Taiwan, China, and other things. Recovered from the defunct TypePad platform.
Taiwan Tiger took a little trip to the local liquor store, and wound up with rather a unique vintage.
Recently I experimented with the local Taiwanese wines in the shop on the
corner. My reward? I found the WORST WINE IN THE WORLD. I have tasted many
many red wines, and this was absolutely undrinkable. It probably was
the…believe or not…maple syrup that was added.
Sweet.
Meet Cyndi Wang: Taiwanese singer, pop star and…hoofer:
Y’see, I don’t know if that CD cover works for me. For some reason, I’ve never been much of an antler man.
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Strategy Page has a few paragraphs on some of the more absurd elements of the dress regulations of the US military. Can’t say that I know too much about the subject, but I’ve heard a bit about the school dress codes in Taiwan. Knew a junior high school girl who was sent home for violating the rules for shoes. They were supposed to be 50% black and 50% white; hers were only 35% white. Bloody anarchist!
It’s a slippery slope here, people. Let one student get away with wearing shoes 35% white and who knows where it could all lead to. Sock hops. Maybe worse.
Some time back, I did a double-take when I noticed something in a window display outside a fashionable shop in Taipei’s Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Building, near the main train / subway station. Too bad I didn’t have my camera.
Fortunately, I later saw it again in Taipei’s Warner Village area, where this picture was taken. The right-hand side of the display couldn’t fit into the shot because the lens wasn’t wide enough, but you get the idea:
Notice anything unusual? Take a closer look at the newprint wallpaper in the background:
Man, nothing says contemporary fashion better than the IRA, right?
Alright, that’s Monday’s fashion headline. Here’s Tuesday’s:
OK, I’m spotting a trend here. Take my word for it, there’s IRA wallpaper for each day of the week, except Sunday. On the seventh day, the display designers opted for a local story about a typhoon, instead:
Now admittedly, VERY few Taiwanese window shoppers can actually read the English in the background. But these are sure strange choices, nonetheless.
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Saw King Kong at Warner Village Theaters in Taipei a few weeks ago. Took this picture of nearby Taipei 101, decorated with lights in a Christmas tree motif:
Would have liked a few more, but they turned most of the lights off at 10 pm. After seeing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a few days ago, the same building looked like this with New Years lights:
A couple of longer shots:
A close-up of the tower:
While taking these, an elderly Taiwanese gentleman asked me what "Bravia" meant. It looked a little like "bravo", so I said that maybe it was Italian and meant "to cheer". Later that evening I read in the Taipei Times that Bravia is simply a brand name for a new LCD TV by Sony.
Oops.
Anyways, there’s a couple more pictures of Taipei 101 here.
UPDATE (Jan 04/06): A famous Taiwanese songstress by the name of A-Mei was late for her appearance at Taipei 101, so she apparently took an ambulance 30 km to reach the New Year’s Eve celebrations. Now I’m not arguing that it was right, but you do have to admit that it IS kinda punk rock. I mean, just picture it. It’s New Year’s Eve. There’s 400,000 people outside in the cold waiting for the countdown. The streets are clogged with cars; there’s no place to park. Up pulls an ambulance. Bystanders turn their heads. But instead of white-clad EMV workers emerging, they see a hot, pixie-sized Taiwanese super-star step out and race to the stage in her black mini-skirt and heels.
(The ambulance company was later fined about $6000 US, and A-Mei was given a warning.)
(Sorry, no link available to the story in The China Post.)
UPDATE (Jan 06/06): For the sake of completeness, here’s the Taipei Times’ treatment of the story.
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On my way to a Christmas party this evening, I stopped my cab at a photo shop along the way. He drove off after I paid him, and then I proceeded to chat with the shop owner. Five minutes later, the driver returns, waving impatiently at me.
Now I’m scratching my head. Why would a taxi driver come back like that? The only reason I can think of is that in the darkness I may have accidentally given him a counterfeit bill or something by mistake. So with a bit of trepidation, I approach the taxi.
Turns out he came back to return the camera I had carelessly left behind. An EXPENSIVE camera. Now, this cab was hailed from the side of the road, so he could have easily driven off without ever being caught. Sometimes, ya really gotta love the people here.
Last year, I took some photos of a fellow standing on a platform on top of a small apartment building. He was waving a pole with a streamer attached, while his flock of pigeons were busy flying in loops and figure eights.
Little did I know that gambling on pigeon racing is a big business in Taiwan. One owner estimated that for a single, 5-race meet, six million U.S. dollars were wagered. Competition is tough, though:
"Three thousand birds started our recent fall meet," (Yeh Cheng-shen, the chairman of the Taipei County Pigeon Racing Associations) says. "Only 20 or 30 returned at the end of the event."
Yeh says most of the dropouts lose their way along the route, but some are trapped by criminals eager to exact ransoms.
"Gangsters erect these huge nets in valleys and other places the birds have to cross. Then they call the owner and offer to return the bird for what seems like a pretty reasonable price — about NT$3000 ($90 U.S. dollars)," he says.
Bet Vito Corleone never thought of that one. But what happens if a bird gets hurt?
It has become such a big business that there are now pigeon hospitals catering to injured competitors with state-of-the-art techniques.
Who knew?
A few days ago, I talked to someone who had visited Yenshan, which is a town in Taiwan where they produce salt. Apparently, the salt-making facility has a gift shop, where adventurous tourists can sample salt-flavored ice cream. Kinda reminds me about one shop in Taipei somewhere, which is said to sell mustard ice cream.
By strange coincidence, the Nov 12th edition of the Taipei Times had a similar story:
Seafood ice cream an unlikely hit
All of this is a little too adventuresome for me. However, the hard-to-find buy-shan-guo (passion fruit) slurpees here are amazingly good on a hot day.