Category Taiwan
巨人之手是一個很酷的隱藏版景點，正確位置在台中和苗栗的交界處，去的路程我們迷路了好幾次，想要知道怎麼找這個特殊景點，請繼續收看本文:
A while ago my Google Maps expert wife found a place called Giant’s Hand which she though I would be interested in. Last weekend we decided to go check it out. The place is an abandoned amusement park, or rather, what little remains of it, which lies in the very north end of Taizhong, not far from Zhuolan township in Miaoli county. It’s not very well know and kind of hard to get to, but worth the trip in my opinion. You can actually find it on Google maps but don’t count on the navigation to get you there … Read the rest
Last weekend, Yini and I planned to go see the famous beehive fireworks that kick off the lantern festival each year in Yanshui. We failed to actually see the fireworks but went to Chiayi and Tainan all the same. What happened was that I checked the date for the beehive fireworks and saw that it would be this weekend so we figured we could go see the fireworks on Saturday evening. What I failed to pay attention to was the fact that the main event was on Friday evening and that the whole thing ended early Saturday morning. I only … Read the rest
Whenever I’ve been out at the north-east coast of Taiwan, I’ve thought that the road along the coast is really nice for riding a motorbike. However, the times I’ve been there have always coincided with the time that plenty of other people have been there as well, that is, traffic has been too heavy for me to really enjoy the road. I figured the best remedy for this problem would be to go there in the early morning, probably around sunrise or so.
Now, I do enjoy going out together with my wife, and taking a ride through some beautiful … Read the rest
A couple of weeks ago I was studying the map and found a route just outside Hsinchu that looked like it would be fun to ride on the motorbike. Renegade wife and I attempted to do it that weekend but got caught in some heavy rain and had to turn back. This weekend we decided to try again. For those interested, the rout consists of a series of small roads that connect two of the main mountain roads near Hsinchu, you can can see the map below for details.
The ride out of the city is rather boring but once … Read the rest
In my last post I wrote about going swimming at Long Dong. I mentioned that people also go there for climbing, and since I like climbing I’ve been thinking of going back there for a while. This month, the authorities have decided that Renegade Wife can’t leave the city, that is she has to go to work on Saturday. Not wanting to stayed cooped up at home every weekend, I decided to go by myself.
I took off right after work on Friday afternoon, steering my trusty motorbike towards the north-east. The road out to the coast is pretty mountainous … Read the rest
Today we spent most of the day out at the coast at Long Dong. Long Dong is pretty popular, every parking space along the little street leading off the main road down to the beach was already taken when we got there a little after 10 am. That wasn’t a problem for us though since we could squeeze the bike in easily enough. Down on the beach there were plenty of people and the amount increased as the day went by, but it was never so full that it felt crowded.
Here in the north east there are very few … Read the rest
A while ago my colleague mentioned that he would go to Long Dong over the weekend. His description of the place made me interested, and this weekend me and the wife finally had time to go.
For the sake of added adventure I decided we should go by motorbike and while there are fairly fast routes, they largely go through urban areas which is not much fun. So after a bit of playing around in Google maps, i deviced a route that would take us through the mountains out to the north east coast. Here is roughly the route I … Read the rest
Always on the lookout for places to go and things to do my wife recently used her googling skills to find a hiking trail and waterfall in the nearby mountain area that we hadn’t been to yet (good work Honey). It seemed like a fun trail, so today we decided to go there. We took the motorbike up to the mountains and parked at the trail head; from there it was only a few hundred meters to the waterfall. Since it was a pretty hot day, the pool of clear, turquoise water at one the steps of the fall looked … Read the rest
A couple of Taiwan’s major country roads (road number marked by a blue shield) go through the mountains. Last year, Renegade Wife and I rode across the island on one of them, number 14 – often referred to as the Central Cross-Island Highway – and despite some rather miserable weather, it was a fun little adventure. There are a few more that look very tempting to a motorcyclist studying a map of the country and as it happens, they are connected in a big loop. With Tomb Sweeping day extending the weekend to four days, and the weather finally becoming … Read the rest
Useful knowledge for living in Taiwan
I’ve been living in Taiwan for several years now. I’ve gained a fair bit of knowledge through some sort of cultural osmosis, and by now I have a pretty good feel for the country and its culture. I’d like to share some of that knowledge with my readers (all three of them). Back when I first wrote this I thought a single post would be enough but since then I have written three more that you can find here, here and here.
1.: The counting system
In Chinese, numbers and counting works more or less the same way … Read the rest