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.

Post 200: Shenzhen and Hong Kong (English)

Wow, after about one and a half year of filling this blog I have reached the magical number of 200 posts!

But anyway, I might be the only one interested in this fact, so I go on and tell about my China trip:

After a "nice and relaxing", but after all quite ok 24h traintrip from Yichang to Guangzhou, and another 1 hour in a Intercity like train, I arrived in Shenzhen on March 1st. Though I had my own bed in the train (even a softsleeper), I was pretty tired after arriving in the former fishing village and now pulsing metropolis of Shenzhen. Only the fact that I was not travelling alone and expecting to see my good old friend Daniel kept me alive ;-).

Shenzhen has litterally not existed until about 25 years ago and is growing at a typical Chinese and incredibel highspeed, that new city districts get finished about every year. The metro system is still young and only a couple of lines are finished yet, but it is a very modern and clean system. Just as I am used to now in Taipei. There are no really traditional sights in Shenzhen, but a few new ones, like an Ocean Park or an amusement park where the best touristical highlights of the whole world can be watched in miniature. I didn´t go to any of Shenzhen´s attractions until now. Shenzhen also has a very nice Southern flair, with beaches and palm trees throughout the city.

And besides that there is another not to ignore highlight: Shenzhen is located right at the border to Hong Kong. That makes it possible to walk into Hong Kong. And that is exactly what I did today. Walking across the border, stepping into the train and riding into one of the most exciting cities on this planet.

And I can state, though I did probably not even see 1/5 of the whole city: Hong Kong is the trip worth. You can do excellent shopping there (clothing, computers), seeing a lot of modern buildings (not as modern as in the booming cities of China, yet more established), a lot of Culture, typical Cantonese street markets, and more and more. And DISNEY WORLD (what a pity, we had not enough time to go there this time)

Another interesting experience where the people there: A lot different from the typical Mainlander, and more like the people from Taiwan. That means that everything is a lot more quiet, less dirty and relaxed, and people practice more of what Germans call Rücksicht, which means to look out for each other. People in the big Mainland Cities, simply tend to be more rude and everything has to be fast and furious. But as far as I am concered is this due to the developements people here and there undergo and things will adjust according to time.

We had a very nice day in Hong Kong, with nice weather and some "typical" travelling adventures....

Wuhan (English)

After a marvelous week in Beijing, with a lot of great impressions and experiences was it time to leave the capital of China for good.
My path let me to the Beijing West station to a train headed towards the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Unfortunately the trip was accompanied by some health trouble acquired during a meal at the Leiden University students' most favourite restaurant at Xiao Xime(n)r. Lucky enough did the trainride take less then 8 hours and I booked the most comfortable "soft-sleeper". This made the best out of the worst possible.
When I arrived at one of the trainstations in Wuhan (Wuchang), I figured out that my lovely tourguide and friend Ping mistook my arrival time and was still asleep when the train entered the trainstation. So I had to wait for a while in front of the station and could fetch a lot of great impressions.
There are a lot of great things in China, but one thing that always catches my eye are the Chinese people. Besides the fact that whereever you are there are also masses of them, it seems that they cover the whole range from the poorest the very richest of the whole world. This mix of looks of people is really impressive. To see on the one side of the street a farmer with his family carrying their luggage on a big stick, while he gets hunked off the road by a shining black Mercedes or Audi.
But as much as I love it to watch the Chinese a philosoph about their backgrounds and lifes, they love it to watch me (or any other foreigner travelling in their country). It is really funny to play with the natives the game of:"I know that you watch me, and I will let you know occassionally, to make you feel ashamed"; as soon as you start to look in their direction, they will definately try to pretend to never have looked at you. This covers children, adults, seniors, rich or poor. Chinese simply are really curious and shy (at least in the beginning, as soon as they know you they remain only curious...).
Wuhan is different from Beijing, so as every city, region and area in China is different from the other. Although the population of Wuhan is around 5 million (+8 million in the suburbs) it feels a lot more provincial then the great Northern Capital. Roads and side walks are in a lot poorer condition and in parts really dirty. Something I did not see this time in Beijing (taking into consideration that my friends simply may have blinded out this part of the city to me), but the people walking around are different too.
I cannot really say that Wuhan appeared to me as a nice city (which city with more then 10 million citizens is really, really nice??), but the university campus of Wu Da (Wuhan University) is very beautiful and an oasis of intellect and calm. It is a great feeling to wander around the buildings in the typical (stereo typical) Chinese style, with the peaking roofs and a variety of colours. But most older buildings need a check-up soon, I propose.
After having stayed in Wuhan for a night, the voyage continued to Jiangzhi (a township of the city of Yichang), close to the "Three Gorges Dam"

Newsletter (English)

Seen the increasing popularity of my blog :-) I added a new technical feature to make it for the reader easier to newer miss any new post: Just sign up for the newsletter above and you will get an email everytime I post something here!

Isn't that great? Maybe a way to make my blog popular after all ;-)

Happy Chinese New Year! (English)

How do you empty the largest Chinese cities within and make them become a nice, quiet and (in the beginning) cleaner living space? Just celebrate Chinese New Year more often and it can happen!

It is really unbelievable how much of a difference a few million people less in the city make to the atmosphere here. There are no traffic jams, the noises of the city are reduced to a minimum and there a only loads of people at certain hot spots.

Beijing is celebrating Chinese New Year, and I am celebrating with Beijing and its people.

Chinese New Year is the most important festival in Chinese culture and most people have up to a week off work and can celebrate amongst their families.

Food is important in Chinese everyday life already but that really climates during the Chinese New Year, which is also called Spring Festival (as marking the beginning of spring). Yesterday was New Year's eve and we went out to restaurant first, after that set up fireworks, returned home and ate the special Chunjie (Springfestival) Jiaozi (dumplings).

Another Chinese cultural characteristc also climaxes during Chunjie, which is the pleasure of being together with your family and being noisy and cozy. It can happend that a mere of 20 or more family members gather together and chat, relax and drink bai jiu (strong alcohol together).

Chunjie is just as important for Chinese, as Christmas for Westerness. Another shared element is the tradition of exchanging gifts. Children get hong bao (red envelopes), filled with money from their parents, grand-parents, other relatives and friends. The amount in the hong bao grows probably at the same rate as the Chinese economy is growing, and mirrors the increasing standard of living, which can be monitored throughout the city (but the distribution of wealth is not at all equal yet, and you can see a plenty of Mercedes Benz cars racing through the streets, where waidiren, people from the countryside outside of Beijing, take care to remove the garbage and clean up everything with their bikes). Adults usually give boxes full of traditional Chinese food to their relatives.

This year is the year of the Pig, or zhu in Chinese. The pig is the last animal in the 12 year circle of astrology and marks a year full of wealth and good fortune. Of course it does, as I "belong to pig" (literally translated from Chinese), too.

But just for those who are born in the year of the actual symbol attentionis required. You need to take good care of yourself, go to a temple to pray (at least in Taiwan) and wear a red coloured belt to protect oneself. I got one as a gift, so everything should be ok... :-)

Internet cafe in Beijing (English)

Internet cafes are a big trend in China for the past years. After the developement that two many teenagers were spending all their free-time (and probably class-time) playing computer games in these public places, the government restricted access to 18+.

Now, internet cafes are the meeting points for those game freaks, chat maniacs and internet junkies with the legal right to be so.

The atmosphere in this cafe here could be quite nice, but the heavy consumption and the computer screen make it hard to keep your eyes open. The friendly and nice looking lady at the service desk makes you hope better, but it looks like a worn-out pub with people who have partied (or played computer games) all night long. It feels a bit haunted - only the about 3 year old son of one of the players gives it a nicer touch, when running around and screaming. That is lively.

I read in some articles that there is a real "playing computer games business", where young Chinese players work for rich Western people in form of earning credits or whatever to their virtual character. Doing so enables the white collars from the West to even play a computer game, while not playing. And gets them a thrill after working hours to return home and check out what the Chinese "playboy" as earned for them.

More from Beijing later!

Beijing - here I am (English)

Yeah, wo dao le! I arrived! I am in Beijing. It is great to be back, after 4 years! Everything is familiar, nothing is the same.

It feels good to have a warm welcome when you come to a place, and here the welcome is even warmer. The people (the ones that I know) are really nice, and take better care of me, then I do myself....

The temperature is as low as expected and I need to adjust, after 6 hot months in Taipei. But I am well prepared ;-).

Today I went to see the Olympic area. World, I tell you, you will be impressed my Beijing, if not by now already, then by 2008! Everything looks verty good. The stadiums are already pretty much done and make you want to see more.

That's it for now, later, in the next internet cafe, more from Zhongguo, China!

Macao (English)

I just arrived in Macao on my way to Beijing! And the first thing I find is this free internet-service. Great, so I can directly post my first log!

The flight from Taipei to Macao was nice, but the airplane of Air Macao very small (Airbus 318???). No idea! I tried the vegetarian food, which was worthwile to eat.

The weather here is cloudy, around 20 degrees. And my connecting flight to Beijing will leave in about 30 minutes. Time to go to the gate and get checked in!

China, I am coming.....

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).

DJ Chris (English)

Chris, a student at the MTC, was working as a DJ tonight at the Irish Pub "Shannon" in Taipei (Dunhua Northroad, #6).
The Pub looks very nice, with a wide bar and some nice and relaxing leather couches. The Pub offers the typical variety of Guiness Beer and other Irish alcohols, as well as Burgers, Steaks, Sandwiches and even a Vegetarian collection.

Here are some pics:

Taiwan vs. Australia U23 (English)

Happy Valentine`s day to all football fans in Taiwan:



Today was the match between the national team of Taiwan (or Chinese Taipei) and the team under 23 of Australia. The match took place in Taipei`s Zhongshan stadium. A bowl for about 20.000 fans, in quite a bad shape, with one of the worst grass fields in football stadiums worldwide.

The match was not really promising to become something for the history books of football, but is was worth a try to see how Taiwanese people cheer for their team and moreover who watches football matches in Taiwan.

The crowd was quite young (I guess 70% below 25 years) and a lot more civilised than the typical Fan in European stadiums. Though there was no ban on alcohol, only the foreigners present were drinking beer while watching the match.

The atmosphere created by the about 1.500 supporters was nice and warm, but never creating a chill, which could have really pulled out more out of the team on the field.

There were also quite a lot of girls, screaming at the "stars" in the way we know about their reaction to "Robbie Williams" or maybe "David Beckham".

There was one group in one of the curves, which could be considered as being hardcore fans. They were chanting: "Taiwan go go, Taiwan go go go, Taiwan I love you!". And "Allez, allez" to mark the connection between the blue French and the blue Taiwanese teams.

But in the end all the support was not enough to prevent the defeat. Australia won 1 to 0 in a match which was unspectacular, badly organized and had a great lack of will among both teams. But Australia was looking better during the 90 minutes and could show some beginnings of nice football.
Taiwan especially lacked condition, the first player of Taiwan had a cramp in the 60th minute. The medics had probably the least relaxed job during the match, as they had to take care of about 5 or 6 "injured" Taiwanese players.

Yet, due to the special charms of the site and the great Fans it was more than worthwhile to spent the 90 minutes at the Zhongshan stadium.

Hong Tong from Chinese Radio Amsterdam in Taipei (English)

Today I met my old colleague and good friend Hong Tong from my time doing volunteer work at the Chinese Radio in Amsterdam. A volunteer radio station in Amsterdam. Programmes are broadcasted in Cantonese, Mandarin and Dutch.
As I learned from Hong Tong this are going really well and the radio is gradually increasing its activities.
Hong Tong was just on a trip to Hongkong, when he decided to make a quick visit to Taipei. We had a nice dinner at the food-court in Taipei 101 with another Cantonese friend from Holland.
Please have a look at the site of the Chinese Radio in Amsterdam and enjoy their great programme online:

www.chineseradio.nl

Pictures of the last day (English)

I promised that I would upload some pictures from the last day of Martijn`s, Ayleen`s and Tobias` stay in Taiwan.
They are now still travelling around somewhere in the Mainland, before they return to Beijing to go back to class:

Boukje and me, waiting for the airport-bus and actually for some parts of the group ;-)

After having partied for a whole night the condition was not certainly stable at all times.

Here we are, at the airport!

And off they go, one of the last escalators before boarding the plane

Ayleen and Tobias gave that nice hat as a gift to me. As you can see, it also perfectly suits a nice "Communist" lady...

The whole gallery can be seen here:

Gallery

Internet is back (English)

I don`t know what they did, but it works again! Juhu!

Internet Problems (2, English)

It seems like the connection problems are due to my internet service provider. I don't know what it is, but there seems to be no way to get a hold of a service clerk at that company. 6 days in a row...really no fun!

The Dutch visitors returned today to Hong Kong and will continue their trip on the Mainland, before returning to Beijing. The last evening was the eclipse of a great week and numerous memorable experiences in Taiwan for them and us. Everything went smooth, we arrived at the airport on time, and could leave a great impression on the other travellers, by chanting some Dutch folksongs and chatting loudly about the last week.

As soon as I can acces the net from home again, I will upload some pictures.

Stay tuned...

Internet Problems Taiwan (English)

It seemed like the earthquake south of Taiwan mid of december 2006 had no influence on my personal internet experience, but the last few days prove me to be wrong. Accessing the net is not easy right now, and it is very slow. Even the university's internet connection seems to be back to ISDN ages. At home I have not been able to access the net for two days in a row and friends report the same problems. My teacher, however, told us that she has no problems to access the net from here home, outside of Taipei. So maybe this is a Taipei related issue.

Anyway, I hope that things will speed up soon, so that I can post easier about what is going on here.

Nederlanders op bezoek (Nederlands)

Ja, Taiwan is altijd een vakantie waard. En delegatie van onze studiegenoten en vrienden uit het noorden, met name Peking, is op het moment te bezoek in Taiwan.

Naar de harde studie in de hoofdstad van het land nordelijk te Taiwan, hebben de Leidse studenten en vrij lange tijd om het land van Mao te leren kenen. Tobias, Ayleen en Martijn makten van hun kans gebruik om hun reis ten zuiden met een visite hier in Taipei en Taiwan af te ronden.

We hebben hier al indrukwekkende verhalen van urenlange treinreizen en hele mooie plekjes aarde mogen horen. Maar met het wilde leven hier hadden ze blijkbaar geen rekening gehouden. Zo lijken de reizigers uit het verre noorden hier niet meer zo actief en genieten eerder van de velen kansen om zich rond het studentische leven in Taipei en omgeving te vermaken.

Vandaag was ik met Martijn op de 101, 508 meter boven de zee!

Lekker Sushi - Taiwan veel beter dan in Dalu, toch?

Huiswerk en een beetje slapen in een café. Ook voor de "Taiwaners" is het niet altijd makkelijk te feesten én les te volgen.

Rustig aan gaan.

Martijn met zijn Taiwenese vriendin Cecilia, en Mark met Ayleen

Kenny Boy en Boukje! Ja, jongens goed kijken en de "stokjes" vast pakken

De grote kogel boven in Taipei 101. Zonder dat ding, zou die toren niet zo stevig kunnen staan.

Martijn en ik, onderweg met de snelste lift ter wereld

Native tribe of the A-mei 阿美 (English)

Long before the Han Chinese settled on the island of Taiwan there were already people living here. The situation can probably to some extend be compared to the colonization of Northern America, where also long before the Europeans arrived Natives were living.

And also the situation can be compared I guess. The natives have a lot of problems in their daily lives, are the outsiders of the normal society, followed by a lot of alcohol and unemployment problems.

There are some different tribes living through-out the island. The largest of them is the tribe of the A-mei, the smallest is not even consisting of a lot more then 10 people any more.
A special characteristic of the Natives´ society is ( I am actually not sure whether that is true for all the tribes, at least for the A-mei it is) are maternal societies. In contrast to the patriachic society of the Han Chinese.


That results in interesting findings when travelling there: When we were driving there were road constructions, a group of men of women could be seen. But there was one thing striking us immediately: The women were holding the tools and working on the pavement, the men were sitting, chatting and enjoying the day. We asked our driver immediately, who told us that this is due to the society. Men take care of the children and the household, women carry the burden to feed the family. There was nothing weird going on on that road construction, not in A-mei terms.


Another interesting experience was due to the Chinese language. Where you have to terms for saying "to marry". One for the male part, which is 娶 and has the meaning of taking someone else (the woman in one`s household) and the female part 嫁 (which means to leave the elderly household and become part of the husband`s family`s household). In the A-mei society the whole terminology is turned around. So, when I was wandering around on the campus of a school and talked to some of the school kids, on girl asked her friend: "你要不要娶他?" ("Do you want to take him to your household?"), a situation that made me smile and just expressed how much our societies are depending on cultural backgrounds and the way we grow up.

Snake Night Market 華西街夜市 (English)

One speciality of Taipei is the variety in Night Markets. And every market has its own reason to be famous.

The Huaxi Street Night market is known for its snakes. There are some stalls and restaurants offering snakes of all sizes and kinds. Big Anacondas, small Pythons whatever you heart desires. In front of one famous restaurant is a snake show, to attract customers. People get the chance to touch and pet the Anaconda. A really nice experience actually. Snakes feel nice and warm, their skin is the softest I have ever touched.



Yet the reason for the show is less positive. After having been attracted to take a seat you can choose from several snake menus. The top deal is the snake soup with great ingredients, which are supposed to support your health. Though I have been there a few times to have a look and pet the snakes I never tasted any of the food offered yet.
As soon as I do, I will inform you about my impression. But I cannot promise, if I will do so.



Another speciality are turtles, a symbol of long life in China.