugueijiao Lighthouse. It’s round the promontory from the Fuji Fishing Harbour, and hidden behind the army camp, but the big news is that the lighthouse grounds are now open to the public. All day every day except Mondays, and the whole world has turned up to check it all out! The lighthouse was built in 1896 by the Japanese – the first one built by them after they arrived … Continue reading Fugueijiao Lighthouse 富貴角燈塔 now open to the public!
‘Imagine you’re a presidential campaign director. With just four months to go before election day, which of the following would you not want your candidate to post on Facebook?’ Source: Taiwan’s Nationalist Party looks to be heading toward a historic defeat – LA Times Continue reading Taiwan’s Nationalist Party looks to be heading toward a historic defeat – LA Times
What a place! In its heyday, Jinguashi 金瓜石 was a very major happening kind of place, a gold rush town up in the mountains above Keelung on Taiwan’s NE coast with one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines ~ over 600 km of tunnels in and under those hills. During the Japanese era (1895-1945), it became the largest copper mine in the Japanese empire. But by the 1970’s it was all gone, the gold rush all finished. As with all mining towns, so here – a tragic history of hard labour and terrible working and living conditions. Worse too, as … Continue reading Teapot Mountain 茶壺山 and Banpingshan 半平山 (半屏山) Ridge
Thought you might to see what I found chilling today at St. John’s University ~ a Batocera rubus albofasciata, otherwise known as a Mango Longhorn Beetle ~ looks kinda handsome but turns out to be a pest, as it bores into trees and munches its way through them…. Turns out to be quite common in Taiwan, but if even one turns up in Europe, it’s a mega-crisis, with special monitoring in place….. Beauty ‘n the Beast? Here they’re combined in one ~ ah, the Beauty of a Beast! Continue reading Beauty of a Beast…
After weeks and weeks of rain, suddenly the most beautiful weather for the weekend ~ and the whole of Taipei spent yesterday on Yang-Ming Shan Mountains! Mega-long walk, 4:00am start from Sanzhi 三芝 via the graveyards – 5 hours to the top of Datun Shan 大屯山 (1092m), then 2-3 more hours to Qixing Shan 七星山 (1120m), finishing in a free foot-bath at the Lengshueikeng 冷水坑 Hot Springs and bus back at 2:00pm….. Typhoon damage on the roads and paths meant some are still closed, and vandalism to the summit pillar on Qixing Shan means that it is currently all wrapped up in plastic… … Continue reading Yang-Ming Shan Mountains 陽明山 ~ you can never have too much of a good thing!
Catherine Lee 