Ba-bye Taiwan. "Nice to meet you."

So we've made it back to the States safe and sound. Our last week was extremely busy processing the results from the first test, writing a paper for an ASCE conference in Vancouver, rushing to finish building and instrumenting the second test, and then testing in our last hours before flying out. The 5 1/2 week trip passed by far to quickly and we'll miss a lot of the charm Taiwan and Taipei have to offer. We did have the opportunity to head up to the northern most point of the island to hike around and check out the rock formations. We also ended up in a town called Jaifon built on the steep slopes of an old gold mine near Keelong, north of Taipai.

NCREE put together another "outing" for employees and we, again, were lucky enough to tag along. They set the day's itinerary and constantly kept us fed. All we had to do was make sure we didn't miss the bus. First stop was the northern coast where we had the choice of a dolphin show or hiking the cliffs. Even though I figured it would have been interesting to see dolphins speaking chinese, we opted for the hike. The rock on the north coast looks like fossilized coral. The area is extremely eroded from the winds and is definitely different from anywhere else I've ever seen.





Queen Kelly on her throne.


And then we battled on dinosaurs.


Back in the 1950's, gold was discovered in the hillsides of northern Taiwan and mines were quickly dug. The town of Jaifon was established to house the workers and their families but after the mines were emptied, the town stayed partially because of it's uniqueness. We got onto a bus and held on for our lives as the driver attempted to break the world record for faster time up the narrow switch backs and hairpin turns. I chose to stand facing the up slope rather than stare down the abyss separated only by a flimsy guardrail. The driver gave it one heck of an effort but we missed the record by 2 seconds.



The place was a bit of a tourist trap and the highlights are these narrow alleys lined with shops and vendors that run endlessly up and down the hillside. It was pretty intense and we had to make a break for more open ground. We found a temple and checked out all the detail and art inside. People come here and light incense to honor the dead. Creepy.



Rick, Sri and the two of us have become like a little family while we were in Taiwan. The four of us ate "hot pot" and washed it down with a few Taiwan Beer for our last night out.



These guys say they're gonna call Kelly in the States for translation from Mandarin, directions to restaurants or for which train to take when they want to get out of town. We predict they're gonna sit in their apartment crying for weeks, unable to feed themselves or navigate the city...but that might be a little grandiose of how important our roll was.

And Rick seems to be embracing the country well enough as you can see.


Hopefully we'll be back to visit soon. Taiwan is an amazing country. The food is incredible and the people are generous and welcoming. We didn't get to visit all the places on the island that we would have liked, but each place we did showed picturesque landscapes and interesting cultural charm. We definitely need to thank UW and our research for making this opportunity happen and KC Tsai and NCREE for being such accommodating hosts. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a safe, fun New Years. We'll be talking to you soon.

Jake

Zai san bei

We've had a wild and exciting last few weeks here. Rick from New Zealand and Sri, a PhD candidate from Iowa State, have become pretty good friends of ours and have been experiencing the island with us. Recent events include nights out to the local Taiwan Beer Factory, China Pa (a traditional Chinese lounge bar playing live 1920's Chinese classics), a trip to the top of Taipei 101 (tallest building in the world, 508m, until the completion of the Dubai Tower), another rugby match, a visit to the Grand Hotel, and a hike to the top of the Mt. Cising (tallest mountain in the Yangmingshan National Park north of Taipei).

We've been gorging ourselves every night and having a blast in the city each day. The people here are incredibly friendly and even though we've struggled not knowing the language, the locals' patience and willingness to reach out have left an endearing impression on us. If anyone is interested in spending some time in a foreign country to live and teach ESL (Terry?), the pay here for English teachers is very high (over $45k US) and the demand is endless. Many of the ex-pats I play rugby with have been doing this for years.

So here's a barrage of photos from the last couple of weeks. This is a Japanese style "hot pot" diner. Everyone gets there own boiling bowl of broth to season and cook assortment of vegetables, seafood and meats. I think this is my favorite style for going out. These shrimp were still squirming on the plate before we boiled 'em.




...And at the local pubs... (Nice face, Jake!)



A poster feature "America's Great Beers" had a familiar emblem from the Northwest...Old Wooly from Big Time Brewery in Seattle.



Prof. JS Hwang who works here at NCREE and teaches at National Taiwan University is a PhD graduate from SUNY Buffalo. He's been a good friend to us whether it be figuring out the transit schedules or taking us out. This place, China Pa, had a 70 year old singer belting out tunes reminiscent of old Shanghai in the 20's. He's quite a character and loves to practice his english with us. His words of wisdom are "to not work too hard. One day you'll be dead and realize you never enjoyed your life. Instead just work, work, work." And then he offered to change lives with me. Odd.



These are some shots of the Taipei Grand Hotel. Foreign MP's and Presidents stay here when visiting. It has incredibly decorative Asian architecture and is beautiful inside and out.








Played a bit of rugby on Saturday. The Taipei Baboons have an annual South Africa vs. The World match within the club. I wish I could say I helped the World put those Arfikaaners in their place but I think the final score was 86-10. It looked more like a track event with them continuously sprinting towards our try line.


Saturday night at the Taiwan Beer Factory. This night we had to ask a group of Central American guys to help decipher the all Mandarin food menu for us. Through a mix of Spanish, English and Mandarin (Espandaringlish) we were able to get a great meal and a few casks of beer.


Rick doing his best Harry Potter impression.


Apparently, it make sense to bring the whole family out for the night to the Beer Factory 'cause this place looked like a playground with kids running all around. This kid here is building his pile for the rock fight with his siblings. The fight took place at and around our table. Oh, sweet.



Kelly took a gondola ride over the city and made friends with a Taiwanese family. She ended up having tea at a tradition tea house in the hills with them and was using the 3 kids to translate English to their mom. She got some great shots over looking Taipei.






We stopped by Taipei 101 last week to go up to the observatory because it would be straight up blasphemous to be structural engineering students in Taipei and not visit the tallest building on the planet. It's a interesting building and holds records for the world's fastest rising elevator (600 meters/minute) and the world's largest Tuned Mass Damper. I know. Can you hardly contain yourself? Simply riveting.




A tuned mass dampers is a huge, heavy mass typically placed near the top of a tall building that swings or moves freely to counter the momentum of the building during high winds from typhoons or from earthquakes, minimizing the swaying or shaking movement at the upper levels. Yeah. This really got our geeky engineering blood going as you can see.




Kelly, Sri and myself did a nice little day hike just outside the city. Sri says he hadn't hiked in two full years and even though the hike was relatively short, it was extremely steep at parts. The clouds cleared when we got to the top and we could see all of Taipei and into the China Sea to the west.






Oh, and the other night at the Shilan Night Market we ran into this.


That's it. I'm staying.

We successfully tested our first specimen yesterday and are likely going to extend our stay another 3 days to be here for the second test next week. I'm definitely in no rush to leave. Talk to you all soon.

Jake