The Aeroplane Flies High

Way back in April, Cathy and I each took a day off work to head to Taipei to visit the Taipei International Flora Expo during its final week.  We didn’t have much time to spend there, so we skipped the pavilions and walked three of the four expo areas – Yuanshan Park, Fine Arts Park, and Xinsheng Park.  We thought that by going on a weekday we would miss most of the crowds and were quite stunned by the number of people as we arrived from Yuanshan MRT Station.  Luckily, a lot of the crowd thinned out the further we walked from the main entrance.  Here is a small collection of photographs from our visit:

The Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Floral Tunnel Entrance

Visitors

Strike A Pose

Yuanshan’s Grand Hotel

Flowers

I’ll leave you with the goods:

Although now a back alley, this Qing Dynasty street used to be an important passage between Monga [present-day Wanhua] and Guting Districts prior to losing its status to Guangzhou Street as the major link between the two districts.

There are conflicting stories as to how Bopiliao [剝皮寮] got its name:  Some sources say that the name originates from when the area was used to peel timber that was imported from Fuzhou Province [Bopi means "to peel"], while another legend suggests that the name comes from the skinning of animal pelts.

Restoration of the area began in 2003 and was recently completed in June of last year.  Since then the historic street has hosted several performances as well as art and cultural exhibitions.

The upcoming movie Monga [website, trailer] filmed in the area and you can find several exhibits featuring props used in the film.  Blogger Patrick Cowsill had an interesting post about the film and its portrayal of the area a couple months ago.

Bopiliao Old Street is located a short walk from Longshan Temple MRT Station and is an excellent site to visit for anyone touring the historic and cultural sites that Wanhua has to offer.

Sources:

• New Life for an Old Street [Taiwan Review]
• Bopiliao Old Street Sheds Light on Another Era [Taiwan Today]
• A Fresh Image for a Qing-era District: Meet the New Bopiliao [Culture Express]

Two salespeople from the company Cathy works for had to entertain a couple of their company’s customers in Taipei on Sunday. Through some unusual series of events Cathy and myself were roped into the task, too. Our free time was exchanged for free meals, various entrance tickets, and a ride home on the High Speed Rail as opposed to our usual luxurious choice: the Kuo-Kuang Bus Company [國光客運] . Our first destination was the National Palace Museum [國立故宮博物院]. Before strolling through the museum we ate lunch at the San-hsi t’ang Teahouse [三希堂], located on the fourth floor of the main exhibition hall.

The atmosphere is very relaxing while the prices and portions are what you would expect at a teahouse atop a museum. I was unimpressed with the wait staff as we had a table of three westerners and at a major tourist destination there wasn’t a single English-speaking server on staff. Even Macarroni Grill will send an English-speaking server to the table if it is one westerner in the company of several Taiwanese.

After the museum was a brief walk through its nearby Chih-shan Garden [至善園].

Everyone I was with was trying to walk through fast enough to save time to go to 101, so although the garden was very photogenic, I didn’t walk home with many shots.

Next up was a cab ride to 101, the view from the top hasn’t changed much since my previous visit, except this time with weather was lousy:

Taipei 101′s 730-ton tuned mass damper:

A huge rainbow formed over Xinyi District, I’m sure this would have looked great from the top of 101, but we were already in cabs on our way to Taipei Train Station.

The shot above was from inside the HSR while it was approaching Taichung Station. The picture was darkened a bit to not see so much dirt on the window or my faint reflection. Cathy took the picture below while we were in a cab escorting her company’s customers to their hotel.

As mentioned in the previous post, Petit Fancy 8 was held at National Taiwan University’s campus over the weekend, here is the picture heavy post that I promised. David Reid wrote a post about the event over the weekend, as did Darren Melrose on his new WP-powered blog. My anime phase passed after Cowboy Bebop aired on the Cartoon Network, so I have no idea who most of these characters are.

Rei Ayanami – Neon Genesis Evangelion

I got to the event early and I didn’t know where on campus it was taking place. Luckily, I was able to follow a young woman carrying a giant sickle from the MRT station to the event.

A couple from Ikki Tousen [Battle Vixens]

I was quite happy to find out that the picture of one of those Battle Vixens from the previous post was chosen by Joe Gray to be the Taiwan Photo of the Day. Thanks Joe!

The above picture begs the question: Did you carry that on the MRT?

While I was writing this post I discovered that Carrie Marshall featured the above photo on Taiwan Photographers. Thanks a lot Carrie!

Yuna – Final Fantasy X and X-2

Someone on flickr thought that these people took Naruto and did a dōjinshi out of it. I didn’t know what that was until I Google’d it… I guess I’m not very hip.

As I mentioned, I tried out Adobe Lightroom on this batch of photos. I’m quite impressed with the software so far. The flexibility you have with the program and shooting RAW is unbelievable. I’ve barely scratched the surface with Lightroom.

The photographers at this event acted quite a bit differently than photographers at the auto or computer shows. At this event, photographers thanked the cosplayers after photographing them and said, “excuse me” if they bumped into me while shooting.

The next event takes place on NTU’s campus on July 26th and 27th.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting up with bloggers/photographers Craig Ferguson, David Reid, and Darren Melrose for the cosplay event Petit Fancy 8 held at National Taiwan University. The event also marked my first time shooting in RAW and right now I am trying to get used to using Adobe Lightroom as opposed to sorting and adjusting pictures in iPhoto.

I’ll have a longer post, with more pictures, in the next few days.

Once I arrived at the Yangmingshan Bus Terminal after a walk along a portion of the Jinbaoli Trail [金包里大道], I immediately scoured the food vendors for a lunch more suitable than the apples and 7-11 sandwiches I inhaled on the previous trail. After fried fish balls and some soup, I stood back in line to get back on the park bus. Yangmingshan’s park buses are tiny, there are always a lot of people much more deserving of a seat than I am, so each time I usually unnaturally contort my neck because of the low ceiling. It also doesn’t help that many of the bus drivers drive like maniacs.

After arriving at Erziping Station [二子坪站] and buying some extra snacks and water at the visitor center, I decided to follow the park ranger’s advice and take the road up to Mt. Datun’s main peak [大屯山主峰] and walk down the trail back to Erziping.

On a clear day there is allegedly a superb view from Mt. Datun of Taipei. I have no way to verify this because I was walking through a sea of clouds. At the peak of the mountain is the Navigation Station of the Civil Aviation Bureau [民航局導航站]. Here, one of its building is sitting in a veil of mystery:

Taking the path down from the main peak, I was naturally delighted to see a break in the clouds:

Some unusual leaf buds racing towards the sun:

The wooded areas had a lot of mosquitoes flying around. I applied bug repellent earlier, so none of them bothered me.

A sign pointing to Mt. Datun’s west peak warned hikers that it is a strenuous hike, maybe I’ll make time visit that one someday…

Before I knew it I had arrived at this very familiar park, Cathy’s grandfather took us here when I visited Taiwan for the first time:

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I was photographing this Cherry Blossom [櫻花] when I looked towards one of the tall trees nearby and saw a Formosan Blue Magpie [台灣藍鵲 (Urocissa caerulea)] again…

The bird quickly flew down into the trees, I followed a small footpath into the woods it was hiding. A family of mountain stray dogs were barking relentlessly at me, but gradually they moved away. I was searching the trees to see where the bird flew to. Soon I spotted it as it flew overheard along with others in a flock of six.

Besides earlier that day when I saw one on the Jinbaoli Trail. This was only my second sighting in nature. The other time was when a friend was driving down Yangmingshan near Zhuzi Lake and I saw two flying near the road [In captivity saw one at the bird rehabilitation center in Zhishan].

Sure the photos didn’t come out nearly as good as Taiwan’s real bird photographers, but they’re the best I’ve taken to date.

One was immensely curious over a plastic bag that was on the ground. One of Taiwan’s endemic species, they can be found in the mountains at elevations of 300-1200m. They look quite interesting as they fly because of their long tails. When they walk on the ground their tails bounce up and down as they hop, their legs somewhat resembling kangaroos when they do this.

Early in the morning I checked the weather report: an 80% chance of light rain on Yangmingshan. I began plowing through online maps and information to find a suitable trail for the day. I ultimately settled on Jinbaoli Trail [金包里大道] using Jyuansih Waterfall [絹絲瀑布] as a starting point. The trail once served as an important link between Shilin [士林] and Jinshan [金山].

After riding Yangmingshan’s park bus [108] to Jyuansih Station, I set out on the trail. The beginning of the trail runs parallel to the Shanjhuhu watercourse [山豬湖圳]. Its construction during the Japanese occupation period changed the primary crops of the area from sweet potatoes and corn to rice.

On the bus ride to the trail I noticed that the upper-elevations of Yangmingshan National Park were cloaked in cloud cover. However, this section of the trail was completely clear.

The section of the trail before the waterfall runs parallel to Touhu Creek [頭湖溪]:

It wasn’t long before I made it to Jyuansih Waterfall:

I walked shortly past the area pictured below when someone behind me yelled to me asking if I lost a red umbrella… I did… I left it down by the waterfall. They didn’t pick it up because they didn’t know it was mine. Luckily I had only walked for about 5 minutes when that was brought to my attention.

I couldn’t resist another shot when I returned:

At this point, I was eating an especially unsatisfying peanut butter sandwich from 7-11… I looked up and saw a beautiful Formosan Blue Magpie [台灣藍鵲 (Urocissa caerulea)] sitting in one of the tree’s branches up ahead. By the time I held my camera to my eye it had already flown away, I tried to spot where it had flown to but it was long gone:

I was now at Cingtiangang [擎天崗], in the spring of 1934, the Japanese set-up a prefecture ranch. A few signs had warned of wild cows of the area, I was seeing a lot of hoof prints and droppings, but I didn’t see any Taiwan Water Buffaloes in the mists.

I walked the trails searching and searching… I came across people and stray dogs, but still no cows!

What’s that in the distance? Oh, it’s just a couple taking a nap under an umbrella:

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I was a few yards from the visitor center when I finally saw one [or six]:

I was pretty far so I wouldn’t disturb them… the group pics didn’t come out so well.

I had originally planned to take the trail all the way to Bayan [八煙], but a sign stated that there wasn’t a bus stop at Bayan. I got back on the park bus at Cingtiangang and headed back to the Yangmingshan Bus Terminal.

DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh [謝長廷] and running mate Su Tseng-chang [蘇貞昌]

Yesterday evening I attending the rally at Zhongshan Stadium commemorating the 61st anniversary of the 228 Massacre. The atmosphere of the area was absolutely incredible. After I grabbed a few snacks and checked out the memorabilia tables I met up with bloggers Craig Ferguson and David Reid who were arriving from the event at Freedom Square. We walked around the packed stadium taking photos and talking to people.

After Craig left, David and I went back into the stadium to hear Su Tseng-chang and later Frank Hsieh speak. Their speeches were in Hoklo Taiwanese. Luckily, a kind couple sitting behind us provided a translation for a portion.

As the crowds thinned towards the end, we rushed the stage to get a closer view shortly before Hsieh and Su left. The event concluded with a wonderful performance by Amis aborigines.

Check out David’s post for his report on the day’s events. Also be sure to stop by Craig’s 2008 Presidential Elections Flickr set, David’s 228 in Taipei set, and my 228 Love and Trust Rally set.