Trains Trains and more Trains

I made a Facebook post a few months back about what at the time was a big issue back in the States; High Speed Rail. At the time, my status update was inundated by replies, some for or against the fast trains. One of the most common queries from those pushing for new trains to be built in the states was something like “How do you get around in Taiwan?” At the time I could only say that yes, on this Minnesota size island of 24 million people, half of which is uninhabitable mountains, I predominantly use mass transit. It turns out that on this island, one of the densest places on earth, state operated mass transit still cannot operate in the black.

Example #1, Taiwan’s new and shiny High Speed Rail. Traversing the length of Taiwan in less than two hours, The HSR was supposed to revolutionize Taiwan’s transportation infrastructure. But for a litany of reasons, The HSR, constructed for an astronomical US$15 billion, has been in operation for barely two years. Under a BOT (Build Operate Transfer) the initial investors (a majority of which were government sponsored entities) would put up the funds for construction. They would then operate the HSR for thirty years, at which point ownership would be transferred to the central government.

Spirits were high when the HSR was opened, with various estimates putting the daily ridership anywhere between 180,000 and 360,000 riders per day. But, predictably, the estimates fell far short. After two years, the average daily ridership is around 80,000. The Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp has been hemorrhaging money since its inception and events finally came to a head this week when the central government agreed to take over the struggling company, a whopping 28 years before the scheduled transfer of ownership. The Taiwanese state will be taking on billions of dollars in debt, and that’s just the current debt, not even counting the cost of running the train for the next thirty years. The Taiwanese taxpayer is now on the hook for this boondoggle and there is no exit in sight.

Example #2 Kaohsiung’s shiny new MRT. While Taipei, the largest city as well as the political, economic, and cultural heart of the country, can be found in the far north of Taiwan, at the southern tip you can find the city of Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung, one of the largest ports in the world, is Taiwan’s second largest city. For decades the northern areas received the lion’s share of federal funds. With the end of martial law and the liberalizing of Taiwan’s politics other regions have been receiving their share of the pork as well. Kaohsiung’s MRT is a perfect example. Just like the HSR, the MRT was supposed to be operating in the black with plenty of passengers. Instead, predictably, the system is going broke and now needs to be taken over by the city government.

While the current political debate in The US is centered on health care, the push for high speed rail will come back. We should all keep in mind the situation in Taiwan. One of the densest places on the planet, with few and clogged highways, still cannot operate a high speed train profitably.


Here are two links for information on the trains

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/2009/09/23/225923/MOTC-defends.htm

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/kaohsiung/2009/09/24/225941/Kaohsiung-is.htm

You're a Liar!

In the midst of the whole fiasco surrounding Congressman Joe Wilson's outburst, I think it's important to point out that Mr Wilson wasn't the only one to explicitly call someone a liar that night. In reference to the so called 'death panels' President Obama said;

"The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Such a charge would be laughable if it weren't so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple."

We all know who he is referring to when he says prominent politicians. Now, I am no fan of Sarah Palin but if Barack Obama can use a speech to a joint session of congress to call her a liar, the outrage over Joe Wilson's remarks seem a bit superfluous.

Motorbike gangs in Taiwan

This is an interesting video about motor bike gangs in Taiwan. I' haven't come across anything like this yet, but it certainly is disturbing. Maybe if the Taiwanese were allowed to carry guns, these kids would be a little less likely to jump random people on the street.



If you're interested in the foreign community's perspective check out this link

http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=81399

More Morakot

The damage that Typhoon Morakot left in its wake has been devastating. The mountainous villages in Southern Taiwan were the most badly hit by the storm. Entire villages were completely wiped off the map. hundreds if not thousands are still stranded in the mountains, days after the typhoon left Taiwan to prey on China. Apparently, relief efforts have been sub par. I'm skeptical about these claims, however. Natural disasters are always difficult to deal with, both during and after. Considering the political environment that Taiwan is currently in, I'm not sure that this isn't just an attempt by certain Taiwanese media outlets to pin the blame on President Ma Ying Jiou (馬英九), just like the aftermath of hurricane Katrina was placed squarely at the feet of George Bush, with only non mainstream media pointing out that governors and mayors shared in some of the responsibility.

Is it possible that the current administration really did neglected these people. The most common complaint against President Ma is that he and his administration felt too proud to ask for any humanitarian aid. ha may be true, however, it's obviously a highly subjective statement. It is fact, however, that international governments and humanitarian groups have provided assistance to Taiwan.

Whether we will see any substantial changes to Taiwanese policy regarding typhoons is not known. Whether President Ma emerges unscathed seems unlikely, but the extent of his political damage is unclear.

Typhoon Morakot

Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan last weekend, and devastated the southern part of the island. Northern Taiwan was relatively spared, but not so in the south. The internet in my apartment is not working and I am in an internet cafe right now, runnning low on time. I will write more when I can, but check the news story in the link I posted. The pictures are truly telling of the devastation

Biking along the Danshui River

The city of Taipei sits in a basin surrounded by mountains in the northern part of Taiwan. In the Taipei basin there are three rivers, The Danshui, Keelung, and Xindian. They all merge with the Danshui river and flow to the ocean. At the mouth of this river is Danshui city. Following the river from Taipei to Danshui is a bike trail and park system. So, this Saturday, me and some friends rented bikes in Danshui and biked along the river. It was beautiful and quite scenic. I would like to buy a bike of my own, but for now, I'm content with renting them for $4 a day.

Southern Taiwan

I visited a friend of mine who lives in southern Taiwan. I knew him back at Minnesota State University, however, he is not an English teacher in Taiwan. He goes to school at an Arts University called National Tainan Arts University. He's really quite talented, and I believe he is the only foreign art student in Taiwan, or, at least that's what he was told by a distinguished arts professor here. I thought the University had an interesting look, but it just felt....Asian. Or more specific, it felt non Japanese Asian. It's difficult to describe. In The States, Universities feel very planned. Whether it's a big city University, or a small town college, the University area is always planned out. Now, this is not to say that all Universities in Asia are unplanned, chaotic places. Not at all. It's that everything else has an air of chaos to it. Planning is non existent, or at least that's how it appears. And that is how this University felt. When I was driving around Guantian Township, it was like roads were just laid down with no rhyme or reason.

We went to a country night market, and it was pretty damn country. The people were chewing binlang like it was going out of style. I've never seen so many red teeth in my life. I also took a long drive around the township. I drove around for about an hour, and it was pretty fun. It was my first drive around rural Taiwan. I took some video with my cell phone camera, and I'm trying to get it edited right now. I should have that posted in a few days. Another highlight was a reservoir located directly behind the University. It was refreshing to smell the lake smell I so badly miss

Typhoon's a comin

The creatively named Tropical Storm #7 is forming off the northern coast of The Philippines as we speak. I don't if it's a coincidence or not, but we'll keep you posted. Not much new here. Taking a trip down south this weekend. I should have some pictures to post.

A Taiwanese Haircut

I had my haircut yesterday. Normally that wouldn't be worthy of a blog posting, but this time was a bit different. First, it was a hole in the wall barber shop. I usually go to a proper salon, because they tend to be better. But this guy is two buildings down from my house and I needed the cut quickly. The barber was a Vietnamese man, and his Taiwanese friend was having lunch with him when I came in. Which brings me to the other, blog worthy part. He used an electric razor. Now, for those of you from The States, electric razors are rare. The cut itself was a bit shorter than I wanted, but by the time I realized how short he was cutting it, it was too late to change it.

The Teletubbies invade Taipei

I was at Taipei Main Station the other day, and happened to come across these guys. Wierd

Beach house in Wai Ao

I have been toying with the idea of renting a beach house for the last few months. Although rent is cheap outside of Taipei, finding what I was looking for turned out to be more difficult than I thought. All the rental websites are in Chinese and the Taiwanese people I asked usually gave me the deer in the headlights look. A few of them were cognizant enough to tell me that Taiwanese people generally don't own or rent vacation properties, at least not in Taiwan. I had almost given up hope, when I received word from my friend Cera that she knew someone who wanted out of her lease...at her beach house. Luckily, she was moving back home, and not trying to escape a horrible situation.

So I checked out the house today...and it was amazing. The house itself is big, about the same size as my house in Taipei. The rent is only $NT3,000 per month (a little less than $100). The guys who currently live in the house are all surfers, which will make my goal of learning to surf that much more attainable. The house is about 50 meters from the beach, and about 100 meters to the ocean. The house, and the whole town and highway, straddle the mountains, with hiking trails aplenty.


The house itself is in the city of Wai Ao, just north of Tou Cheng (頭城) and south of Fu Long (福隆). Parking is available, so once I buy a car, I will have ample parking. I'm pretty excited.

Ma and Obama ; Simplified characters and Spanish

A recent controversy has erupted in Taiwan over President Ma Ying Jeou's suggestion that Taiwanese should learn to write simplified characters. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Chinese characters, there are essential two kinds; Traditional and Simplified. Traditional characters are the ones that Westerners would be most familiar with. Simplified characters were invented by the Chinese Communists as an attempt to improve literacy. While the characters are still complex, they are much more "simple" than the traditional characters. A good example would be the character for "horse".

Traditional: 馬 Simplified: 马

As you can see, the traditional character is much more complex.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Taiwan's President has suggested that it would be a good thing for cross strait relations and exchanges if Taiwanese were to learn to read and write using simplified characters. He also is on the record saying it would help if Chinese were to learn traditional characters as well.

The reaction by the Taiwanese independence camp has been predictable. They are up in arms over the President's "trashing the nation's cultural integrity", to quote a DPP spokesman.

I can't help but see the parallels between President Ma's suggestion, and Barack Obama's suggestion during his campaign that it would be a good idea for Americans to learn Spanish.

Reactionary elements are everywhere, in every society. We should all try to look objectively at issues like this, before jumping up and down and calling names.

Reggae Fest 6/8/09

The Reggae Fest at Qian Shui Beach this weekend was a blast. Lot's of great music, food, and drink. I was a little unhappy at the lack of any tequila however. The huge, open pit grill on the patio cooked some of the best pork I've eaten in a long time. The late night pizza was especially delicious. My friend Tony, a Ghanaian, took me to the fifth floor of the building overlooking the music. IT was an amazing view from the top. Most of the performers were typical reggae acts. One band stood out, however. Skaraoke, a ska-ish band was pretty damn good. I'll be looking forward to seeing some more of them.

Also I saw a new map of the soon to be completed Neihu line. Once completed, it should cut about 15 minutes from my commute. If you look at the upper right corner of the map, my school is located at Nei Hu station. I will be getting on the MRT at Nanjing Station. I plan to attend the inagural opening, so expect a blog about it.

Taichung Part 2 - Saturday night & Sunday day

After a long afternoon of walking, eating and picture taking, as well as a hard earned nap, it was time to go out for the night. We headed for a bar district in Taichung with a big entertainment complex called Tiger. Tiger has bowling alleys, batting cages, pool tables and video games. We played a few video games, including on of those strength games with the hammer, which I won, and also hit the batting cages. Inside, playing video games, it was nice because they had AC, but the batting cages were outside, and it was a hot night. By the time we were finished, we were both drenched in sweat.













After Tiger we headed down to a bar/club called The Pig Pen. We had a fun time, but unfortunately not of my pictures came out. I did get some video of an entertaining dance/singing crew they had. It was pretty funny, and me and Tyler were laughing the whole time. They would sing and dance to top 40 songs. I took this video with my camera phone and considering it can't even take pictures at the bar, I think the video came out pretty well.

!Warning! When you watch the video, turn the volume down on your computer.


We were out pretty late Sunday night and by the time we got back to the hotel we were pretty hungry. Where else is there to go for breakfast in Taiwan but good ol' McDonalds. After a feast of hot cakes and mc muffins, we meandered around a bit before heading back to the hotel. On the way back, we came across a bird in the river that we were enthralled with for a good ten minutes. He was just standing there waiting for food to come by. Nothing came.


We woke up relatively early, considering what time we went to bed, and went to get some coffee. We brought along the Lonely Planet, to find some cool things to do. Lonely Planet is pretty sparse for Taiwan but we did find a paragraph about a nature area outside of the city called Da Keng so we decided we would go check that out.
We boarded the busand paid our fare but unfortunately, we weren't sure where to get off, and we missed our stop. Now this wouldn't normally be such a big deal, but, as we found out a bit later, Da Keng is at the base of the mountains...like, the last stop before the bus goes up a big mountain. Needless to say, we didn't realize we missed our stop until after we had reached the top of the mountain. Now, we weren't on a mountain peak but more of a a broad plateau of farm country.
When we tried to get off the bus, the bus driver tried to get us to pay more money. This really angered me. I told the bus driver he knew where we were supposed to be going and didn't even bother telling us. We're foreigners and don't know the area, and that we weren't going to pay any more money. He mumbled something about not knowing where we were going, and I shot back "then how do you know we didn't pay the right fare" and walked off the bus.
We were 1 kilometer oustide of some small town. The town itself was perched on the edge of the mountain, giving us spectacular views of the mountain valley. We walked around a bit, being our first time in a truly small Taiwanese farming town. As you can guess, we weren't entertained long. We then went to the bus stop to wait for the bus...which never came. We waited for more than 30 minutes before we decided to pay the NT$300 (about $8) for a taxi down the mountain.

Once we got to the bottom of the mountain, we walked found the hiking area and walked around a bit. It was scenic but the views were much better on the top of the mountain. What was interesting was a little oasis in the middle of this dirty suburb called "Bee Museum No. 2". Intrigued by this strange English in the midst of Chinese, we decided to take a chance and went in. What we found was not a museum, but a themed cafe/gift shop...place. Lot's of green and bee cutouts, with a small restaurant. You would assume the gift shop would sell bee related items, but no, they sold 3D architecture puzzles...strange indeed.


So that was the trip. I had a blast. I really enjoy going to Taichung, maybe some day I'll move down there. I took a lot of really interesting pictures, so go to my Picassa page and just look for the Taichung folder.

Taichung Part 1 - Saturday day

Last weekend I took a trip to Taichung. Taichung is a city in central Taiwan (it's name literally means Taiwan Central, in Chinese). With a population of a little over 1 million, Taichung is the third biggest city in Taiwan. It also has the best weather on the island. Just as hot as anywhere, but not nearly as humid, it was a welcome respite from the stifling humidity of Taipei. We left Taipei on a bus and arrived in Taichung at around 3:00 PM. First priority was to find a hotel. Luckily, the area around the train station has plenty of hotels, and cheap ones too. We ended up at the "Formosa Hotel" in the same buildings as the David's English branch in Taichung.

After settling in, we went to get some food. Our goal was to walk towards a big park at the end of a stream running through the city. Unfortunately, the map was much easier to follow than the actual city roads. Next thing we know, we're at the opposite end of the park, and we hadn't even eaten! We decided to head through the park, creatively named Taichung Park. It was an interesting park, as you can see in the pictures. Peaceful, green, and quiet; all things you don't usually see in Taiwanese cities. My favorite part was this tower we found. Pretty interesting.









After exiting the park, under the watchful eye of the giant goat, we were almost immediately in the middle of a big market, excellent news because at this point, I was famished. We first got some sandwich things that were amazingly delicious. The market was packed and it was slow going but I managed to get some of my favorite quail eggs on a stick, as well as a wrap type thing that was delicious, although Tyler did not like his at all. The market was fun, and when we were finished we headed back to the hotel to relax for a few hours and then to hit the town.



The Saturday evening review will be coming shortly. If you want to see all of my pictures, just click here.

They're just pictures!

I'm pretty sure it was a rock hard commitment, given by then candidate Obama, to release all information, including pictures, of any detainee abuse. Now, I'm a Republican, so I don't like playing gotcha politics, but this is ridiculous. I agree 100% with President Obama's decision, but why is this a reversal? Why would he ever have made this commitment? Is it possible he flat out lied to his supporters, and they bought it hook, line, and sinker. Or did he truly believe that he could follow through?

Me and Barack

I met Barack Obama this weekend. I didn't expect to meet him in Taiwan, but he was out greeting people, welcoming us to a restaurant called Miami Heat. The food was ok, but hey, how often do you get to meet the President.

Mother's Day in Taiwan

In Taiwan, and Korea as well, most English schools can be found within a five minute walking distance of the big public schools. My school is no different. We are located about 100 meters from the main entrance to Bie Hu Elementary School. Most of our students come from Bie Hu. As soon as the public school finishes, they walk right on over to Auntie Ma School for English and Math classes.

Sunday is also Mother's Day in Taiwan. So today, Saturday, Bie Hu school had a Mother's Day celebration. My boss thought it would be a good idea to hand out fliers to all the parents who attended the festival. Oh ya, did I forget to mention that my friend Erik Miller, the guy I graduated with and went to Korea with is in Taipei for a visit. Erik still lives in Korea. So, needless to say, last night we were out and about until about 6:00 AM, and I had to wake up at about 7:30 to head to work. As I'm writing this, I am feeling pretty tired...and hungry.

So anyway, the festival was pretty interesting. The layout of the school is different than most schools in the states. As you can see, it has a central courtyard where the sports "fields" are, surrounded by the school itself. The tents had assorted snacks and games to play, mostly made by the kids so the quality wasn't exactly top notch. My favorite part of the day was the water balloons. Basically, you buy some pre filled water balloons, and throw them at the students, who more or less line up along a wall. Two of my students were participating in this, so I spent about $10 for at least 100 balloons. By the time I was finished they were pretty wet. As usual, I hav eposted some pictures here, but if you want to see more, just click here