Shifen and sky lanterns

We started the day with a plan to go to Jinguashi (金瓜石) and Jiufen (九份), two old gold-mining towns on the north coast. I'd been to Jiufen a couple of times before, and each time I'd caught the train from Taipei to Ruifang (瑞芳), then hiked from Ruifang station to Jiufen. With kids in-tow, we weren't planning on hiking from Ruifang this time, and so were going to try to catch a bus from Ruifang.  We bought tickets to Ruifang from a vending machine in Taipei Main Station, then asked at the information desk to confirm details of where and how to catch the train.  (As it turned out, there wasn't much to ask - any train heading east, that wasn't bound for Keelung, would have gone through Ruifang).  Anyway, the woman at the information desk talked us out of going to Jinguashi and Jiufen by train.  She recommended that if we wanted to go there then we should catch a bus directly, and that seeing as we'd already bought our train tickets to Ruifang we should stay on the trains and buy another day-tripper ticket to allow us to wander between Ruifang and a number of old towns up in the mountains.  While in retrospect I'm not sure the advice was sound, we took it, bought the day-tripper from a special hidden counter at the train station, and wandered downstairs to find the right platform.

We had to change trains at Ruifang, and while we were waiting for the mountain train we went for a wander up what was sign-posted as "瑞芳老街" or "Ruifang Old Street".  Typically an "old street" will have a lot of old Japanese-Era buildings.  The sign-post turned out to be a bit misleading, as there wasn't that much of the old architecture left - one temple and an abandoned ruin.  We bought some food and drinks at the local convenience store, and asked the attendant where exactly the "Old Street" was, and he basically told us that we'd already seen it.  He clearly wasn't in the running for a job with the Ruifang Tourism Board.

Back at the station we got talking to a young couple waiting on the platform who were carrying a pet carrier - they had brought their pet rabbit with them on holidays while they were touring, which must have been fairly bewildering for the rabbit.  The guy worked in his family business growing mushrooms down south.  We enjoy a good farm or factory tour, so dropped some fairly heavy hints about the possibility of visiting, but it sounded like the farm was in a remote location.

The mountain train was a much smaller two-carriage affair, and we got off at Shifen (十分), an old coal-mining town up in the hills.  Rail safety is interesting in Taiwan.  There was a significant train accident in Hualian County while we were in Taiwan, where the train driver was killed and multiple passengers injured when a gravel truck got caught on a level crossing and the train went straight through it.  The truck driver was spared because he'd got out of his cab to contemplate his truck stuck in the middle of a level crossing - so I anticipate that in due course he will be spending a lot of time in gaol.  Rail safety in Shifen was particularly interesting, as to leave the station we all had to walk across the rails, and then the main street of Shifen was essentially the railway line.  Presumably children in Shifen grow-up with trains pulling in and out past the front of their homes every day, and rail safety (or perhaps more accurately stopping playing on the rails when the train is coming) is a fundamental part of living to reach high school.

After playing on the main suspension bridge for a while we followed the signs out of town to the Shifen Waterfall.  The route was poorly sign-posted, but after asking a security guard at what appeared to be a vacation resort we were able to get back on the right track.  You have to pay for admission to the park around the waterfall, and then it's full of fairly tacky concrete statues and lots of picnic shelters.  The falls themselves are okay, but not spectactular, particularly on a grey winter day like the one we had.

After taking in the waterfall we trekked back to Shifen, where we wandered in to one of the sky lantern shops.  We had understood that sky lanterns were something that only happened at Lantern Festival (元宵節) the 15th day of the first lunar month of the year, the day of the first full moon, and so we hadn't expected to have a chance to see or touch sky lanterns.  While there is large mass-launching of sky lanterns around Lantern Festival, it turns out that there are now people who will let you launch lanterns at pretty well any time.  The shop we chose was one where the people didn't seem as pushy as some of the others, and it actually turned out to be a shop we'd seen featured on a television show.  It was a lot of fun for the kids to decorate the lantern and for us to cover it in all the wishes we wanted to make.  The guy who was running the store was one of the sons of the owner.  He told us that he and his brothers and sisters were now all living overseas, and took turns to come back to Taiwan to live with their mother and help her run the business.  The owner was a lovely little old Taiwanese grandmother who enjoyed Japanese soap operas on television - presumably from having been born during the Japanese occupation and so being educated in Japanese.  The guy running the store talked to us about the process of experimentation they had been through to work out the design of the sky lanterns, including experimenting with different fuels for heating the air in the lantern.  The successful formula was a blend of kerosene and cooking oil, with the cooking oil slowing down the burn to allow a longer, more-leisurely ascent - but also making the whole process a lot smokier.  He even threw-in some fireworks for our lantern for free, to add a bit of colour, light and noise to the ascent.  If the magic of the lanterns works, and our wishes are granted, then we can expect health and happiness for all relevant grandparents - oh, and world peace as well.

The underground platforms at Taipei Main Station.

A freight train passing through Ruifang Station.

Shifen.

Passengers walking across the rails to get to the platform at Shifen.

A bronze sculpture of a coal miner at Shifen.

The main suspension bridge in Shifen.

The mist-covered mountains around Shifen.

Shifen.

Shifen

Shifen

Shifen

A railway cutting between Shifen and Shifen Waterfall.

A bridge on the way from Shifen to Shifen Waterfall.

A smaller waterfall outside Shifen.

An excited tourist at Shifen Waterfall.

A suspension bridge at Shifen Waterfall.

Responsible parents probably don't let their children walk on the railway line.

Shifen Waterfall

They look like cool old wine jugs, but I think they were part of the plumbing for the toilets.

One of the mountain trains like the one we caught to Shifen.

Our sky lantern under under construction - "World Peace" - might as well aim high.

The shop where we bought our sky lantern - "Grandma's Sky Lanterns".

Launching a sky lantern on the railway lines in the main steet of Shifen.

Launching our sky lantern.

The fireworks going off under our sky lantern as it climbs into the sky.

Taipei 101

I had understood that Taipei 101 had been the tallest building in the world when it was opened, but Wikipedia tells me that things aren't quite that clear-cut. According to Wikipedia it held the world record in three out of four of the "skyscraper" categories - categories like "tallest inhabited building by architectural (spire) height" (509.2m) and "highest occupied floor".  A building with a height of over half a kilometre seems extravagantly tall, but the new record-holder, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is some 830m tall, which feels distinctly Babelesque.

In addition to the height of the tower, the shopping centre at the base of the tower is massive.  It uses open spaces within the building very effectively to convey a sense of scale.

We went to the top of the tower on a rainy Winter's day towards dusk, so there were clouds and mist rolling past the windows of the viewing platform and it wasn't a good time to try to enjoy the sights of Taipei by night.

One of the interesting things we learnt from the visit was that Taipei has two General MacArthur Bridges (麥帥橋) - side-by-side across the Keelung River.  Douglas MacArthur was a great man, but it still seems odd to want to name two bridges after him.  I wonder if it was the result of a break-down in intra-office communication.  "Sorry?  You did what?  I thought the boss asked me to do that!  Oh well, we've had the signs made-up, I guess we'll just have to keep them."

One of the most impressive things about the engineering of Taipei 101 is the damper-ball at the top of the building - some 660 tonnes of steel, swinging suspended from the ceiling, then connected to the walls and floor by shock-absorbers.  Apparently it is designed to reduce movement in high winds.  It would be amazing to be up there and actually see it moving.

On our way down we visited the shop for Liuli Gongfang.  Apparently Liuli Gongfang was founded by a famous former actress.  My dictionary tells me that "liuli" is a type of stone or crystal, but Liuli Gongfang makes decorative glass creations.  You can see some examples from their US website:  http://www.liuliusa.com/product.php?cPath=30_31  One of the shop attendants explained the process to us. I had assumed it was a lost-wax process in plaster, but it turns out to involve two stages of casting.  I gather the original master is made from clay, then cast in layers of silicon, then the silicon is used to create wax positive masters that can be used to cast the final pieces through a lost-wax process in plaster.  I gather it's not possible to cast glass in the original silicon mold because of the temperatures involved, hence the need to move to the plaster.

Taipei 101 disappearing up into the clouds, viewed from City Hall.

Taipei 101.

Lights on the trees near Taipei 101.  The bikes on the right are public rental bikes.

A carving of Guan gong out of red coral, part of an exhibition on the viewing platform of Taipei 101.

On the viewing platform of Taipei 101.

The "damper ball" at the top of Taipei 101.  It's a 660 tonne steel ball, suspended by cables and attached to the walls by shock absorbers.  It is designed to reduce movement of the building during high winds.

One of the shock absorbers attaching the damper ball to the floor and walls of the building.

One of the "damper babies".  For some reason there are a number of different "damper babies" with different personalities.  I gather they change the colour of the real damper-ball from time to time to reflect the colours of the different damper babies.  I don't anticipate this has any impact on its performance as a damper.

A side view of the damper-ball.

As it says - 660 tonnes.  I understand it was assembled from steel discs at the top of the building.

A close-up of some of the cables attaching the damper-ball to the building.

The Zoo

We headed for the Tapei City Zoo on a miserable rainy weekday - perfect for keeping the crowds down if you don't mind a bit of drizzle yourself. The star attraction at the moment is the two pandas, called "Tuantuan" and "Yuanyuan", on loan from the PRC as part of their "Panda Diplomacy" program. "Tuanyuan" (團圓）means "reunion" or maybe even " to reunite", which leads me to wonder whether Tuantuan and Yuanyuan were destined from birth to be sent, together, to Taiwan - or if just possibly they were renamed specifically for their mission to Taiwan. How fortunate is it that the pandas who came next on the roster spelt-out "reunion"? How tragic would it have been if one had been called "naval" and the other had been called "blockade"? Anyway, we had "Yuanyuan" largely to ourselves, with maybe only 10-20 other people pressing themselves up against the glass on the enclosure. When we first arrived, Yuanyuan was doing the classic caged animal thing and wandering around and around in the same places, no doubt looking for a rock or blade of grass that she hadn't smelt a thousand times before, and wondering what it all meant. Eventually she climbed up into her bamboo-platform treehouse, chowed-down on some bamboo and went to sleep, doubtless to dream about the forests of Sichuan. After the pandas we went to look at the Taiwanese animal section, where the highlight was definitely the Formosan otter, who, just to continue the anthropomorphicism, looked to be enjoying itself playing in the water. From there we went to the insect section, where I recalled that the outdoor butterfly aviary could be pretty amazing on occasions. Winter probably isn't it's best season, so there really only appeared to be one species of butterfly happening.

One of the Taipei Zoo's flamingo colony.

The zoo is located in the lushly-forested foothills outside Muzha, an outer-suburb of Taipei.

Yuanyuan pacing out her enclosure.

The Taiwanese sika deer or 台灣梅花鹿.  The detector arrays at Sydney's Lucas Heights reactor are named after animals, mostly Australian animals like kangaroos, wallabies and wombats.  One of the arrays was made with Taiwanese co-operation and is called the "sika". 

Moss and fern-covered rocks inside the zoo.

A Taiwanese black bear.

I think this is a Taiwan tawny wood owl or 灰林鴞.

A display that allows you to inside an ants' nest.

A Formosan Macaque.