Nachschlag: Der zweite Bericht über die Tarokoschlucht mit Ton (Deutsch)

Gaoxiong from the sky (English)

Part of every visit to Gaoxiong has to be the 85 Tower and its 74th floor. There is a viewing deck and you can see almost in 360 degrees from some 300 metres down to Gaoxiong. Especially the harbour looks very nice from that perspective. But other parts of the city are also worthwhile being seen.
It was a great day when I was up there, so I had the chance to make some nice pictures.

3-day trip to Gaoxiong (English)

I spent the past three days in Gaoxiong (高雄) the 2nd largest city of Taiwan. It the metropolis of the Southern part of the island. And was previously known for its large industrial harbour as well as polluting industry. Since the 1990ies the city government has made quite some effort to increase live quality in the city.
There are some interesting sights, like the romantic Love-River (愛河), the modern harbour and the island Qijin (旗津), with a tourist area and a beach with black sand. Other highlights within the city are the Lotus-lake (蓮池潭) and the modern city centre around the Tuntex Skytower (東帝士58國際廣場). The city can be reached by air plane, bus, car, train and the newly build High-speed Railway (HSR). The trip from Taipei by bus takes about 5hours, for 500 NT, the same by HSR takes only 2.30h but costs 1450 NT.

Tuntex Skytower (東帝士58國際廣場) seen from the taxi driving by

The scooter is the most favourite way of transport in Taiwan, families, furniture anything can be fitted on the 2wheeler.
Ikea in down town Gaoxiong. Part of the modern city centre, where also the 遠東 Far Eastern (?) shopping wall (one of the largest in the world) can be found.

The harbour in Gaoxiong, besides old fashioned ferries, there can be nice yachts and huge cargo ships found.
A nice breeze in the afternoon, relaxing, cooling and very beautiful in combination with palm trees at the beach.
Not swimming, but playing the water is very famous among students in Taiwan.

Always ready for a nice picture. Taiwanese love taking pictures as much as I do...


Another example of the great flexibility of Taiwanese how to use a scooter to get around.

Taiwanese people love cars, and German cars. Some people can afford German cars, some people can only afford German licence plates and but them behind their Taiwanese licence plate.

Playing Mahjong in the harbour of Gaoxiong.

"Don`t stare at the foreigner", foregneiers should not ask that of the people in Taiwan. We love to look around and they do so as well. Yet sometimes the reactions of the local children are quite exaggerated: A girl called us Ghost (鬼), while walking up the stairs to a temple. Still quite cute compared to a boy who called us lecher (色狼)...well we keep smiling and look around.

Who is doing the wrong thing here? Taking a picture of someone peeing in the harbour, or the peeing itself???

The ferry from the harbour to Qijin island. 10 minutes, 10 NT and a great experience.

The largest Confucius temple of Taiwan is in? Right, Gaoxiong. A very beautiful recently (in 1976) re-built centre of concentration and calmness.

Another example of love to Germany. We'll sometimes people here love German history in a way that a properly educated and clearly thinking German would never do...

High-tech with bamboo! A characteristic of Taiwan?

The former British consulate, close to the Sun-Yatsen University.

Picture: Cute sticker-face!



If you don't like chewing betle nuts you still have to love the result of locals spitting on the floor after having chewed for the whole day! I admit, I am a fan. And you can find these spots of worship through out the island. They are even more numerous that all kinds of temples...

The lover river at night!

The Lotus lake during the day.

A great special edition for increased driving comfort. A model from Piaggio with two separated seats.

Scooter-Trip (English)

Thorsten, Fabian and I went on a scootertrip last weekend. We had a great time and were riding a total of 530 km. I can tell you, there was no part of our bodies that did not hurt afterwards.
But we had a great time, and had some great experiences. We drove through the famous Taroko Gorge in Central Taiwan, with hanging bridges, off-road scootering, natural hot-springs, 5-star to no star accomondations and so on...We took about 1 picture every km, so there is a lot you can see below, just click on the picture to open the webalbum.

TiT-Scooter-Trip

Imagine you sit in the train (English)

This article was written for and published in the Krant met Karakter, the student newspaper for students and staff and the Institute of Sinology in Leiden:

Imagine you sit in the train. A weekend of great adventures and memorable events lies behind you. But all of a sudden something hits your mind: 天阿 (Tian1a)!!!! I forgot it. Too many things held me busy the last few weeks. The deadline of this KMK article, I simply forgot it. I sit in the train! Ok, there is nothing to do about it any more- I guess, I missed it. After the train has arrived in Taipei Main Station I just returned home, put my luggage back and turn the computer on. Ok lets just check it one more time: Unbelievable, the deadline is today…and the fact that I am in Taiwan gives me another 7 hours to write this article. I like Taiwan!

Just taking this aside the last few days were a splendid source of writing this column. I travelled around with visitors from back home. That means that you can look through the eyes of a newly arrived person again. And you have to explain a lot, what makes you think and reflect about the phenomena’s which are already allocated in your brain as being normal. This is actually a pretty refreshing experience, as I figure that you get used to things quite easily.

Taiwan is actually a contrast between modern and traditional, convenient and complex as well as busy and very relaxed.

In Taiwan you can stand in front of the (still) tallest building of the world, the Taipei 101 tower, and think “Taiwan is such an advanced country” and after a trip in the modern, clean and convenient metro system of the city you reach spots where rusty bikes stand next to a pile of garbage. People walk around in dirty clothing a stare at the 外國人 (Wai4guo2ren2) as if some Alien from another galaxy has entered their motherland.

Image you sit in one of the fastest trains of the world. After some complication and the delaying of the starting date for a few times the Taiwan High Speed Rail finally succeded. Taiwan has now another prestigious project that connects the major cities on the island with a maximum train speed of 300 km/h. The trains used are customized versions of the Japanese Shinkansen. The new connection makes it possible to travel from the north to the south on the West coast very fast, travel time is cut down by about half. I took the train from Banqiao (a suburb of Taipei, as the track to Taipei Main station is not finished yet) to Tainan (the old capital of the city, also with some memories of the Dutch colonisation of Taiwan). The trip for about 300 km is only one and a half hours. Yet, they built the brand new and modern train station far off the city itself. Which creates the need to take a bus or taxi to reach Tainan city. That means that the last 20 km take two thirds of the previous travel time. A really complex connection to the convenient train.

Another typical Taiwanese contrast is the difference in lifestyle, according to the place where you are. The capital in the northern part of the island can definitely be called a city of world format. Taipei offers everything you need, a lot that you have dreamed of and more than you will ever be able to discover within your lifetime. There are still a lot of things that need to be done and constructed by as I can see it with my own eyes the city government is pushing forward a lot to efforts to make an even better life possible. Compared to other major Asian cities everything is quite orderly and things run smoothly. On the other hand you have the smaller cities and the countryside. There are some parallels to the pulsing capital but most things differ. You see a lot of mostly elderly people sitting on the side of the streets watching the by-passers. The famous “betel nut” is still widely chewed in the more rural areas (yet also available in every corner of Taipei) and people seem to be kinder hearted. They seem to have not as much pressure as those living in the packed city.

As I said before, you get pretty fast used to life in Taiwan. The convenient and modern things make live really easy and not too hard to adapt. The “downsides” make it interesting, every turn you make leads you towards new and unique experiences. Within Taipei you sometimes get the feeling to walk through “magical gates” which lead to a long forgotten world. But then you see one of the many branches of one of the convenient stores and you know that you still are in your city – Taipei.

Bobtail in Taipei (English)

This is the first Bobtail I met in Taipei. A really cute and very well cared for dog. Her name was 寶貝 (Baobei, or Darling).