Taiwan
I have been to Taiwan in December, 1998, August, 2000, and December, 2001. In each case, my primary host institution was the National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC) in Hsinchu. Dr. Daniel Lee (c00dle00@nchc.gov.tw) has been my host. I have visited several universities and cities during my visits.
The 1998 trip was when I decided that I should buy a digital camera. Nobody besides me had a film based camera as far as I could determine. They took pictures, reviewed them on the spot, and retook pictures that were not perfect. I checked on cameras in Taipei and went home to find out what was available in the US.
Hsinchu
Hsinchu is south of Taipei and takes about 75 minutes to get to from the Taipei airport. The country's famous Science Park is here. Most of the Taiwanese electronics that you use are made in the park. About 40,000 cars and motorbikes pass through the six gates twice a day. Crossing one of the main streets on foot is a real challenge (I have seen people place bets on the pedestrians chances and length of waiting).
Where I stayed in Hsinchu in 2001. This university is across the road from NCHC and has Li-Ming Ye (liming@math.nctu.edu.tw) in the mathematics department. The Second Guesthouse is on the second floor on the right. There is a women's dorm above it and places to eat and a convenience store on the ground floor. I can even get an English newspaper there, but I can also read www.cnn.com from the room thanks to the 100 Mb ethernet. This is the center section of a traditional farmhouse (C shaped with a courtyard in front). This is in the middle of the countryside, about 4 minutes by car from some of the world's biggest semiconductor facilities. The change from the Science Park to farmland was extremely abrupt. About a dozen of us went to the farmhouse for lunch. Even Buddha had a place at the table. Taipei
Every trip to Taiwan involves Taipei for a weekend. I usually stay at a hotel near the main train station. I am familiar with metro system, a few of the night markets, temples, memorials, parks, and the National Palace Museum.
The Computer Street is where I pick up some inexpensive computer gizmos that are hard to find in the United States or are just plain cheaper in Taiwan due to being made locally in Hsinchu. I also go to Nova,
NOVA is near the Main Rail Station in Taipei, across the street from the tallest building in the city. which uses three floors with many, many stores in it. I really like one on the top floor and have bought items there on two different trips.
When the Republic of China moved to Taiwan from the mainland, they brought the contents of the Forbidden City in Beijing with them. Most of the contents are stored in climate controlled caves in the mountain behind the National Palace Museum. However, the contents change every 3 years completely. It only takes 48 years to see the entire set of contents.
A view of the main building. The caves are somewhere behind the museum, but exactly where seems to be a state secret. Daniel Lee (my host at NCHC) and his two children, Maggie and David in December, 2001. Maggie is a freshman at Central Florida and David is still in high school. Chiang Kaishek is looking over them and guarding the staircase to the second floor, ceremonial museum entrance. The rest of us use the entrance on the ground floor behind Chaing.
A ceremonial dog and pole in the gardens in front of the museum. The major memorials in Taipei are for Chiang Kaishek and Dr. Sun Yatsen.
Dr. Sun Yatsen founded the Republic of China, which is Taiwan's official name. There is a large building in his honor in Taipei near the town hall. It houses a conference center and library. There is another major memorial for him in Guangzhou (Canton). I have been to both.
The Chiang Kaishek memorial is in a walled park in central Taipei. There is a large statue of him, military honors daily, and a museum and library in the building. The massive doors are open in this picture. They closed right after I took the picture (it was dusk). You can see the statue if your eyes are very sharp (zooming in helps, too). Looking back from top of the steps of the memorial to the main gate you see the National Theatre on the left and the National Concert Hall on the right. A close up view of the National Concert Hall and Theater buildings. From the outside, they appear identical. Inside they are different. Of course, there is a dog at the bottom of the steps of the Memorial. I like these statues. Not too far away are the Presidential Palace and the 2-28 Park.
The Presidential Palace. A Pagoda in a pond in the 2-28 Park. The tallest building in Taipei is in the background. I use that building to find my hotel when I am out walking.
The Night Markets are really neat. You can buy almost anything there. You can eat anything that can be found to eat in Taiwan, including some things I will not eat. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the Night Markets.
The Lungshan Temple is particularly nice. It is both quite old and new at the same time. It has been there for a few hundred years, but keeps burning down and having to be rebuilt.
This is what you see when you enter the Temple through the main gate. The waterfalls are on your immediate right after walking in. To say that you are in a different world than outside of the walls is an understatement. Many people bring flowers as offerings. Others bring food. The monks are kept busy clearing the tables. Long incense sticks are burned in front of the temples. Of course, you have to leave them somewhere after waving them and chanting, so they go into large urns and burn to cinders. The whole temple smells of incense. 9.6 MB or 36.5 MB I took two QuickTime movies with my camera. They show people participating in a chanting by the central temple. Musicians are inside the temple and participants are just outside the doors. There is lots of noise. Maybe someone who speaks the language can send me email explaining what is going on. It was dusk and the picture quality is not great as a result, but it was a lot of fun. The Pottery Place
The photos here are from August, 2000. I went to a very nice pottery and nature place on the side of a privately owned mountain. This was a NCHC employee and visitor bus trip. I would love to know where I went, but nobody seems to be able to give me precise location. It was south of Hsinchu by possibly 30km, in the direction of Taichung.
There is a rice paddy between the parking lot and the hillside. We saw a French film that was made on the premises over a twenty year period, ate lunch, walked through the woods and up the mountain, and had a tour of the kiln. I helped with a bowl that I received 17 months later on my next trip.
The kiln is massive. It has three walk-in chambers. It is fired up four times a year only. It takes about two to three weeks to cool down after a firing.
The view from the parking lot. The buildings are on the hillside. A native fruit of Taiwan. Fish swim around the courtyard. There were orchids and flowers further up the hillside. Large yellow and black spiders live by the oldest buildings on the hillside. Lunch. We were given a challenge: anyone who ate more bowls than had been eaten before would win a prize. I ate one and quit. Some ate two, a few three. I asked what the prize was. After making certain that no one else was within hearing range I was told, very quietly with a huge smile, the winner gets to eat here again tomorrow for free! The record: seven bowls. Whey-Fone Tsai, deputy director of NCHC, and his wife with their completed bowl. David Wan with his completed dish. Here I am trying to cut the !@#$% bowl from its base with a piece of string that was wet, slimy, and way too short (great entertainment for those watching). I managed with help from the master, whose talents are awesome. My bowl after it was glazed and fired. I received 17 months later on my next visit to NCHC. Daniel Lee, me, David Wan, and Ren-Jieh Shih
