Only in Taipei

Tuesday of this week I finished my second Chinese final exam. While the quarter is not quite out, only two more weeks to go, our final exam is over and done with and the stress level is somewhat less than before. Our test spanned over 7 chapters of chinese, we studied 10 total this quarter, and covered over 40 new grammar points, approximately 300 new characters and a wide range of topics, from history, politics and sports games to beauty contests and so on. I spent over a week working hard on reviewing all that material, and it paid off. I passed with flying colors.

After the test was over we really had to come up with a way to celebrate, and one of the Shida students certainly came through. Last night starting from Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 中正紀念堂 and headed to Taipei 101 台北一零一，we embarked on a journey that can possible only be completed here in Taiwan, a 7-11 crawl.

Our mission, to walk from C.K.S. to 101 stopping at eleven or more 7-11's on the way and buying one alcoholic beverage on the way. There are 4.770 7-11 stores in Taiwan, they have a great selection of beverages, and drinking on the streets is legal, albeit frowned upon in Taipei. We had more than 30 people total in the group, and it was slow going, but a ton of fun. We only had the cops come once to a 7-11, I think the clerks were a little nervous when 30 plus people were standing out side sipping cold ones. The trip took a little over 3 hours to complete but we did make it to 101, although by that time the lights were out and there wasn't a single 7-11 in sight to have a celebratory drink. It is something that I don't think I will do again, but dang it was fun.


I still have two more weeks of school left but after that we get a break before my final quarter. I planning to take advantage of the days off and head down to Tainan 台南 by myself to have a bit of an adventure. Should be a lot of fun. I will be sure to write a few blogs about my trip. After the break I start my final quarter of school. Instead of having a 3 hour or 2 hour normal class I have selected a one of one class. Basically I will have 10 hours of individual lessons a week, I can select my own course material and set my own pace. It should really get me ready for 7th semester Chinese, which I am taking back at UWM in fall. I figure I should include a picture of my and my class mates in this blog as well. It's me and another American, two Japanese students, one student from Thailand, one from Indonesia, and one from the Philippines. This quarter has been a lot of fun, but I am looking forward to next quarter even more.

The adventures continue.

As May quickly approaches, I am reminded that my time here is more than half over. While my parents were in Taiwan I told them there was a very good possibility of me extending my stay here. Since they have left I toiled for days over ways to come up with money to extend my stay, I looked into Visa extensions, scholarships for school, and even jobs to support the cost of living. However, after thinking things over again and again, I have decided that I will be coming home at the end of August as was had originally planed. My plane ticket is booked, and the date is set. But as I start to plan for my fall semester back at UWM, I also continue to discover new and wonderful things in this place.

Sitting at school waiting for class to start I looked out upon the city and realized that this place feels more and more like my home. The buildings, although concrete and stained with exhaust, add to this city's wonderful character. You can sense the amount of people, and the flow of life by gazing at the Taipei skyline. C.K.S. Memorial Hall and Big Pink (Taiwan's second tallest building) stick out at day and night.


Walking through Shida Night market you can always tell you've found good food if there is a long line of people waiting for it. One stand in the night market always seems to have the longest line, so I decided to give it a try. The stand sells something called Lu Wei, they give you a basket and a set of tongs and you get to select what kind of food you would like to eat, they have dofu, tons of fresh veggies, meat, noodles, and tons of other stuff. You put the things you want into the basket and then the cook plunges it into the black, boiling Lu Wei(滷味) broth, made from Chinese herbal medicine. After the food is done they add chili sauce, garlic, and some other goodies. If you eat at the restaurant behind the Lu Wei stand you get your meal on a nice big plate, but if you take it to go, or as we say in chinese dai zou(帶走), chinese for carry out, all your food goes into a nice plastic bag. My basket of Lu Wei consisted of noodles, dofu, mushrooms, asparagus, green beens and fresh lettuce. The meal was incredible, and well worth the half hour wait and 140NT I paid for it; like I said before, huge lines means the food is good.


The food at the Lu Wei stand was so good that I ate it again the next night as well. Thankfully I ordered while it was still pretty early so I didn't have to wait for a half hour the second time around. Last night Matt's friend from Germany arrived in Taipei for the weekend and we decided to show him around. We started the night at the 45 our pub of choice and had a few beers. After that it was over to Longshan temple which was had a very different feel at night. Very peaceful, yet alive with energy. After Longshan temple we went over to Snake Alley and got stuffed on street food. I had some tasty chao mian (fried noodles) and watched the boys eat some awesome cuts of sashimi for the sweet price of 150NT, there never going to get deals like that back home. After Longshan temple we headed out to a club and danced the night away. All in all it was a great way to start the weekend. Not sure what will be next on my adventures in Taipei, most likely some homework. We are studying political terms and our report for this test is a mock election for ban zhang(班長), class representative. While these types of reports require a good amount of effort, its a wonderful use of new vocabulary.

Parents: Week two in Taipei.

Emily’s status: is HOME!!!!
Facebook confirms it. My family is home at last. Their two week journey in Island Formosa, the beautiful island, has come to a conclusion. I am sure they will have loads of stories to tell about their stay in Taiwan, so I will just pick up where my last blog left off.

Friday: We got up early had some breakfast and took a three hour train ride to Hualian where we had a hotel room waiting for us. We checked into the hotel and went out ready to explore the city for the rest of the day. As we were getting some info together at the Information center, I was approached by a taxi driver who spoke a little english. She offered to take us to Taroko Gorge for the rest of the day and give us a great tour for a very reasonable price. After a quick family meeting we decided to take the taxi tour to Taroko, and we were off. The awesome sight of Taroko Gorge is something that words have a hard time describing. Standing on the roads overlooking the ravine below you can feel the awesome power of this place in the pit of your stomach. Our trip to Taroko consisted of 5 stops total. Our first was the Eternal Spring Shrine, which was built to honor all the people who died building the the Taroko Pass. The Shrine, despite being under construction was an awesome sight, sitting all alone peacefully among waterfalls and marble laden walls it stood silent and beautiful.

After our stop at Eternal Spring Shrine we were off on a short walk called The Swallow Gratto Tunnel that lead up to the Commemoration of Chinheng, the engineer who designed the gorge pass. After an earthquake destroyed some of the roads Chinheng was killed in a rockfall when he came to inspect the damage. The walk was beautiful, but the constant signs warning us of falling rocks were a constant reminder of the people lost building the awesome pass. From there we were off to the Tunnel of Nine Turn's, another awesome display of nature and engineering working together to create a beautiful mountain pass. The walk was peaceful and breathtaking. We did a few more hiking trails and finished our stay in Taroko with a nice stair hike up to the Heaven Summit Pagoda. After our wonderful trip to Taroko Gorge we went to a Aboriginal dance in the cultural center of Hualian. Emily, the adventurous traveler, got up the nerve to even dance with the group on stage. I am sure that the cute boys wearing nothing more than a warriors mini skirt had nothing do to with her decision.

Saturday: After spending our Friday in Taroko Gorge we decided to take a hike on the Zuo Tsang Trail in Hualian. We discovered the hike in a local expat magazine, it boasted a wonderful view of Hualian and even a chance to see some Formosan rock macaque's in the distance. The magazine did not disappoint in any sense. The sights were amazing, looking like something out of Jurassic Park, so much different from the view in the gorge. After walking for about an hour, I finally got to stop saying that I was not leaving the area without seeing some monkeys. A rustle in the distance confirmed my hopes of finding them, no less that 8 macaque's were hanging out in the tree's and checking out the strange white humans who were out enjoying the day. It had to be one of the coolest things of the weekend. After checking out the monkey's for quite a while we continued our hike to the top. We made it up to a nice resting place about 1.2KM from the summit and we decided to end our trip short and head back down the mountain. After the hike we took a taxi ride back to Hualian where we found a nice little vegetarian restaurant and stuff our selves full of fried rice, noodles, and heaps of dumplings. While at the restaurant we experienced once again wonderful Taiwanese hospitality. Rather than taking another taxi back to our hotel the daughter of the restaurant we were eating at offered to give us a car ride back, and we gratefully accepted. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and playing some Password, a family favorite, where Dad and Emily got in the zone and practically swept the game leaving Mom and I in the dust.

Sunday: Our trip came to a quick end on Sunday, with our 9 A.M. train ride sending us on our different ways. I took a train ride back to Taipei, and my parents headed off to Tainan, where they spent two days exploring the old capitol city. I know they had a lot of fun there, but they will have to fill you in on all the details for that lag of the trip. Sunday back in Taipei for me meant hitting the books and getting ready for another week of school. I got a phone call that night telling me that my family had made it safe and found a hotel in Tainan.

Tuesday: Tuesday night my parents arrived back in Taipei and we met up after my class. We headed over to a great Vegetarian Buffet for our evening meal and stuffed our faces full of Tofu, noodles, dumplings, and anything else that caught our fancy. Over the two weeks that my family spent in Taipei we must have ate at no less that 5 vegetarian buffets, every time was a true delight. As we all professed more that once, "who needs meat when the favors are this good!" After our dinner we headed over to Shilin night market, the largest in all of Taipei, where I had ordered a very nice traditional Chinese dress shirt, and Emily had here eye on a purse that was going to be "the talk of the town when she got home." You can't spend a night in a night market without also tasting some of the great treats offered there. Mom and I couldn't resist ordering our favorite snack, a bag of fresh pineapple, and my Dad, having already tried fried squid and other treats had to order the stinky tofu.

Wednesday & Thursday: Wednesday night we went to a more traditional Beijing style restaurant. The dinner was wonderful and the flavors were very different from what we had been eating all week. After our dinner we went to Cafe Bastille, our local hangout where Dad and I enjoyed a few Belgium beers that boasted a more than modest 10.5% alcohol by volume label. Thursday morning we were up bright and early and we headed over to Xin Bei Tou for a trip to the natural hot springs. The water was super hot, but very enjoyable, we started out in the coolest of four pools offered at the public bath house. We never made it into the two hottest one's they were just to hot for our untrained skin. After the hot springs my parents headed off the Dan Shui and I once again rode the MRT solo back to Taipei for school. Thursday night John, my landlord, took my family and a long time friend of his Mark, also staying at the hostel, out for a great dinner filled with fresh chicken, fish, veggie's, pork and more. After dinner Dad and I spent some time up on the fifth floor balcony of Happy Family Hostel enjoying a few beers and some nice cuban cigars.

Friday: Friday morning came and went, we enjoyed a great breakfast at one of our hotspots and I was once again off to school for the afternoon. After school it was time to head over and up to the top of the 101 to enjoy the nighttime view of Taipei. The coolest part of the whole experience may actually have been the elevator... holy cow did it move fast! We covered 84 floors in 30 seconds and could even feel our ears pop on the way. Once we got to the top the view was breathtaking. Car's looked like ant's and buildings looked like little models in a diorama. Of course, I realized once we made it to the top that my camera's battery was officially dead so you will have to check out my parents photo's from the top.

Saturday: The last full day in Taipei for my family turned out to be quite and adventure. We headed over near Ximending a bustling hotspot in Taipei for our family's last vegetarian buffet. After enjoying another lovely meal we took a 45 minute bus ride up to Yangming Shan, Taipei counties national park. After reaching Yangming Shan we took another bus ride that was standing room only. We were jostled and knocked around for a little while till we had enough and decided to get off at the next stop. When we got out, we enjoyed the less than miraculous view, due to the humidity and the smog in the city and then we decided to trek back down the mountain on foot on the side of the road, watching out for buses, scooters and cars along the way. It was a little dangerous, but actually quite fun. Afterwards we caught a bus down the rest of the mountain and stopped at The Spot, the old American embassy in Taipei that has been turned into an Art House movie theater/ cafe. After enjoying some drinks we headed out for a wonderful Hot Pot dinner near my school. We ate a wonderful meal and then enjoyed a nice walk around the area before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Sunday: My family's trip was nearing a close, but not before having one last early morning breakfast before rushing off to the airport. After seeing my family off I headed back home only to receive a phone call a few hours later to tell me that their flight had be delayed 8 hours in Taipei and that they were also going to have to spend the night in San Francisco. I know the trip home wasn't pleasant, but knowing my family I am sure they made the best of it. I hear that Emily learned how to play Cribbage and they played into the early hours of the morning. Like the first lines of this blog stated my parents are home at last.


I would like to take the time to thank my family for making the trip out to Taiwan. It has been the first family vacation in a long time and it was more incredible than I ever would have imagined. It is a trip that I will remember for the rest of my life. My studies here would not have been possible without the encouragement of my family and friends.

My Parents are in Taipei!

My parents have arrived in Taipei and it has made the past 5 days a truly wonderful experience. Their flight arrived at 9:30 and the bus ride took around 45 minutes from the airport to Taipei. Even though my family was excited to be in Taipei we spent the night just getting them to their hotel and getting them oriented with their surroundings but jet lag was taking its toll so we called it an early night.

Sunday: My parents and I got up early and we headed outside of Taipei city with intentions of taking a gondola up to Maokong for a tea ceremony. The line was just to long and none of us wanted to wait an hour to do something on their first day in Taipei so we ended up checking out the Taipei Zoo. It turned out to be a really nice place, the zoo was huge, we spent about 3 hours walking around taking in the animals, and the people and still didn't get to see everything that the zoo had to offer. After spending most of the afternoon in the zoo we headed back toward the heart of Taipei and had a great Korea Barbecue lunch. The food was full of plenty of foreign flavors, and their was so much of it that we all left the restaurant full as could be. On the way back to the MRT we took part, completely accidentally, in a DPP (1 of the two political parties running for president this coming weekend) political rally. Hundreds of people were walking the street shouting 加油第一個 jia you di yi ge (Go number one) One of the members of the march handed my Mom a flag and she started waving it. After she had a flag in her hand people were flocking over to us to give us high fives and we really got swept up in the moment. While it isn't the best thing to take part in foreign political rallies, it sure was a lot of fun. After supporting the DPP for a few minutes we shot over to Shida area, where I go to school, and hung out in the night market for a while and then found a nice place to have some refreshments and relax. 

Monday: I went out with my parents for breakfast but then had to run off to school because I had to study for a test I had that day. They went to the National Palace museum and saw some of china's oldest preserved pottery, paintings, sculptures etc. After class I took my parents to one of the many vegetarian buffets near school so they could get a feel for the types of food that I eat on a regular basis. I do recall my Dad if not everyone saying "who needs meat when the food is this good," my thoughts exactly.

Tuesday: After seeing some impressive items at the National Palace Museum my parents wanted to check out some other museums that Taipei had to offer, so we spent the morning in the Taipei Miniatures Museum which boasted in the Lonely Planet of having a 40 bulb chandelier the size of a grain of rice. Something got lost in the translation because the Miniatures Museum while impressive was a bunch of Doll House like items, and one of the chandelier's individual bulbs was maybe the size of a grain of rice, but it did not live up to the hype. After the museum I had to run to class again, and then had a meeting after class with some junior members of congress (United States Congress), and staffers who were visiting Shida. It seems that the United States is taking more and more of an interest in the Chinese language. I got to express my ideas about learning Chinese in a foreign county and watch government officials learn some basic Chinese phrases. After the meeting my family and I went to the Shilin night market, the biggest and the best market in Taipei. We had a great hibachi dinner and then spent a few hours checking out the hundreds of shops in the area. My sister was in heaven buying a few pairs of shoes and a shirt on the cheap.

Wednesday: After spending the night at a night market and having our fill of shopping and eating tasty treats we decided to do something a little more traditional in Taipei so we headed over to the Confucius temple to take in the more reserved side of Taiwan. We arrived only to find the temple under construction, however as the saying goes in Taipei, where there is one temple there is many, so we walked across the street to the Bao An temple to find tranquility. After checking out the temple we made our way back to the MRT station, along the way my sister and I became Taiwanese for a few moments and took some overly cute pictures by a statue; much to the amusement of the locals. By Wednesday night my families feet needed a break so we headed to the Taipei 101, had a heaping pile of noodles for dinner and then caught the movie Cassandra's Dream.

Thursday: I meet up with my parents again bright and early for another wonderful traditional breakfast this morning, but had to call it quits after eating. We are taking the train down south to Hualien tomorrow and I wanted to make sure to get as much homework done as possible before I left. We are staying there for the weekend and going to spend Saturday at Taroko Gorge, a 19 km long canyon, which is supposed to be one of the coolest places to go in Taipei. I will be sure to tell you more about our travels. And of course my parents will fill you all in when they arrive back home. Finally I leave you with my favorite shot that I have taken in Taipei a pillar in Bao-An temple that just gave me the creeps.

Quarter Break re-cap.

This past week was the wrap up of my first three month stint in Taipei. It was quite an experience, and much different from my freshman year in college. We had a total of 16 tests, around 90 quizzes and daily homework assignments. Our class covered more ground in 3 months that I ever would have expected and I can feel my Chinese growing stronger and stronger everyday. I spent my break relaxing, reading some wonderful literature and also making my way out of Taipei for some wonderful day trips that have added to my love and appreciation of this Country and its culture. While on break I got an opportunity to read Su Tong's Raise the Red Lanterns, three novellas about 1930's China. The book, although translated, had a very Chinese feel shedding light on a past filled with concubines, opium farms and repressed women, children and peasants of a more traditionally rural China. It is a book that, although is at times hard to stomach, I have to recommend.


After getting a feel for an older more repressed side of Chinese history I took a trip with some classmates to 九份 Jioufen/ Jiufen. This quiet town located in the North of Taiwan was once a booming gold mining town that during its hay-day was called Little Hong Kong. Today it's main attractions are the winding alleyways filled with shops for food, trinkets and teashops from all over Taipei. The view up north in the mountains was wonderful, despite the foggy weather that was constantly threatening rain. Jiufen was a very warm and inviting to us, and during our stay we enjoyed some more traditional style Taiwanese dishes along with a Traditional tea ceremony. The day was a lot of fun, and a great quick escape from the bustling city life.


After my day in Jiufen the next thing on my agenda for the break was to get my first haircut in a foreign country. Sure, this doesn't sound like that daunting of a task, but I have heard my share of horror stories from Westerners who came away from the barbers with a new "style" of haircut that they were not ready for. My haircut experience was not like that in the least, I did some word research before I started my quest and knew what I wanted, a short haircut that didn't make me look bald. I found a small barber shop near my house and got a normal haircut that was on par if not better than my haircuts I usually get in the States. I guess keeping my hair short and simple, was the best way to go.


With my haircut experience complete, I spent my night hanging out with some new blood at the Hostel and ended up getting into a wonderful discussion with a Literature teacher from the states, a teacher from Australia, and a student from Hong Kong. The topics for the evening ranged from movies, politics, books, and travel stories all the way to life extension; it was right up my alley and I came away feeling very young and naive in most topics of conversation, life experience clearly has no comparison. That night I also started reading Joseph Heller's Catch-22 a book that I have always heard so much about, and am already throughly enjoying.


I woke up the next morning to sunny skies and a warm breeze, a well needed change from the chilly raining weather that infested Taipei this past month. I decided to take the warm weather and make the best of it by escaping off to mountains again, but this time I went to 陽明山花季 Yangming Shan hua ji to see the Spring Flower Festival. The trip was nice, and the scenery was different from anything I have ever witnessed before. It was beautifully foreign and at times it was like I was looking into the past. The flowers were very nice to look at, and just walking around in the fresh air was a great way to end my 6 days without school.


Today I went down to campus to get my schedule for next quarter and found out that somehow I have not been placed in the intensive classes. I am irritated by the scheduling error because I know that I specified more than once my desire be continue with my intensive courses. As of right now the intensive courses are full and the only way that I can get into one is if another student drops out. I hope that this happens, if it doesn't that I will be taking a cultural course to  try and make up for the loss of 5 hours of Chinese class studies per week. Either way things will be what they will be and I will make the best of it.


Note: I have posted a few pictures of my break here on the blog, but for the rest be sure to check out my flickr page.

Non-Lazy Sunday

Last night was another wonderful adventure in Taipei that couldn’t go without at least a short blog post. My evening started out by meeting with Yu-Lin, the father of the two children I visit twice a week, at a bus stop near my house. The reason I met him by my place was because he insisted on seeing that I was able to easily find their residence from where I live rather than from school, the route that I usually take. I am once again stunned by the hospitality of the people in this country, because not only did he meet me at the bus station when he could have just given me directions, but he and his wife were also treating me to a nice Sunday dinner near their house for no other reason than to have a nice meal with me. The weather yesterday was a little chilly which seemed very appropriate for the evening because they took me to a wonderful Hot Pot venue. Hot Pot is quite simply a pot of soup broth on a broiler where you cook a mixture of vegetables meat tofu etc. at your own pace and temperature. When you order hotpot everyone gets a set of veggies and then chooses a side dish of their fancy. Last night I opted for the mushroom vegetarian dish, which turned out in fact to be an entire platter of various mushrooms of all shapes and sizes. The meal was delicious and we left the restaurant stuffed to brim but their hospitality was not yet through.

Much to my surprise, after dinner my hosts for the evening demanded that we take a 15 minute walk over to the Tong Hua night market so that I could have my first taste of bubble milk tea; a drink that Yu-Lin was very surprised to hear I had not yet tried in Taipei. On our way over to the night market we had an interesting discussion about the lack of Night Markets in the United States, and also reflected that in Taipei a midnight snack, eating being a national past time here, more often than not turns into a 4th meal of various street food goodies. Once we arrived at the night market I was able to have my first taste of bubble milk tea, which is aptly named due to the small bubbles of gooey goodness that float in the tea for your consumption. I don’t know if I will make this my regular drink here in Taipei, but I will certainly order one again.

Once I had my milk tea in hand we began to make our way back to their house, but my evening didn’t stop there. Since I was already in the heart of downtown Taipei and the weather was good I decided to call my classmate, Matt, and see if he cared to join me for the Taipei Lantern Display at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. He agreed and Ya-Wen(Yu-Lin’s wife) , Yu-Lin and myself continued to make our way back to their home when it dawned upon me that I didn’t have the faintest clue how to get to Sun Yat-sen from this still rather foreign area of town. Once again Ya-Wen and Yu-Lin showed their kindness toward me as they agreed to point me in the right direction. Pointing me in the right direction ended up actually being them walking me all the way to Sun Yat-sen Memorial, an extra 15 minutes from their house, where they finally left me to find the Sun Yat-sen Memorial MRT station for myself by jokingly saying “I think you are old enough to find it alone.” Quick note for the record: the entire walk that we made was one continuous road, but rather than telling me that so I could walk alone they made the whole journey insisting that they show me the way.

After successfully locating the MRT station, on my own, I met up with Matt and we made our way to the Lantern Display at Sun Yat-sen. The Lantern Display at Sun Yat-sen was a conglomerate of hand crafted and hand painted lanterns varying for the more traditional round lantern to the far more bizarre, a crab playing a stand up bass. The lanterns were made by a plethora of designers from junior high students all the way up to art designers that work in Taipei. Each had their own twist and flair, while there were a lot of truly unique designs, one would have to be blind to not notice that this is the year of the rat. I was ultimately drawn to the more traditional hand painted lanterns that hung around Sun Yat-sen memorial hall, but everything on display was fairly incredible. Amazing that such a simplistic design as a lantern could be expressed in so many different ways; although none of the more avant-garde lanterns stood a chance of lifting even an inch off the ground.

The event was nothing short of a great surprise and a truly wonderful treat. While it may not have drawn out the same raw emotions that I experienced last week in Pingxi, it it was something that I am glad I was able to catch in Taipei. Turns out that we were pretty lucky about making it their to see the lantern display yesterday, because it was the last night of the festival. All in all it turned out to be a great close to the Chinese Lunar New Year Festivities. How very apropos that the moon was hanging low in the sky hovering like a lantern, emitting a creamy, rich, rice paper yellow glow.

Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival.

On Saturday February 16th, 2008 thousands of people gathered in 平溪鄉 (Pingxi Xiāng) for their annual sky lantern festival. Our school was kind enough to take approximately 500 students to Pingxi in order for us to witness the magic of the Lantern Festival; the symbolic end of the Chinese Lunar Festivals where people write their wishes upon Sky lanterns and release them to the heavens. Our group left Shida around 3 O'clock and took a one and a half hour bus ride to make it up to Pingxi before dark. The ride was a sight in itself due to the fact that police men blocked roads along the way to control the flow of traffic to Pingxi. 

Once we arrived at Pingxi we were able to get a taste of Pingxi's dozens upon dozens of food stands. While walking the food stands it was obvious that this festival was a big deal to the people of Taiwan, the situation could only be described as 人山人海 ren shan ren hai (meaning literally people mountain, people ocean or more figuratively a vast multitude of people). The whole time we were walking around people were lighting Sky lanterns and releasing fireworks, creating a very amazing atmosphere despite the fact that you could only move with the flow of the crowds.

When dark arrived the main events began taking place. People gathered in the center of the Pingxi Junior High school activity center where the majority of the Sky Lanterns were released into the sky 300 at a time (rewatch the video now). The Sky Lanterns are made of rice paper and a bamboo frame with a small fuel cell in the bottom, which when lit fills the lantern with hot air causing it to rise up into the air for around 15 minutes until it runs our of fuel and falls back gracefully to the ground. Legend has it that the Sky Lanterns were originally used by immigrants from mainland China who lived in Pingxi. They would often have to flee into the mountains to avoid bandits and robbers who pillage their village. After the danger had passed people who remained behind would release lanterns into the sky to tell the people in the mountains it was safe to return home. Now the most common thing to wish for is prosperity, wealth and happiness.

Witnessing the release of 300 simultaneous lanterns was a truly remarkable experience that cannot be had anywhere else in the world. I didn't think that things could be much better until I found out that our school was going to be taking part in our own large release of lanterns in front of a few thousand people. We gathered up our group and headed to the activity center where we were giving our lanterns and a marker so we could write our own well wishes and send them up the the heavens above. My own personal lantern carried a few messages up to the sky: 祝全部人萬事如意 zhu quan bu ren wan shi ru yi (Hoping everyones 10,000 wishes come true) 祝每個人都找愛 zhu meige ren dou zhao ai (wishing everyone finds love), and of course because I am in Taiwan and a part of Taiwan's culture my final wish was 請給我錢 qing gei wo qian (Please give me money). The lantern behind me in the picture is the one large lantern that was sent up by our school. It was huge (around two stories tall) but still went up into the air without a hitch. As the lanterns were released into the air I could only think that this was by far the best cultural experiences that I have experience in Taiwan since my arrival. I hope that I am able to experience more of these moments before my stay here in Taipei comes to and end. The final picture seen below is my lantern lifting off into the air along with the others from our school during the tumult of cheers, oooowws and aaaahhhs.