i know it's a week after-the-fact, but happy new year! i took in the ringing of new year’s in taipei with friends atop a rooftop in order to enjoy the spectacular display of fireworks set off from the 101 building (the tallest building in taiwan). it was quite a display! unfortunately, we tried to head over to a club around 1:00am, but instead got stuck in the biggest traffic jam i’ve ever witnessed. even if we had found a free cab, it would have gone nowhere...fast. we just kept walking and walking past the “parked” cars until we reached a point where not even the motorcycles could move. then we reached a point where not even the people were moving. we had to zigzag and shimmy through the maze of parked cars, motorcycles, and people. when we finally reached a main thoroughfare near a subway station, it was 2:30am and we had hardly walked 1km! well, at least i know next time to not even go near that area or to get a hotel room nearby and throw my own club party.
my last week in taipei was happily spent having fun with the peeps from the taiwan tour. i now know why so many people out here and in japan love renting a karaoke room and just spending hours singing, laughing, drinking, and eating. i also returned to some of the tourist spots that i remembered when i last came to taiwan 15 years ago, such as the tsui night market which has changed a lot. this night market is known for its restaurants that serve snake meat and turtle meat soup. when i was 8 (or 13...can’t remember which trip), i vividly remember standing in awe and horror as a man hung up a snake by its head and made a cut down the snake’s body with guts and blood spilling out into an awaiting bucket. i guess the pro-animal activists made a fuss because there’s none of that now...just a video-tape of how they (more kindly) kill the snake to make for you to enjoy.
now, after saying good-bye to my grandparents and parents, i’ve reached beijing, where i met up with my college friend michele, and it is freezing! california has made me soft...i have to bundle up head-to-toe with 4 layers on top and 2 layers on bottom. from what i have seen so far, beijing is quite a bit more grimy than even taipei and the people are even more rough around the edges. don’t get me wrong, i have encountered some very nice folks as i try to navigate the bus system and the area in general with my very limited chinese reading skills. at least i had a couple of weeks in taiwan to bone up on my conversational skills!
michele and i spent the day at the forbidden city, tiananmen square, and jingshan park. we were planning on doing more, but the forbidden city is absolutely immense (enough to even have a basketball court for the guards to try to imitate yao ming)! and yes, we did manage to find a starbucks inside the city after a man came up to us, pointed, and exclaimed, “starbucks!”. we then rode on a tricycle to find the hidden li qun peking duck restaurant to eat the delicious dish that beijing is known for. tomorrow, we head off to do some shopping, to see the temple of heaven, to find an internet café, and maybe get a massage for our tired feet. then we’ll attack the great wall and the summer palace with the help of a hired driver that the vp of michele’s company highly recommends and used when he was in beijing.
my last week in taipei was happily spent having fun with the peeps from the taiwan tour. i now know why so many people out here and in japan love renting a karaoke room and just spending hours singing, laughing, drinking, and eating. i also returned to some of the tourist spots that i remembered when i last came to taiwan 15 years ago, such as the tsui night market which has changed a lot. this night market is known for its restaurants that serve snake meat and turtle meat soup. when i was 8 (or 13...can’t remember which trip), i vividly remember standing in awe and horror as a man hung up a snake by its head and made a cut down the snake’s body with guts and blood spilling out into an awaiting bucket. i guess the pro-animal activists made a fuss because there’s none of that now...just a video-tape of how they (more kindly) kill the snake to make for you to enjoy.
now, after saying good-bye to my grandparents and parents, i’ve reached beijing, where i met up with my college friend michele, and it is freezing! california has made me soft...i have to bundle up head-to-toe with 4 layers on top and 2 layers on bottom. from what i have seen so far, beijing is quite a bit more grimy than even taipei and the people are even more rough around the edges. don’t get me wrong, i have encountered some very nice folks as i try to navigate the bus system and the area in general with my very limited chinese reading skills. at least i had a couple of weeks in taiwan to bone up on my conversational skills!
michele and i spent the day at the forbidden city, tiananmen square, and jingshan park. we were planning on doing more, but the forbidden city is absolutely immense (enough to even have a basketball court for the guards to try to imitate yao ming)! and yes, we did manage to find a starbucks inside the city after a man came up to us, pointed, and exclaimed, “starbucks!”. we then rode on a tricycle to find the hidden li qun peking duck restaurant to eat the delicious dish that beijing is known for. tomorrow, we head off to do some shopping, to see the temple of heaven, to find an internet café, and maybe get a massage for our tired feet. then we’ll attack the great wall and the summer palace with the help of a hired driver that the vp of michele’s company highly recommends and used when he was in beijing.
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