興蓬萊 Shing Peng Lai Restaurant

Tianmu has never been part of my territory (like I have any territory? 8-O lol).  Yet, within this past week, I found myself landed numerous times in Tianmu because a friend's family was moving back to San Francisco (and has now).  Also, I found myself dinning at this "presidential grade" of restaurant (興蓬萊 Shing Peng Lai Restaurant) featuring Taiwanese cuisine.  Great food and huge portion!

It's "presidential grade" because the former president Li Deng Hui likes the food here.

(Please check the clip from 7 minute 52 seconds.  The embed youtube clip at a specific time function somehow isn't working.  Just realized it.)

What I ordered as per the female owner's suggestion on June 27th...

From 興蓬萊 Shing Peng Lai Restaurant

What my brother-in-law ordered on June 30th...

From 興蓬萊 Shing Peng Lai Restaurant

Two different dining experiences, four days apart, I got to try out 17 of their dishes while... I do have a way of putting things away and no wonder the ever-expanding waistline... 8-X lol

I love this picture I took....  In the back is the sign stating three of the formal president Li Deng Hui's favorite dishes including the crispy ribs (the pix on the left side) and "Buddha jumping over the wall" (the pix on the right side).  Just realized that the gentleman in the picture is the owner 陳進添 of the restaurant.  The laoban niang (female owner) 陳春蘭 was on the side of the camera encouraging the doggie to pose for the picture while pointing to me how cute the doggie's teeth are.  Based on the info I gathered so far through the youtube clip above, I figure they are sister and brother.  Accordingly, laoban niang's family have 6 doggies and 2 cats.

From 興蓬萊 Shing Peng Lai Restaurant

金華舞墨臻寶展 by 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi art exhibition and live performance update

Yours not very enculturated went back to observe the artwork of 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi and attended a live performance by the Violinist 洪寅洲 Daniel Hung with the pianist (sorry, didn't catch her name).
 This is yet another afternoon program held during the exhibition.

One thing I love most is that, like the pianist Kimball Gallagher did, the violinist 洪寅洲 Daniel Hung also gave us some background on the piece he was about to perform and cued us on what to listen for before the performance.  While listening to music as music is nice, that brief introduction surely put things into contexts and allowed me to appreciate his live performance from a different perspective!

Violinist 洪寅洲 Daniel Hung with the pianist (sorry, didn't catch her name)

From 金華舞墨臻寶展

After the music performance was a talk on investment by Mr. 梅以德... the take home message... shall I have free money floating around wanting to make investments... bank on luxury goods, biotech, and aqua.  Since I am dedicated patron of the biotech industry... the notion of luxury goods and aqua are surely new to me.  Good to learn something new everyday!

Gotta say a word of thinks to everyone making the exhibition and the associated programs possible so that yours unfortunately stuck in the lowest rung of the SES ladder could walk only a few blocks in this unbearable summer heat to get myself coolly enculturated!  ¡Muchas gracias tout le mond la!

This flower looks really 3 D to me...

6/24/2013

Ratology- Handicapped at Large: Golden touch... 金華舞墨臻寶展 by 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi art exhi...: On my daily walk, I went past this Hengdeli watch store on Zhongxiao Dunhua very often... and sat in front of it stealing a smoke at time...

Golden touch... 金華舞墨臻寶展 by 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi art exhibition

On my daily walk, I went past this Hengdeli watch store on Zhongxiao Dunhua very often... and sat in front of it stealing a smoke at times.

One day, I saw on the poles the signs of an art exhibition "金華舞墨臻寶展" by 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi... with the paintings looking all golden... with the notion of Gold making my self-notion already gotten inflated. 8-O lol

The exhibition is located on the second floor of the store and it will run till the end of June.

When I finally made it to the exhibition one day, this nice lady gave me a guided tour and told me a lot about how the artworks have come into being such as the setting, the process, and the ingredients.  For instance, when the artist is painting, he likes to listen to music and drink either good wine or tea. 

One set of paints in exhibition is the "百花系列" (Hundred-flower series--my translation).  A series of 100 small painting of the flowers.  Also, the paints used in these paintings are no ordinary paints... let along the touches of 99% gold spreading over the artwork as a final touch... colors such as them nice looking blue... derived from corals...

白魚 (white fish) is 林伯禧 Lin Bo Xi.

百花系列 (Hundred-flora series--my translation)

There are several periodical functions that took place in concert with the exhibition... live music performance, talks, wine tasting workshops, and a conversation with the artist 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi himself.

I made a point of attending one of the events on June 14th where the pianist Kimball Gallagher, who is in the venture of his 88 concert tour around the world (!!!), performed Chopin... Saloon style!



The gentleman sitting on the left side of the screen in the above clip was the speaker 陸潔民 who later gave a talk on art appreciation and investment.

I was informed that day that there would be a wine tasting workshop and a meeting the artist session today... and I gladly went with my sister.

We enjoyed the Wine Tasting 101 workshop provided by Rocky Wang and 李清蘭 very much. We also tried very hard to learn the 123 of wine tasting the Dewey approach... learning by doing... sipping through 2008 Chateau Rieussec R de Rieussec Blanc Sec, Bordeaux and 2009 Château Peymouton with all due diligence! Trying to figure out the color, body, flavor, etc.

Wine Tasting 101 Workshop

While absorbing the lessons learned through Wine Tasting 101 via the constructive approach, there came this opportunity I have been looking forward to... meet the artist!  There is something absolutely exhilarating about the notion of meeting the creators themselves!

Absolutely love this picture I got to take haphazardly... In the background was a movie filmed through a camera some time ago when the artist had been in the moment of creating an artwork while, in the foreground, the artist was speaking of his process of creation.  The two camera in front of me... both trying to capture that present... Would love to have shifted my grandpa canon a bit to the right to bring the remaining part of the red camera in front of me in... though... that moment in time has passed.

The painting in the back, the artist holding a glass of red wine, though no music in the background...  enough contextual clues to envision the process of unfolding for these art works.

After the interview, they opened the floor for question...

I was told that the artist would spend days staring at the flower till he finally got the essence of the flower, and that's when he started to paint.  So, I asked him about his staring at the flower activity.

Apparently, the story was that, one day, he was amongst friends and someone brought in 野薑花 (White Ginger Lili).  A poet came up with a poem on site immediately... yet, since it takes far more work to get something painted out, the poet offered to buy Li Pa-Hsi's painting if he could get one done within a certain time from.  Since Mr. Li was not as familiar with the flowers at that point, he went home and stared at the White Ginger Lili (and get new ones every 2-3 days) till he finally got the paintings out something like a month later.  And, for the next few years, he painted far more White Ginger Lili and then peony (牡丹)...

According to him, since he has learned the different types of flowers pretty well now, no longer does he need to spend days staring at them flowers when working on the flora paintings nowadays. Already have sufficient images encoded in the Long term memory! (Wow... I can hardly visualize 2-3 kinds of flowers completely in my head!)

One thing that got my attention when discovering the exhibition was them touches of Gold... and I asked him why.  Apparently, it might have started with simply a kimoji kinda thing and, also, "Gold is precious and goes along with the precious artwork!"

Since I am still stuck at the lowest rung of the SES ladder, I got the artist to autograph on the catalog. 8-X lol

The 金華舞墨臻寶展 by 林伯禧 Li Pa-Hsi is running through the end of June.  Thereafter, Mr. Li's artworks will be coming to various countries such as in Biennale d'Aquarelle à Brioude en France.  Bon Chance!

Fountain by Taipei 101 and ATT for Fun

I found out that there are two mirroring sets of fountains and ATT for fun when staring at the fountain the other day! I also found out that the lights on ATT for fun changes color...



So, when preparing this post, it occurred to me that it might be interesting if I can offer you the opportunity to view this clip at 1.5, 2 or more times of the original speed... since the differential speeds seem to put things in different perspectives for me... something you can't do in real life.

At the same time, I didn't want to upload multiple copies of the same clip at different speed... seems a really dumb dumb solution for me.

Ended up, this pursuit resulted in a whole lot of explorations, which lead to the conclusion that it is feasible and all that you have to do is to join the HTML 5 trial.  After you join the HTML 5 trial, you should be able to see the Speed options once you click on the option icon on the player...

5/9/2013

Anti-nuclear Rally in Taiwan: From Zhongxiao-Fuxing to the Presidential Office 5/19/2013

Delusional as I am and however I stay away from political issues... in addition to the fact that I am single as a bird with nothing much on my back and nothing to lose (other than pain, maybe)...

I do have a belief... we human shouldn't mess with things that we have no solutions for... such as what to do with the nuclear waste and how to get things neuturalize shall the God forbids happens.

So, I append myself to the end of the Anti-nuclear Rally in Taiwan... going from Zhongxiao-Fuxing all the way to the Presidential Office.



Because it was hot and people walked faster, I got to the final destination far slower than most people.  However, I did get to see people making the attempt to dump the nuclear waste at the President's Office... because some Taiwanese come up with the idea... "What about dumping it at the Presidential Office?"


(The strangest thing was that... while I was taking the clip using my grandpa canon, I was surrounded by people from the media... meaning... professional grade kinda très expansive equipment.)
5/19/2013

The Great Gatsby

After I attended the event "Taipei Sounds, Taipei Stories: Reflections of a Sound Artist" at the Taiwan Music Institute (臺灣音樂館), I had to take a bit more walk... insufficient quota for the day.

I walked across the Hangzhou North Road from Taiwan Music Institute (臺灣音樂館) and found myself already in the Huashang Creative Park (華山1914創意文化園區)... an area I walked by gazzilion and a time these past two years or so but never made it in there because whenever I passed it, it was either at the beginning or the end of my walk.

Somehow I thought the two places were at least a huge block away... not realizing all it takes was the crossing over of the Hangzhou North Road.... and it reminds me of what happened when I asked this NYPD lady where ground zero was back in 2011.

I was all excited by the discovery (including the discovery of my blatant ignorance)... and I walked through them buildings till I saw this promo event for the new film "The Great Gatsby"-- a book I have never read but listened to in my younger and, hopefully, more vulnerable years...

The heat and humidity surely reminded me of the trip they, the great Gatsby et al., took to New York and chilled out at the Plaza Hotel... possibly in attires alike worn by the models in the picture below...

I was so excited to be given the opportunity to test out the costumes and to take a picture with Leo like what this gentleman did...

Pay attention to the fashionable piece of red thing on his head.

Then, I thought... "I had intended to come in here earlier today... maybe there is a reason for it... Having hangout for 3 days this week, maybe the almighty universe is telling me... 'Yo, enough life of the Great Gatsby!  Make sure you shuffle your behind and do some work.'" lol (No magic thinking allowed.  Stop here.)

Regardless, somehow I was and am still so thrilled to walk into this event... reliving the life of the Great Gatsby...



5/18/2013

Fulong Train Station 福隆車站

On the train ride to Hualien, my dad got us the famous Railway bentoboxes (便當)... and that definitely brought back my childhood memory... when my aunt's family were selling benton in Fulong by and at the Fulong train station.

I had only gone back to visit Fulong once, perhaps, since my aunt's family moved away from Fulong.  However, I simply couldn't find them pictures taken (imaginary or not).  Since my head was getting me mighty annoyed (被我這粒頭煩死啦!) with its constant pursuit to find the picture of Fulong train station, I decided to take a walk down the memory lane... to the summer playground of my childhood, Fulong, which I grew up believing that it's a town in Yilan and only to realize that it's actually a village in the Gongliao District of New Taipei City in the last 2 weeks or so.

I actually didn't know whether I would arrived at Fulong that day... since given the time constraint, I might just go somewhere closer by... speaking of... "I don't know where I'm going."  And, I surely knew that I actually made it to Fulong when I heard the announcement on the train... lol

And, finally, I got to see my Fulong train station during the day time and in the night.

Fulong Train Station today (2013)

Fulong Train Station today (2013) in the night.

Without a doubt, the train station I saw looked a bit different from what I remembered... So... I took the liberty to google up some pictures showing what the old station in my memory might look like... what I saw when I went down to visit was like below...

Older Fulong Train Station 舊福隆車站

Whereas what my head was searching for might be the train station shown in this picture taken in 1968 (ok... just for the sake of clarification... before I was born).

This is more or less the image of the Fulong Train Station I was looking for... a picture taken in 1968 (before I was born).

And, of course, let me not forget the train station in the eyes of the sand sculptors...

Fulong Station in the eyes of the sand sculptors  2013.

The reality is... perhaps... what I was reminiscing about was not the train station itself only... but the bento place  (鄉野便當) my aunt used to run right next to the train station.  Every time the train was about to come in, a lot of adults would come in to get the bento boxes and rushed to the platform with that wooden box hanging over their neck... full of bento boxes.

Because I was till pretty young, there was nothing much they could make me do.  Then, there came this day right after a typhoon passed... after howling all night and scared the xyz out of me.  Someone came to inform us that the train had taken off from Hualien and the whole family rushed to the store... When all the adults were busy doing whatever they were doing, I was assigned the job of cutting eggs (魯蛋)... I gotta be really proud of my egg cutting experience that I still remember today how I was trying to cut one egg at a time.  8-O lol

There were other times when we took the train that stopped at the Fulong station.  Knowing which train we were on, auntie and cousins would prepare special bento boxes for us.  I remember vividly how, one time, my cousin made me a special bento with egg salad as one of the dish.  That might be one of the first times I had a taste of egg salad... and it tasted sooooo nice!

Bento seller today.

Then, there came this one summer, in addition to selling bento boxes, they also brought in this huge machine (like the machine in the picture below) to sell 搖搖冰 (slurpee).  I was maybe about 6 or 7 years old... and was mighty in awe with this gigantic machine that could make slurpee on its own.  Wow... 8-O

A picture I found of the 搖搖冰 machine from someone else's blog.

Them good old times when I was much more of a spring chicken!  Things might have changed but the trip surely brought back some lovely memories du temps passe!

The Bridge and the Fulong beach 福隆海水浴場及拱橋

So, because I couldn't find a picture of the Fulong (福隆) train station, I decided to take a walk down in Fulong.  En route, I strolled down the sand beach and visited them sand sculptures... before some of them... yet to be completed.

Before entering, I was told that I had to carry my behind up this Rainbow Bridge (彩虹橋)... to get to the beach where the sand sculptures are...  It didn't look like all that big a bridge at the first sight...

At least, not until when I set of my foot on it...

Inching away, wondering to myself how much longer it was to take before I get to see the sand sculptures on the beach.

It's gotta be about 3 decades since I last came to visit the Fulong beach.  In between my snooping around the sand sculptures, I got my feet wet in the Pacific ocean.

Up to this point and much later, the Fulong beach was the background where the 2013 Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival (2013 福隆國際沙雕藝術季) takes place and that bridge was but a bridge I had to move my sorry behind over  with many a stop to cross some water...

Then, as I was looking for some information online about Fulong train station and Fulong beach a day or two later, I learned that that water I had to crossover is the Shuangsi River.  Due to the change of the waterway of the Shuangsi River from year to year, in some years, the bridge goes directly into the sea... while other, like this year, the bridge lead to the beach surround by the Shuangsi River on one side and the Pacific ocean on the other.

This beach itself was already a famous one during the era of Japanese occupation and it was formerly known as the Aodi beach (澳底海水浴場).  In recent year, the sand of the beach has diminished gradually, which was suspected to be related to the staithe built to transport equipment for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant of Taiwan.  Apparently, the diminishing sand beach had caused some problems to hold the Ho-hai-yan Rock Festival (貢寮國際海洋音樂祭), which has taken place on the Fulong beach for years.  Essentially, the receding shoreline leaves insufficient beach to hold the concerts... thus... the need to move sand from somewhere else to build a bigger beach.

So... the beach and the bridge turned to be some interesting object to me... as a result of the things I learned... unaware of when on site.  I decided to find some pictures showing myselves what it be like for the bridge to go directly into the water... river or ocean.

As of 5/2/2013, in the picture I took, the Rainbow bridge goes over the Shuangsi River and lands on the sand beach.

In some years, the bridge goes into the water... (look almost like the river to me)...

In some other years, the bridge goes into... not quite sure the sea or the river... Pacific ocean perhaps?

Knowing something about the bridge and the beach now, I am surely happy that I took a picture of this seemingly ordinary bridge... and... this came to my mind...

The Rainbow bridge we see here was build in 1994, what about before 1994?  I remember vaguely that when we went down the beach when I was a kid, there was a pretty beaten down old bridge and I remember the adults had mention the irregular site of the beach... though... memory is a strange thing... (therefore... the entire research on eyewitness testimony).

I looking all over the internet till... finally... I found this clip online to show that... in 1968... a different bridge was in place... although I don't know whether this was the bridge I saw then.  (And, I asked my dad about the bridge today and he recalled there to be a simple bridge taking people to the beach... Maybe what he remembered is this bridge in the following picture.)

See the bridge there... standing strong as of 1968... a screenshot taken from the following clip at time 1:07.

So it concludes my blah blah blah on how my thought of taking a picture of the Fulong station led me to the 2013 Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival (2013 福隆國際沙雕藝術季) and to the sight of the old beach bridge in 1968.

Hope it would give you some background information shall you decide to visit the Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival or the Fulong beach.

Do you see what I am seeing now? 

5/2/2013

Fulong Sand Sculpture Art Festival 2013 福隆國際沙雕藝術季

Because I couldn't find the pictures I took of Fulong (福隆) Train Station, I took my walk all the way down in Fulong (福隆).

Just so happen, when searching for the cheapest means to get to the Fulong station, I found out that there will soon be the 2013 Sand sculpture festival, with the opening on 5/4/2013 running till 6/30/2013. Then, when getting off the train, I overheard these other passengers speaking of the Sand Sculpture Festival as well... (though I had no idea where it might be and can't be on the beach directly since I can conceive not how the sand sculptures can weather the rain and wind).

So I asked the lady at the Tourist Information and realized that I could get to see the sand sculpture (some still in formation) with 40 NT dollar entrance fee to the beach as opposed to 100 NT dollars after the opening. Yours cheapskate, thus, took the daily walk down the Fulong beach.

It was a lovely tour and what makes the tour most interesting is to see the process of art in formation... to see the artists continuing to craft their work and making the final touch in preparation for the grand opening in two days.  The process and what is not spoken of behind the scene... all the tools... motorized or not... spreading around.

So during this tour, I found the answer to how the sand sculptures could handle the weather.  The gentleman in the burgundy cap told me... what they were spraying on the sand sculpture is a combination of water and some environmentally friendly and water-soluble glue.  This protects the sand sculpture.  However, it's not fail-save since the glue is water-soluble...

I saw, in carne e osso, how the artist get the sculptures out... one scoop at a time.

I captured an artist taking a clip of his completed work (possibly and in my imagination).

I also met the dutch artist who explained to me the story behind her sculpture.

A new world I saw... the day I took my walk down the sandy beach of Fulong because I wanted to take a picture of the Fulong Train station (while I had no idea whether I would really go to Fulong until I got there. Speaking of... I don't know where I am going... lol)

Given limited my worlds, I shall leave the rest to, in the eyes, my grandpa Canon.



5/2/2013

The mountain tunnel on the Wenhu metro line

Haphazardly I came across a mountain tunnel on my way to Taipei Zoo where I met my new friend 煙雨 the Camel (文湖線福州山隧道 it might be called?)  Sure, since the metro in Taipei is underground, the trains run in tunnels all the times... Yet, the segment of the Wenhu (文湖線) line metro between Lingquang (麟光 ) and Xinhai (辛亥) stations runs above the ground level and went through a mountain tunnel...

4/23/2013

The reality is that, I have taken this route before but might just have not paid attention to it... therefore the surprise when encountering it after the beginning of my era of tunneled visions.  Sort of like... you don't see what you don't know (or is it really true that the Indians really didn't see the boats Columbus came with).

I decided to take yet another clip on the tunneling process after I took my walk up in Moukong. Yet, since it was darker on the outside, even with my specially selected front-line seat, what my grandpa Canon and I could see most was the reflection of the things going on inside of the car. Yet, if I try hard, I can still see the street light on the outside.

So I tried with all my might to capture the process of going in and out of the tunnel... only to realize... easier to do it with 20-20 hindsight. I absolutely had no idea whether I was in the tunnel or not until I spotted street lights... yet again... on the outside... including the lights on the distant Taipei 101. lol

So ist das leben... at times...

My friend 煙雨 the Camel

Went to Taipei zoo... and found this new friend 煙雨 the Camel (though I might not be considered by her a friend lol).

Most of them nice animals paid me no mind albeit my all due intention to wave at them... This lady 煙雨 came over and stared at me.... walked away and came back and we stared at each other again... and a few more iterations more of her big eyes and my small eyes staring at each other...

We surely had some extended bouts of interaction in staring at each other... lol

Based on what I read when working on this post... apparently, when my friend 煙雨 was born on May 10th, 2012, she couldn't stand on her forelimbs... As a result, her mom didn't mind her too much possibly due to the reality that... new born who can't stand up quick enough in the wild has a lesser chance of survival due to the inability to stay away from the predators.  Survival the fittest... some collective intelligence that must have somehow gotten encoded in the genes during the evolution process as per evolutionary theory.   As a result, people in the zoo decided to bottle-feed 煙雨 instead when she was a baby camel to bring her up.

When looking at her picture, so I pondered... "What's in your mind?"

4/23/2013

North-link line trip 北迴之旅

The last time I took my parents to Taroko Gorge, it was before my accident... the summer of 2006... Yours not-driving-too-well even in times of better motor-coordination drove us all the way from Taipei to Hualien via that mighty dangerous scenic Su-hua Highway (蘇花公路), which runs between Suao township of Yilan and Hualien... built along the cliffs at points... such as the 清水斷崖 (Chingshui Cliff).

Personally, what makes Su-hua Highway dangerous for me to drive on is that, since Hualien is rich in marble, limestone, sand and gravel, there are a lot of huge gravel trucks (砂石車) racing on this winding road... with what seemed to be a scarily dangerous route to me... nothing but the backyard for them truckers...

In addition, closed to where the Philippine Sea Plate subducts under the Eurasian plate, Hualien has a lot of earthquakes.  The earthquakes, heavy rainfalls or typhoons all have resulted in rockfalls in the past... not only blocking the traffic, breaking the road but also pose great dangers to people in the vehicles (death and injuries).  

Given the unpredictable road condition of the Suhua Highway nowadays, in our recent trip to Hualien, instead of renting a tour bus to take us directly from Taipei to Hualien, we actually took the train "Taroko express" to Hualien first before boarding the bus.

I suspect this might be the first take I took the North-Link Line Railway (北迴鐵路)--one of the 10 Major Construction Projects (十大建設).  (The 10 Major Construction Projects were initiated to boost up the economy through the construction of public infrastructures during the 60s and 70s and administered by the late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), who was then the premier of Executive Yuan.)    

The North-link Line segment of the railway runs between the Suao Township and Hualian.  At some point during the trip on the train, I saw the sign of Suao (蘇澳)... and I said out loud... "Suao (蘇澳)."  My dad told me... "No... the North-link Line doesn't go through Suao  (蘇澳)."  Not much later... I saw them gigantic signs  of "Suao xin (蘇澳新)" by a station the train didn't stop at...

So, was it Suao (蘇澳) or not that we were at?  Yes, we surely were in Suao when the conversation took place.  Yet, there is a reason for my dad's comment of Suao is not Suao (蘇澳非蘇澳) as well.  

Original, the plan was for the North-link Line to run between the Suao Station and Hualien Station.  However, due to the protests of Suao residents, the starting point of the North-link line was changed to be the "Suao xin (蘇澳新)" station (also in Suao but at a site different from the "Suao Station").  In addition, the name of the station was changed to "Suao xin (蘇澳新)" on January 1st, 1982 from 南聖湖車站 (Nanshenghu, 6/1/1975-12/31/1981), which was formerly known as the 南新城站 (Nanxingcheng, 4/15/1968-5/31/1975). (Don't worry... I bet the majority of Taiwanese got no inkling about the history of the name change for the Suao Xin station.  8-O lol) 

The construction of the North-link line started on the Christmas Day of 1973 and started its transporting career on Feb. 1st of 1980.  This initial version of the North-link line was 31,029 meters long.  The single-track railway went through 91 big and small bridges and 16 tunnels... with the longest tunnel as the 7757-meter Guanyin tunnel (觀音隧道)--the longest tunnel in Taiwan at that point.

Given the high demand, there were new construction efforts put forth to modernize the North-link line since 1992.  The railroad was electrified in 2003 and expanded to double track in 2005.  Given the railroad was built in the mountains, the expansion project actually involved the construction of new routes and tunnels in various segments of the railroad.  For instance, the 10,307.1-meter New Guanyin tunnel (新觀音隧道) replaced the 7757-meter Guanyin tunnel (觀音隧道)... and it is now the longest railway mountain tunnel in Taiwan.

A little something for your to know on your next Hualien trip... the unmentioned...

Following is a clip of what it be like to going through one of them North-link tunnels... Just as you could not tell when the tunnel was to end.. neither did I... 

Which tunnel is it? Not sure... one of the tunnels about 20 minutes away from Hualien station and between the Heren (和仁) and Hualien station.



3/23/2013-3/24/2013

Them birds look mighty like real swallows!

When walking out of Tonghua street (通化街) and Linjiang Street night market, I saw a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling decorated with leaves and two moving birds... wing-flapping etc... in front of the furniture store.

I was absolutely taken by the ingenious design... How smart a design and how did they get the electronic birds to move like the real ones!  Look at the lamp shades... even got them decorated with things looking like bird dropping...  The true definition of realism!

As I was about to take a video clip or two of this interesting chandelier and the artificially engineered birds that looked mighty real, this lady saw it and stopped as well...

Don't quite recall the conversation...

I might have said something like... "The birds look so real!" while the lady broke the news to me... "They are real.  They live under the blackbox over there and I only got to catch a glimpse of one the other day."

At some point, one of the swallow decided to fly around and, later, performed bowl movements right in my face while resting on one of the lamp shades (though not caught on camera) to authenticate its real-life existence.

Presenting to you... them birdies 以真亂假... lol


4/17/2013

What's at the end of the tunnel in the night? 雪山隧道 Hsuehshan Tunnel

In the darkness of a rainy night when all cows are black, what it be like to be at the end of the tunnel?


The way I see it... still light at the end of the tunnel... light pollution or not. 8-O lol

1/28/2013

A very long 雪山隧道 (Hsuehshan Tunnel) trip

雪山隧道 (Hsuehshan Tunnel) is the longest road tunnel in Taiwan, second longest in Asia and fifth longest in the world (though it was once upon a time the longest road tunnel in Asia).  The length of the East-bound tunnel (Toucheng bound) is 12,917 m with the theoretical speed limit within the tunnel between 60 and 90 km/hr.  It is on National Highway No. 5 or the Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Freeway (蔣渭水高速公路).  

For the trip we took to get to Toucheng on April 4th, 2013, we entered the tunnel at 11:44 AM and exited it at 12:04 AM as a result of the Tomb Sweeping Day rush.  It took us 20 minutes to move through the 12,917 m tunnel... meaning at the speed of, on average, less than 38+- km/hr... though a lot of times, we were under 1 km/hr. Were they to issue tickets on cars moving between 50 km/hr... the government surely would have gotten mucho rich that day... lol

According to my dad, who has taken this route many a time, this was the slowest trip he had every taken through the tunnel.  So... some kind of record-breaking... I guess?  8-O lol

However slow a trip might be... and however the jamming traffic might have gotten us annoyed.  I did get to see the light at the end of the tunnel...

 4/4/2013

Unterwegs zur Tunneled vision

Used to be, other than taking the train--which goes through one tunnel after another, there are only two ways to travel between Taipei and Yilan. The trip could be as long as 3-4 hour if taking the 北部濱海公路 (Provincial Highway No. 2 ), which goes along the coastline... and thus mucho detours.

Or, if in a rush, the alternative would be the scary (to me) 北宜公路 (Bei-Yi Road) known for its 九彎十八拐 because it was build along the mountains.  The direct translation of 九彎十八拐 is "9 twists and 18 turns" although I am not sure whether it's a figure of speech. The reason why it was scary to me is because my dad who is chronically late would eternally try to pass cars at them twists and turns on this winding road with no-good visibility.  In reality, there were so many fetal accidents on this road that, not only ghosts stories are abundant, you actually see people throwing paper money on the road for the deceased in accidents on this road.  Also them twists and turns and ups and downs also made us car sick too many a time...  

Since the opening of Hsuehshan Tunnel (雪山隧道) and National Highway No. 5, on an average day and when the traffic isn't bad, it takes about an hour and a half to travel between Taipei and the town of Toucheng in Yilan.  This highway and the associated tunnels (5 of them) absolutely made the Eastern Taiwan more accessible.

Usually, the trip between Taipei and Yilan would involve tranveling on National Highway No. 3, National Highway No. 5 and some connection roads inside of Taipei and Yilan.

Following are some tunnels I traveled through on my way back to Taipei from Toucheng on April 5th, 2013.

National Highway No. 5

Hsuehshan Tunnel (雪山隧道)

雪山隧道 (Hsuehshan Tunnel) is the longest road tunnel in Taiwan, second longest in Asia and fifth longest in the world. (Although it was once upon a time the longest road tunnel in Asia.)  The length of the west-bound tunnel (Taipei bound) is 12,942 m with the theoretical speed limit within the tunnel between 60 and 90 km/hr.

This was an extremely memorable trip because 99% of the times, we would chose the lane that moves like a turtle, strangely, this time... our car was passing the cars on the other lane the entire trip with our limit at around 40-50 while the cars on the other lane-- above zero or so.  Also, just when I was pondering why the light above our lane was red, we heard the radio broadcasting inside of the tunnel stating that an earlier accident on has been cleared.  Guess this was the reason why we were traveling on the theoretically closed lane.



Pengshan Tunnel (彭山隧道)---National Highway 5

Pengshan Tunnel (彭山隧道) is the first tunnel you hit after the 雪山隧道 (Hsuehshan Tunnel) when driving on Highway number 5 Taipei- or West-Bound (3,806m).



Wutu Tunnel (烏塗隧道)

塗隧道 (Wutu Tunnel) is the shortest among the 5 tunnels on National Highway 5 we had to go through between Toucheng and Taipei... If life is really simply going from tunnel to tunnel, this would be my favorite kinda tunnel to go through.



Shiding Tunnel (石碇隧道) & Nangang Tunnel (南港隧道)

石碇隧道 (Shiding Tunnel) and 南港隧道 (Nangang Tunnel) are adjacent to each other when travelling north bound though connected when traveling south-bound. These are the last two tunnels I traveled through on the National Highway 5. The trip through these two tunnels gives you the real life experience of what I always wonder... "Life is going from one tunnel after another."



National Highway No. 3

Fude Tunnel (福德隧道)

After we get off the national highway 5 and got onto national highway 3 (Formosa Freeway), the first tunnel we hit was the 福德隧道 (Fude Tunnel).

Because my grandpa Canon camera refused to wake up, I was not ready to capture the process of entering the tunnel... sort of like... I was not ready to enter the tunnel... as always... though life seems to have the bad habit of making me going from one tunnel to the other... mostly unannounced.


國道三甲台北聯絡線 (Taipei expressway--my own translation)

The Taipei expressway connects the National Highway No. 3 with the Daan and Wenshang districts of Taipei and the Shenkeng District in the New Taipei City.

Within the short distance, two tunnels I passed...

Taipei Tunnel no. 1 台北一號隧道


Taipei Tunnel no. 2 台北二號隧道
Voila! C'est tout le tunnel du jour!

Animal Party of Hong Yi (洪易)

In recent times, I have developed enough endurance to walk all the way to Zhungshan north road (中山北路) from the vicinity of Sogo department store in Zhongxiao East Road.  Some days, I would walk all the way to the Yuanshan metro station  (圓山站) and take the metro back.  For what purpose?  To walk and, en route, to see the world.

Then, I realized that the artist Hong Yi (洪易) has an exhibition of his huge and colorful animals somewhere in the former Taipei Flora Expo exhibition halls near the Yuanshan metro station  (圓山站).

These are animals like the huge kitty cat that's far taller than me in front of the Fuban Financial building.

From 富邦金融大樓 Fu-bon Financial building

Or those in the InSian gallery...

From Insian Gallery, Taipei

The first time I found where it was (The Far Eastern EcoARK Pavilion), it was way past 5 PM--the closing time.  Last Friday, I  finally made it there to see them huge colorful animals!

Animal party! (Will leave the pictures and captions to tell the story.)




Various dates 3/29/2013

Far Eastern EcoARK

I have walked past this strange looking building so many a time... but ain't got no idea what's up with this weird looking building called "Far Eastern EcoARK"...

That structure in the right is EcoARK though it was in this picture because I was taking a video clip of an airplane flying over my head. 3/20/2013

From Far Eastern EcoARK

After I made it to visit the Animal Party Exhibition inside of this FE EcoARK, I saw the sign for another exhibition "The Amazing Feather (驚奇之翼)" on the second floor and decided to check it out.  It was not until then did I realize... "Wow... this building I have been walking around in is made of 1.5 million recycled plastic bottles?" 8-O

And, of course, I intriguingly went to touch the walls, the doors, and saw bottles... bottles.. and more bottles everywhere... and I didn't even know they were bottles... 8-O (Sounds almost like a parody of what that kid said to Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense lol)



Featured film: EcoARK and I


The following clip is the report on BBC news about EcoARK.

Simon Levin's Pottery Exhibition "Almagan" in Yingge 鶯歌

Although my friend Yvonne had invited me to her exhibition before, because it was somewhere way up upstate and no in NYC... I didn't get to attend her exhibitions.


Then, I met the artist Simon Levin at a dinner one day and got invited by the artist himself to his exhibition.  As a result, I made sure I went to the exhibition in Yingge, New Taipei City (鶯歌) at the Fugui Gallery on Sunday... since it's just so cool a notion to attend an event as such under the invitation of the artist himself... something I've never done in my life.

The artist Simon Levin makes pottery and I was told that most of the work in this exhibition are "made in Taiwan"... possibly in Tainan.

Two of the art work I like the most are turtles without a shell as shown in the picture below... although, to the artist himself... this guy is an imaginary animal (apparently called Paul).  Regardless, it's my turtle... (Just don't tell the artist himself... 8-O lol)

Love this best!  Nice turtle de moi! lol

Since no picture-taking is allowed inside of the gallery, I only get to few picture outside of the gallery and a picture together with Mr. Levin and his wife.  Unfortunately, my grandpa Canon was acting out and preferred to take an afternoon nap... when I finally woke it up, I forgot to turn the flashlight on.  As a result, you basically get to see only the silhouette of us all. (Meaning... 盤古開天地以來 or first time in history, Ratprincess shows her 本尊 face in her blog... though offering only her silhouette due to the acting out of a Camera with some personality 8-O lol).



3/31/2013

Toucheng train station 頭城火車站

On our way to Hualien, the train went past Toucheng train station (頭城火車站) without stopping...

Many an endless summer day and night, I sat there wondering what it be like to be an adult...

The same town where I felt desperate because 楚留香couldn't have been stabbed by 蘇蓉蓉...



Then, as the train was going by the Toucheng train station 頭城火車站 and while I was taking this clip, my dad and I were busy talking about where grand parents' place was...  so he might have said... "That's the old house" while I replied... not yet there...

Ended up he was speaking of the dormitory of Railway company by the train station they used to lived in when he was a kid.

Same train station... same and different notions of old house and childhood... 老家與童年.

 3/23/3013