Trip to Taiwan

Hello dear friends,

again I want to let you know a little bit about my life here in Korea... well, this time not directly Korea, but Taiwan.
Together with my Taiwanese friend Nichi, her parents and my two Korean friends Yeonhwa and Sunah I travelled the beautiful little island Taiwan.

First some information about the island:

The 394 km long and 144km wide island is located on the "Tropic of Cancer" (degree of latitude: 23,27) next to the Chinese mainland. Over 93% of Taiwanese are adherents of a combination of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Still today about 2% of a total population of about 23 mio. are aboriginees, who mostly live in the mountainous areas.

Of course during our trip we travelled a lot around the island.
During our first day we arrived at Nichi's home in Tao yuan, which is located close to Taipei and even closer to the airport.
From there we travelled south-east to Ilan. In order to do so we used the longest tunnel of Taiwan, called Hsuehshan Tunnel, which is almost 13km long and reduces the travel time from two hours to just half an hour. In Ilan we visitied an area famous area for pottery and later went to a night market with a lot of clothes and new impressions... especially concerning the food... That night we stayed at a friend of Nichi's mom, who was very hospitable and shared with us her passion for mountain biking and good music.
On the next day we got up early to start off for our journey into the mountains of Taiwan to Taipingshan. Up in the mountains we had booked rooms in a small cozy hotel. Luckily we could make our way up before the fog totally blocked the small mountain street. With a small train we tried to discover the foggy woods.

On the next day we were excited to recover in the hot springs and enjoyed the luckily good few over Taipingshan. With help of the naturally hot water we were able to boil our own eggs and corn sticks.
Of course one of the musts when going to Taiwan is to let your own wishes for the future rise up into the air and become true. We did this in a small town called Pingshi. First we wrote down our wishes, then the huge lantern was lit with fire inside and made its way up to the sky. The longer the lantern rises up the greater the chance that your wishes will become true. It was a very emotional moment for everybody. After this we went back home.

On the next day we went to a flower garden where we could make great pictures, not only of us, but also of a variety of different flowers and herbs. After that we went to an old traditional market (of which there are really many in Taiwan) and finally to the club hotel, where we would stay one night to relax from the stressful travelling. We had a whole house for ourselves. During the previous days we had eaten a lot since we wanted to try as much as possible of the Taiwanese food. Well, we could definetely see the results in form of bigger bellies and decided to do some workout and also swam some rounds in the hotel pool. After that we enjoyed the evening playing a traditional Taiwanese game similar to Rummicub, which made me learn very quickly to remember Chinese numbers in order to win the game five times in a row.

On the next morning we slept longer than usual and after a good breakfast again left for another trip to discover the beautiful Taiwan. Hsinchu: here Nichi's grandmother is living. Together with the girls I discovered the port and enjoyed the grandmother's food in the evening.

On Friday we had to get up early to attend a conference on shipping, port and logistics management at Nichi's former university the Kainan University in her home town. There we could also meet two of our own professors of Inha University who were invited to give speeches on these topics. It was very interesting but unfortunately we had to leave already at noon to get on our way to the South of Taiwan, to Kaoshiung, which is famous for its big port (6th largest port in the world). There Sunah, Yeonhwa and I made ourselves on a uncertain journey through the city equipped with Nichi's aunt's address in Chinese and a map in Chinese.At the sea we made nice pictures at the beach and tried some sea food. Without Nichi's help it was quite a challenge to choose food and I think the waitress was getting a little bit impatient, but finally we were able to make a decision. Surprisingly we didn't have any problems getting around in the city. We were even able to use the bus from the port to the so called "Love River" in the city center.
Around 12 o'clock at night we went back to Nichi's aunt's house. After getting ready we left Kiaoshiung again and tried to catch some sleep in the car. We all felt really sorry for Nichi's dad who all this week drove us everywhere without ever complaining. Really thanks to Nichi's parents who made this week be as it was. It was fantastic.
THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!
Well, back at home we lay down and decided to get up as early as possible (which of course was quite difficult) in order to also see Taipei. Going to Taiwan without seeing the capital is of course impossible.

So the next day we took a train to Taipei, first to the highest building in the world, the 101 tower. Of course Sunah and I went up with the world's fastest elevator to make some pictures. Unfortunately that day it was quite foggy.
After 101 we went to Danshui, which is a beautiful area at the sea side with many small stores, many people, many couples, young people walking around, artists playing music, a lot of food and even theatre plays on small stages. After that we went to a night market again to do some shopping, which is really great in Taiwan. Clothes are really cheap and there are so many, you could spend a whole week there only for shopping and looking at stuff being sold.
But as you could see, we did not only waste our precious short time for these things, but also for seeing the beautiful landscape of the island, its great exotic cities, which are full of people and scooters and to learn about the culture and the language during our many trips in the car. With Nichi's help even I could catch some small phrases in Chinese and learn a few characters. This language is really amazing and if I find some time in the future I definitely want to learn more about it, but right now I will put all my effort into learning Korean.

I hope you enjoyed my small journey through Taiwan and I could maybe awaken your interest for this beautiful island. I can warmly recommend it for a visit.
Let's see where I will go next...