Category: My First Taipei Views


main station area

Picture taken from the former coffee shop near the top floor of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Building, it was a great free view of the city looking north.   The freeway running left to right  is Civic Blvd (wrongly called Civil Blvd in latest Lonely Planet guide-book).

Taipei Main Station roof is the large brown building in lower right corner.  On the other side of the freeway, the empty lot is where the Q-Building and bus station have since been constructed.

The area to the left with low building’s is the old river suburb of Da Dao Cheng which is now seeing plenty of new high rise office buildings as the city expands.

One of the three or four bridges that cross the Taipei or Tamshui river is creeping into the picture on the upper left corner.

There is still a coffee shop at Shin Kong, on a lower floor, with a reasonable view looking north.  Coffee is NT$150 per cup which is about double that charged at the ‘85′ (brand) coffee shops or just a bit more than at Starbucks.

Personally I think coffee sold at McDonald’s is better than Starbucks and probably less than half the price.  At Starbucks you might see a few of the foreign language teachers using WiFi.

1-2012-12-07

The girls (above) were hospital nurses  in the Kaohsiung district.  We met at Chi Jin Island where I was in serious trouble following an accident in 2004.  I still owe them heaps of thanks but have misplaced an email address.

 

When walking between Taipei city center and Ximen MRT  you might meet this small park with men placing chess under shady tree’s.  The original statue featured a noted Japanese guy but later Dr Sun Yat Sen founder of the KMT or Chinese Nationalists.

The story of the three well-educated (in USA) Soong sisters is better than “Gone With the Wind”. The youngest lived to 108 years, in New York City. They all married powerful men. Mao of China, Chiang Kai-Shek of Taiwan and Sun Yat-Sen, (shown in the memorial in Taipei, founder of the Nationalists or KMT party). Three women who helped change the direction of world politics. Best remembered in Taiwan is Mei-ling Soong who spoke perfect English and during World War 2 addressed Congress on behalf of her husband for help in fighting the ‘dreaded’ Chinese communists. There was also at the same time the Japanese army in China who are not remembered too kindly today. Time changes everything. Communist China and Japan are the leading trading partners of Australia. “Never say never”.

 

We’ve been to some of these fine shows in the past. (SEARCH will display pictures).  Inventions show was enjoyable, Plastics and Rubber Show was not about wet suit neoprene as I’d hoped, it was more to do with huge machines made in Taiwan. Taiwan International Voltaic Exhibition was solar power panels – very interesting indeed. I’m not familiar with the others listed here.  Computer and camera shows attract a huge audience when held earlier in the year.  The travel expo was the busiest I’ve attended.  The auto show is also huge.

Catch the MRT to Taipei City Hall station then a bus or taxi to the World Trade Centre next door to Taipei 101 building.  Admission is usually quickly organized if you have a few business cards, (name cards) with you.

Events are usually promoted in the daily English language newspaper, Taipei Times, a day before the show.

 

CLICK FOR VIDEO 5.33sec

Taiwan’s bid to rejoin the United Nations was not the first attempt but this was the last.  We went to Kaohsiung and joined many thousands of others from all over the island.  It was a well-organized rally but failed to impress the United Nations sufficiently.

(With a new computer and extra RAM I decided to do this fresh edit.  The song and dance are most memorable).

Czech speaker YouTube video <CLICK

Some Taiwan visits ago I took my then new video camera to a short speech on democracy by a visiting and very famous Czech politician.

Petr Pithart’s  entourage were interesting looking guys.  We spoke briefly afterwards.

A very tall and slim gentleman had been a diplomat stationed in Australia – we spoke on Australian politicians (he’d met Bob Carr – the current Foreign Minister in Julia Gillard’s government) and for something different, how tall men make excellent free divers due to their increased lung capacity.  Surprise, his Czech best friend was a/the world champion free diver!

Another gentleman who looked the part of a very effective bodyguard was in fact a famous actor in the Czech Republic.

I’ll post his picture and others when these next show-up on the computer or hard drive where they live.

It was a memorable and interesting afternoon.  An opportunity like this would not exist for me in Australia.

Australian visitors in Taiwan (and other ‘westerners’) are well-looked after.  It’s a humbling experience we appreciate and enjoy.

MORE INFORMATION

from      http://en.wikipedia.org (Extract below)

Petr Pithart (born January 2, 1941 in Kladno) is a Czech politician, lawyer and political scientist.

He served as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (then part of Czechoslovakia) from February 6, 1990 to July 2, 1992. He has sat in Senate of the Czech Republic since its inception in autumn 1996, serving as its chairman from December 18, 1996 to December 16, 1998 and from December 19, 2000 to December 15, 2004.

Political career

Pithart was member of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia since 1960, was active in the Prague Spring and left the party after the Soviet invasion; later he was one of the most prominent dissidents against the communist regime. He was imprisoned for this activity including being one of the first signatories of Charter 77. In 1989 he was one of the prominent leaders of the Civic Forum founded at the start of the overthrow of the regime. Having participated in the negotiations which led to the change of the federal, Czech and Slovak governments, he was appointed Prime Minister of the then Czech Socialist Republic.

VIDEO – Memorial Hall <CLICK

1. Rainbow marble vases or jars are not cheap.  I priced one in a shop near Hyatt Fortune Hotel recently at NT$100 thousand.

2. It took me a couple of years to figure out the poster message.  A phone within a camera.  Unknown back in Australia in 2003.

3. The nicest view at Green Island, offshore from Taitung.

4. Ink impression of a large fish caught at Green Island, displayed in restaurant.

5. Night market in Kaohsiung is now very popular with tourists from the mainland.  Prices have fallen, value is good.  Chinese pay in yuan currency using 100 notes – a clever way to get a 10% discount for themselves.  This picture was in 2003.

6. I arrived in Taipei at the tail-end of SARS problem in 2002.  My first view of the city from front and rear windows (which in fact are digital shots taken the following year replicating the original view caught on film).

THE VIDEO (above) is a tribute to an Australian journalist William H. Donald who would have promoted Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang to the USA media.  William H. Donald also played a part in Chinese history (so says his website) with an important negotiation in Xian plus he saved the life of Madame Chiang.  Today he’s almost forgotten.  Unknown in CKS Memorial Hall apart from his picture with Chiang and a group of reporters in 1937 yet at the time of death he was given a state funeral in Beijing – memory of that erased by the later cultural revolution.

The international awards shown in the video are no longer all on display at CKS Memorial Hall.

CLICK ME to play WMV.

Computer and Camera show opened today. Tomorrow and Sunday will be very crowded.  Admission free is a tip they could use in Australia at these shows. Photographers like the free models to photograph and test cameras with. My 3.30 video an inspiration for those thinking of teaching English here (in Taiwan). I looked at new computers on special for about 25% less than list price or for AUD $1000 for an i7 4GB RAM. Some new computers have only one RAM slot – meaning if you intend to double or increase the RAM you need to dis-guard the original card. ha ha – Linda is a very pretty girl, Kelly and Jenny are both cute too.

Video  http://www.facebook.com/v/10150564514630060

In April 2002 which was about when the SARS problem was conquered I made my first visit to Taipei.  It seemed that 20% of the people in the street (or maybe 25%) were still wearing face masks as a preventive measure.

In Australia ignorant people still cough and sneeze in public with no regard for others.  (Stupid and dumb).  Australia is still a frontier country with rattle-trap slow public transport trains, no high-speed rail system and huge distances between towns.

Some politicians pretend to believe Australia does not need a super fast broadband for the near future to connect our people competitively  with Asia and the rest of the world.