The bicycle is a very popular means of transport in Taiwan. In Taipei, there are plenty of bike paths, and also long-distance cycling is getting more popular in Taiwan. In Taipei, there are also public bikes, which can be rented for 30min for free.

Even though the public bikes worked very well for me, I decided to get my own bike in order to have more flexibility. I bought a 14-gear bike for some TWD 2,000 (EUR 50) at the bike shop at the NTU campus.

Cycling in Taipei adheres to rules slightly different to what the average European may be used to. For example, nobody would indicate a right or left turn. At the NTU campus, the bikes are moving in an even more (seemingly) disordered fashion. People mostly cycle on the right hand side of the road, but not strictly. Also there doesn’t seem to be any particular right of way. If someone wants to turn left, they would just do so. No waiting, no indicating, no matter how many other bikes are crossing.

How does that work without major accidents? I don’t know, really. It just “flows”. Often, my sudden braking or change in direction causes great confusion for my fellow bikers. So in order to initiate a left turn, I have to slow down and slowly initiate the turn. This way the others “feel” my intentions and will slowly (no sudden change of motion!) make room. The amount of space needed for a bicycle to turn is considered to be quite small. I am still freaking out sometimes when, after carefully initiating a turn, there are bikes crossing just in front of me. I then react by sudden braking, with a high risk of collision with some person behind me.

Taiwanese people often carry an additional person on their bike. This person often stands on two bars mounted at the rear spike, or sits on the rack.

Map of the bike path

Bike path along the river

Bike facilities along the path

Bike path along the river

Bike path along the river

Exit indication at the bike path

The bars on which another person can stand on

My bike

I am visiting the National Taiwan University (NTU) within my PhD studies in Vienna. Why Taiwan? Because the group I am working with here has expertise in my research area, and because I received a research grant to come here.

I spend most of my time at the NTU campus at Gongguan. It’s a great place to be and provides anything needed. There is a big sports center, a bike shop, many, many places to eat, teastores, convenience stores, parks, a huge library. Around the campus, there are even more places to buy food, there are bus stops, an MRT station, public bike stations, a night market, shops of pretty much anything. The main campus, which I have to cross every day to get to the lab, covers more than 1km².

Getting around
The size of the campus is one of the reasons for the abundance of bikes. Bikes can be rented at the public bike stations ubike with an easyCard. The first 30min of each rental are free. Most students have their own bikes though. Bikes parked on the campus are required to carry a permit stickers (it seems like permits are required for pretty much anything in Taiwan), however, so far I couldn’t be bothered to get one, and my bike has not been towed (yet). There is a bike shop on the campus with inflators and free(!) repair service (you only have to pay the material, which is usuall very, very inexpensive). Cycling itself was a bit adventurous for me, at least in the beginning. See also Cycling in Taipei.

Cars are allowed on the campus, but are subject to an entrance fee. Walking is an option for people who really like walking.

Finding my bike can be quite a challenge.

Roads are mainly used by bikes.

The main boulevard.

The Fu Bell strikes each hour in honor of the university’s former director 傅斯年, a promoter of free education with great influence.

Sleeping
There are many dormitories at and around the campus. Most, if not all, of them are gender-seperated and provide shared rooms. I was lucky to get a single room at the . It’s a neat ensuite room with a big bed and a desk, with a nice view. There are water dispensers (hot, room temperature, and cold) at each floor. The shared kitchen is not quite what the average European student might be used to — it’s one electric stove, one rice cooker, and one microwave for the whole building and there are hardly any other utilities. However, thanks to the abundance of food, it’s not really necessary to cook for oneself.

A dorm aisle.

My room.

Eating
It’s hard not to find food at the campus. There are many buffets, food courts, tea shops, and restaurants at and around the campus. Also, water dispensers can be found in all buildings.

Sports center
With all the food here I’d be getting fat even faster if it wasn’t for the great sports center. It has a huge outdoors area with running lanes, a swimming pool, basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, and other courts. Indoors one can play badminton and table tennis and there are various group lessons, a gym, a pool, and probably plenty other facilities that I am not aware of. I mainly go to the gym and to the pool. It’s quite inexpensive. I had to get a sports center card at the administrative center at the lower floor of the main building. The gym can get very crowded when a group of people shows up. Taiwanese love group activities, even at the gym. But most of the times I get to do the exercises I want. The pool is usually ok, too.

The sports center.

Don’t surf in the swimming pool!

The Drunken Moon Lake
I first thought its name is a bad translation. It’s 醉月湖 in Chinese, where the last two characters clearly mean “moon lake”, and for the first character 醉 I couldn’t find any other translation than “drunken” or “intoxicated”. I don’t know where its curious name comes from, but the Drunken Moon lake sure is a very nice place to be. I go there often to have lunch or read a paper. There are usually ducks , geese, swans (one of which is black), very cute turtles, squirrels, and fish of many sizes in and around the lake.

View on the Drunken Moon Lake.

A turtle

A bird with big feet…

and its male version.

A bird that is hiding.

Another bird.

The Maokong Gondola is a convenient half-day trip from Taipei. It goes up a hill of tea plantations and, on a clear day, allows magnificent views over Taipei. The starting point is at the end of one of the Taipei MRT lines. The gondola is integrated in the Taipei public transport system and the EasyCard can be used to access it.

At the top station there is plenty of food (as everywhere in Taiwan) and a crazy number of teahouses. This area can get quite crowded, particularly on weekends. However, for those willing to invest a little exercise the crowd can be escaped on one of the many hiking trails. We found a very cosy teahouse on one of the trails and for the first half hour were its only guests!

The trail consists mainly of stone steps. The stones can get very slippery when wet, but apart from that, it’s an easy hike. Mosquitos of the very aggressive kind are abundant. We didn’t bring a repellent and ended up with painful bites that swelled up to 4cm in diameter. Apart from the mosquitos, it’s a very beautiful, scenic area. The trails lead through rainforest, tea plantations, and religious buildings ranging from small altars to the impressive Zhinan Temple (指南宮).

Our visit to the teahouse was as follows: Upon arrival, we were presented a tea menu and a food menu. We had already eaten, so we went for tea only. The tea prices seemed high at first sight (some TWD 400.- for a bag), but one bag allows a tea ceremony for 4-6 persons of more than an hour. (I write ceremony, because it’s not just pouring hot water on a couple of tea leaves.) The unused leaves (we didn’t even use half of them) we could take home.

We chose the “high mountain tea” (I don’t remember the exact characters) and were served a bag of tea leaves, a tablet with a grid, a small teapot with a lid and a bigger teapot w/o a lid on top of the grid, cups, a tea strainer, an electric stove with a kettle, and a couple of tools which serve to place and remove the tea leaves into and from the small pot.

Then we were explained the art of tea brewing — in Chinese. I didn’t understand everything and therefore we made a lot of mistakes. Fortunately, a tea session consists of many iterations so we could be corrected by the owner and improve upon the corrections. According to what we learned, this is how it works:

The first round is to wash the leaves and pre-heat the pots and cups:

1. Fill the small pot with dry leaves.
2. Pour hot water onto the leaves.
3. After 50s, pour tea through the strainer into the bigger pot.
4. Pour from big pot into cups.
5. Pour from cups onto the grid of the tablet (waste water is collected underneath)

The first round is followed by five to seven rounds of infusion:

1. Put hot water onto the wet leaves, put the lid on top.
2. After 40s, pour tea through the strainer into the big pot.
3. Pour tea from big pot to cups.
4. Enjoy.
5. Repeat.

Then the leaves are removed from the small pot and fresh leaves are added using the various tea tools to start the procedure over again by the first round.

To measure the brewing time, the professional tea brewer doesn’t need a timer. When pouring the water onto the leaves in the small pot, some water is poured over the teapot itself. (The teapot is on the tablet grid, so the tablet catches the excess water.) When the water on the teapot has evaporated, the brewing time is over.

View from the gondola

More view from the gondola, including Taipei 101

Plenty of food around the top station

On of the trails

Trail and some tea

Flora and…

…fauna along the trail.

Last week I went with Shu-Yen to the food market. This market takes place in the early morning, which makes a lot of sense in summer since it is not as hot during daytime. It was very interesting to see the raw material of my everyday dishes. The food on the market is much cheaper and fresher than in the supermarket.

There were no prices indicated, but neither could I see people bargaining (but perhaps I just didn’t understand). Also Shu-Yen didn’t bargain. I have the feeling that this is much less common in Taiwan than in Mainland China.

(Click on any picture to get it full size and as slideshow.)

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and on the right a tasty fruit whose name I don’t know

Algae, tofu, and cabbage

Bamboo. Watch its size compared to the (normal-sized) broccoli!

A very slim type of eggplant

Tofu

Different fruits and vegetables

Meat, presented at > 25°C without refrigeration (but apart from this, sanitary standards were high)

Chicken

Chicken. Chicken feet are also a delicacy here.

Fish, on ice

Algae

Another veggie stand

This is not cheese. It’s flour with raddish, which is boiled (or steamed? or fried? I don’t really know)

Some of the market is covered (good when it rains)

My friend Gill took me to her hometown Daxi, which is some 30min by bus from Taipei. Daxi produces most of Taiwan’s tofu and is famous for spinning tops. The tops are thrown onto small platforms using a string that initiates the spin. It’s quite difficult and requires a lot of practice.

She picked me up with her scooter (she is a very good driver, so my initial worries disappeared soon). We went through town, ate a lot of tofu and a brown egg, did some sightseeing and finally went to see a Buddhist temple. The temple is home of some god or gods that are particularly good children’s future, which is why people bring their kids.

Gill picked me up

Daxi old bridge

Spinning top artist at the Daxi park

Balloons…

… much liked by the kids

A guy playing songs on a leaf (very funny)

The same guy explaining the kids how the leaf music works

Kids around a giant top

Beware!

Chiang Kai-Shek’s residence in Daxi

A Japanese Wude temple

A christian church

A Buddhist temple

Daxi old street, with interesting baroque-style buildings from the Japanese era

Close-up on one of the building’s facade

Gill’s favourite tofu place. Also, the best herbal eggs (eggs boiled in some herbs liquid).

Sweet, cold tofu soup with beans and other things, delicious!

Entrance to a temple near Daxi

A god

People praying…

… and burning incense

Gifts for the gods

Oven to burn fake money

View from the temple

A happy god

A happy dog

A happy baby

Another temple in Daxi

Daxi old bridge at night

On the mid-autumn festival’s Sunday, after visiting the palace museum, we were invited by the lab to a Japanese restaurant, where I probably ate more meat than I usually eat in three months. It was probably the best beef I have had in my life. The chicken, seafood, and fish was also really good. I even tried chicken bones (somewhat crunchy) and beef tongue.

The eight of us sat around a table with our shoes off. The table had three holes for the bbq, two of which we then used to roast mainly pieces of meat, fish, and seafood, with an occasional mushroom. Different raw meats were served on plates cut into pieces that can be eaten easily with sticks. Each of us could take whatever they liked and put it on a roast. When we had finished several piles of meat, the Chinese guys talked to the waiter to order some other stuff, which I didn’t understand and assumed to be the dessert. So I asked what they had ordered. The answer was “more meat”, which I assumed to be a joke. It wasn’t. More meat! There was dessert, eventually, though I don’t remember much of it. Some ice-cream with smileys on it, I think.

Ordering drinks, by the way, is rather optional in Taiwan (unlike European restaurants, or at least Austrian, where not ordering a drink is close to be considered rude). We did order a couple of beers though, but it was perfectly fine to share them. Liquid is often served without a charge in form of a cold or hot soup (bouillon). This is the case in the Chinese eating culture, but I don’t know about the Japanese. In the Japanese restaurant, however, we were served an isothermic bottle with hot chicken soup, which we drank out of small bowls. “Eating soup” is translated into Chinese literally as “drinking soup”, which also reflects the soup’s main purpose of liquid intake.

I can really, really recommend this place and will most likely return. Until then, I’ll be a vegetarian.

The roast

Beef tongue

The table

The roast with things on it: chicken bone at the very left, chicken in the front, beef in red, and, well, pig intestines, i think

The dessert reminded me of Spain (Crema Catalana)

After visiting Sanxia, Jessie and Erin took me to their hometown Yingge. Yingge is famous for ceramics. There are plenty of high-end ceramics stores. Unfortunately, taking pictures was not allowed in any of them.

We went to a pottery DIY (by the way, “DIY” is a term used frequently in Taiwan in its English spelling), where I learned how to make a bowl.

Later, we went to a tea store, where its owner invited us on a couple of cups of tea. “A couple of”, because the cups are very small and the Taiwanese tea ceremony consists of multiple rounds. First, the leaves are put into a very small teapot, boiling water is added and put away after 40 seconds. This is to wash the leaves. Then, boiling water is added again and infused for 50 seconds. The infusion is then put into the small cups. The leaves are infused 4-5 more times.

The DIY pottery

It’s also popular for children

And I also tried my best

And this was the result

Erin is much more talented though

Small teapot with tealeaves for infusion…

… from which the infusion is poured into another, bigger teapot…

… from which it is served to the small cups of the ceremony participants.

Last week, at one of the free days during the moon festival, I was guided through Sanxia and Yingge by Jessie and her sister Erin. Sanxia is famous for the Zushi temple and it’s old street.

袓師廟 (Zushi Temple)

The temple was first built in the mid-18th century. It was reconstructed several times, particularly after being destroyed first by an earthquake and later by the Japanese. The last reconstruction has been ongoing since 1947 and is still ongoing. The temple is full of different kinds of precious artwork, most notably, stone carvints, wood carvings, and bronze statues. The model animals, plants, humans, gods, and scenes of ancient stories. The attention to detail very impressive. I think I could spend several days there just looking at all the small things.

(Click on one of the pictures and it will allow you to go through all of them in a slideshow style.)

Zushi temple front view

Roof carvings

The typical slim dragon

Roof carvings

Wood carving on door

Wood carving

Another stone carving

Stone carving depicting a scene of an ancient story

A stone picture

A god with his army

Friendly gods

Bell

Man putting an incense stick for the gods

A priest helping a man to communicate with a god

A praying woman

Incense sticks

This is how you can ask a god for advice: Take two moon-shaped wooden pieces and drop them to the floor. If one ends up on its bottom and the other on its top, it means the god is ok with you asking.

Next, shake these sticks, draw one, and repeat the moonpice dropping to check if the god agrees with the stick you drew (this repeated three times, but the god didn’t agree until Erin dropped the pieces for me).

Each stick shows a number, mine here shows 22.

If the god agrees (moonpiece dropping), then you can open the drawer that shows the number of your stick.

You will find a piece of paper with some Chinese characters, which have to be interpreted. I asked “Will I finish my PhD in 2014?”. The answer was “Everything will go smoothly. Be patient.”

三峽老街 (Sanxia old street)

The Sanxia old street is a well-preserved street built during the Japanese rule. There are plenty of handicraft and food shops. Sanxia is also famous for a specific kind of croissant. It’s taste and consistency is not at all what you’d expect if you are used to French-style croissants, but it is tasty and can be bought with ice-cream.

Sanxia old street with Jessie and Erin

Taiwanese Churros!

… with almond milk instead of hot chocolate.

A brush maker

The Sanxia croissant brand.

Food

At the east exit of the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall I ran into very nice scenes of Taiwanese people spending their free time. In particular, there were some groups of teenagers practicing breakdance, each group dancing facing the wall of the building to their own music coming from a small loudspeaker. Why would they dance agains the wall rather than facing the park? I couldn’t figure it out.

Next to the dancing teenagers there were some stone benches with older men playing Chinese chess or watching others doing so. I watched the scene and took pictures for quite a while so that in the end there was no time left to go to Taipei 101. Next weekend, maybe!

(Click on any of the pictures to get them full-sized in a slideshow.)

Breakdance facing the wall, here a mixed group…

… and here a girls group.

This guy was my favourite.

And also this girl.

This picture I actually took in front of the Eslite bookstore. Looks like the commercialised version of break dance. I found the Memorial Hall backyards dancers much cooler though.

Chess players.

One of the chess players brought his dogs. In a trolley.

And some more pictures around the Memorial Hall:

Asian tourists taking pictures of Taipei 101.

Yoga practicioners, undisturbed by people passing by.

Last Sunday, after spending quite some time in the bookstore, I went to the nearby National Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. Sun Yat-Sen studied medicine but then devoted his life to politics. He was significantly involved in removing the Qing dynasty in mainland China at the beginning of the 20th century, and founding the Guomindang party, which is still one of the major parties in Taiwan.  I didn’t go inside as I had planned to go to Taipei 101 afterwards and didn’t have much time. There’s an hourly guard change accompanied by a short ceremony, which I wanted to watch. There were a lot of people, so I couldn’t see much. I also visited the small museum dedicated to Sun Yat-Sen. Let me show you some pictures:

A Picture of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen at the entrance of the small museum

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen even shared a stamp with Lincoln

A honorary guard entering the ceremony

There were so many people in front that I could only watch the ceremony through my camera lense pointed at somebody’s iPad

A honorary guard’s shoulder

The bronze statue being honor guarded

A honor guard

Some statues in the park surounding the memorial hall tell situations of Yat-Sen’s life. Here: as a pupil listening to his old teacher