Taiwan trip and GlobalTiC Award 2013 (Day 2) Part 1

Dad and I were up early for the day-tour ahead. We packed our stomachs with a heavy breakfast - braised minced pork noodles with lots of vegetables. The staff are really friendly and again, were more than pleasantly surprised when we spoke to them in Tai-yi. 

Lin Family Garden

The first spot was a recommendation by one of the hostel staff, the Lin Family Mansion and Garden, or 'Banqiao Lin jia', 板橋林家. Also known as Lin Family Garden, 林家花園, or Lin Ben-yuan Garden. Located in Banqiao,  It was a long way from where we were staying so we used the very efficient MRT service. The trains are almost always on time, the trains are clean, and the people are pleasant. The fares are reasonable as well. 

We stopped at Banqiao Station. Referring to the map, we had two destination to go to, one was the mansion and the other was a street whose name sounded promising to tea buyers. It would be a long walk to the courtyard mansion, under the glaring sun, whose heat bit the skin. It reminded me of the Melbourne summer, only in Melbourne, there was intermittent cool breeze and the air was drier. The air in Taipei was humid and it makes sweat stick to your body. Uncomfortable, but something you get used to after a while, and you have to commit yourself to not think about it. Later on we discovered that we could have stopped at Fuzhong Station, which was much nearer to the mansion compared to Banqiao Station. 

Anyway, at first, we tried walking there ourselves, but soon got confused by the landmarks and the confusing roads. I tried asking for directions but the persons either did not know or they spoke too quickly for me to understand - even after asking them to slow down. We thought of taking the bus but none that were going to our destination were at the bus bay. In the end, after basking in the white sun, we decided to take a taxi that was so conveniently parked across the bus station. The taxi trip - albeit being a dangerous one, swerving around corners and breaking just in time for a woman on a bicycle to ride past, unscarred - was about 8 minutes and cost only NT$80.

Entrance was free. It's closed on the first Monday of every month. The courtyard house was impressive. Although I've seen more magnificent structures from the same era elsewhere, the estate was still a delight to explore, having its own character and history. One can only wonder how life would have been like behind these walls so many years ago. It cost a few hundred teals of silver to build back in the mid 1800s by a rich and influential family. It was restored to its original state a few years ago. Some parts are open to public.

It is a typical Chinese courtyard house, composed of many sections, with high walls, trees, brick paths, and gardens neatly trimmed, a large bird cage (occupied), and even a pond holding koi fish and carp. There were many arches and I especially enjoyed taking photos of them, they are like a door to another dimension. Bamboo line the paths, some were thin and tall, and a special variety was short and plump, called the swollen bamboo. The entrance was a long walkway, complete with speakers projecting bird sounds into the quiet air. It was serene until a noisy family came to disturb the peace. Of course, it was a popular tourist attraction, what was I expecting?

There were many buildings but I don't know the functions they served. There was one particular building with many glass windows. Many of the walls had bat or butterfly motifs, some had scrolls, and some had different fruit. I especially liked the gardens. One garden had a small hill, made of tone, with a stone garden set at the top. An ideal place to discuss poetry and sip tea on a cool spring's day, or a good sun bathe on a hot summer's day. Another garden had the pond I spoke of. There were water lilies in blossom, bright pink or purple. The pond was bordered by walk ways and high walls, made into a square, with a gazebo extending from one side of the wall. One part of the walk way was made to resemble a miniature bridge. A local family was picnicking at the gazebo, enjoying the cool shade I guess.

There was a peculiar structure in a more secluded part of the complex. Like many of the other buildings, this one has a very nice-sounding name. It's called the Moon Tide Water Pavilion, 'Yue bo shui xie', 月波水榭. It is built in the middle of a pond, in a double caltrop shape, witha little bridge as passage-way. It is named after the moon because the moon is reflected in the water. There was a platform on the roof but that was off-limits. 

Some sections were closed, like the entrance to climb a tall stone structure, which I suspect would allow you to walk atop some of the walls. Some parts of the walls had calligraphy on them. Poems, I suppose. But most were plastered or pained over, leaving little sections of the works visible. I wonder why the restorer covered them, or maybe the works were disfigured by the squatters some decades ago?

Information about the Lin Family Garden was plentiful in video screenings in the larger buildings, but I hadn't the patience to watch them. Friendly staff were dressed in purple, offering a friendly smile to the aimless visitor. You could spend a whole morning relaxing there, having only portions of nearby or neighbouring buildings and the fellow tourist remind you of the present day.

Before exiting the garden we had a good rest on a stone bench, and refreshed ourselves with a cold water provided. In a busy, modern city, this is a great green escape into the past. 

(To be continued)

Cheers
zhusun

Further reading:
http://en.linfamily.tpc.gov.tw/html/enlinfamily/profile/profile.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Family_Mansion_and_Garden
http://bradttaiwan.blogspot.com/2011/04/banqiaos-lin-family-gardens.html

Taiwan trip and GlobalTiC Award 2013 (Day 1)

I'm fighting a sleepy spell while writing this entry, and procrastination has a silent genius of its own. I planned to write an entry every night whilst in Taiwan, but laziness, sleepiness (I had time to myself only at night) and lack of any mood to write a recount of everyday culminated itself into this, one big lump of blogging homework, but I'm enjoying every typing moment of it!

Why do I say genius? Because I now have a very different opening than I would have if I'd started writing diligently from the first day of the trip. I'm thinking the other version would have gone something like this, 'Ah, Taiwan, my food haven and supplier of good quality CDs!' I think I prefer the opening I used.

Anyway, this was my second trip to Taiwan but this time, I toured Taipei exclusively, visiting some new places and revisiting some old favourites - I can't help but mention 'Danshui' here. This trip wasn't meant to be, but as fate would have it, the tickets were booked and I was in Taipei city before I could get my Mandarin vocabulary in working order - not that I had very little time to prepare.

I was watching a movie one night while Mom and Dad were busy searching for tickets to Taiwan. Dad had to go because he was bringing a team to compete in the GlobalTic Awards. In a stroke of genius my Dad thought bringing me along would be a great idea and Mom agreed enthusiastically. I had no idea of this until Dad asked me to check his passport number. On the screen, expecting to see only one name, I saw two, and it took a while to sink in, that I was going to Taiwan! Then, my Mom remembered something important - my violin exam. I would be coming back on the 25th, and two days later would be the exam day. Talk about great planning. I'm thankful we went ahead with the trip. My parents were cool about it, 'Ah, no problem', they said. This was an experience not to be missed. Mom couldn't go, due to some commitments, but I hope we can all go together the next time.

Since the event was scheduled to be held from 20th to 23rd August, we planned for two days of exploring and self-touring. So Sunday and Monday were days to ourselves.

Dad and I arrived in Taoyuan Airport on a Sunday afternoon. The flight was delayed by half an hour. Dad and I had some difficulty activating the roaming feature in our phone so he bought a local sim card. Outside, a busy Taipei awaited our stomachs and taste buds. It was summer and the heat was no relief, since we just flew in from a tropical country. The taxi driver we hired was quiet at first but after we spoke to him in Tai-yi, he opened up and even recommended some food streets near the hotel. See what a common a language can do?

We checked into our hotel/hostel and went down to the nearby night-market just at the end of our block. There were many food shops and another market on the same block as the hostel, many convenience stores, and even a metro station. Convenience at its best. Eager to start our food adventure, we went down to the crowded street at the end of the block.

Ningxia Night Market

Ningxia Night Market, composing of one food street and one games street, is comparatively small to Shihlin nightmarket, but not lacking in good food. The first thing we tried was the stinky toufu - 'chou doufu' - a must-have when in Taiwan, and we washed it down with some 'aiyu' drink, which would soon become my favourite jelly drink from Taiwan. The drink is sour, plum-ish and lemony, the jelly itself is tasteless except for a hint of sour but is very smooth and fun to squish - a very refreshing drink on a humid summer's evening! After the appetiser, we had another Taiwanese favourite, the Taiwanese sausage ('xiang chang')! Glazed with honey, grilled to a shine, slathered with fresh blended garlic, and succulent from the generous chunks of fat in it, I was in a sausage-lover's paradise! We even got to see a hawker making the sausages. He pours the ground meat - his secret recipe, of course - and fits some tubing, I'm guessing made of pig's intestines, at the outlet. He turns a handle and the tubing gets filled with meaty goodness. He leaves some room to tie a knot at the end, and loosens up the contents.

Ok, enough with the sausage, the next items on the menu were braised (and the fried) large and small pig's intestines, curdled pig's blood with glutinous rice cake and duck's tongues. The selection was quite costly but worth every yuan. The large intestines were fatty and melt-in-your-mouth and so, so tasty; the small ones were more crispy; the blood cake, although slightly different from the type I have back home, which doesn't have glutinous, was very good; and the duck's tongue was fatty and tasty - though I didn't know the correct way of eating it, oh well. Some of you may be disgusted, while some of you may be watering in your mouths. Either way, I hardly have to tell you this, but my taste buds were thoroughly satisfied.

Ah, next was my Dad's favourite, 'lu rou fan', or braised pork (minced) rice. The pork was fragrant and the rice was the short, pearl type. Under the light, the oily rice had that beautiful glint you see in Chinese recipe books. Dad and I were too well-behaved we only shared one bowl.

It was clean for a night market, unlike the food streets back home, which are more wet and have litter everywhere. One way they keep their street clean is having a good sewage system. All the water from the sinks go down to the sewers through piping that is attached to a small manhole. Each stall is located near one and they can remove the piping and cover the holes after they close. There's a general civic conscious to keep the streets clean, but of course, you still get rubbish on the ground.

The twilight sky slowly turned to the starry night sky, but the city didn't seem to be slowing down. In fact, the night life was just getting started. By eleven Dad and I were full and quite - due to the heat and humidity. We shared a beer, which brought immediate relief to our throats and the heatiness. We were sticky all over but we're quite used to that feeling already. We headed back and called it a day.

(To be continued)

Cheers
zhusun

Significance of the Winter Solstice to the Chinese

With the 2012 apocalypse subject aside, let's move to a more grounded and cultural view of the annual event known as the winter solstice.

As you might remember from your Geography class - I had to refresh my memory reading some material on the web - the winter solstice typically falls on the 20-22 December and marks the start of winter.

In the East, there should be multiple interpretations of the event. I know of a few associated to the Chinese culture. Every year, the Chinese celebrate the 'Dongzhi' Festival, or as I like to call it, 'Tangyuan' festival. It is a time when families reunite and share tangyuan soup, a dish of glutinous rice balls cooked and eaten in sweet soup. I remember watching a TV programme that says that a family reunion on this day is more important than during the Chinese New Year. I've also heard from my family members that eating tangyuan signifies that you have grown a year older. Besides that, some of  my friends worship their ancestors or pray to their gods on this day.

I'd like to learn more about how different cultures celebrate the winter solstice. So if you have knowledge of or experience any sort of cultural significance towards this day, feel free to drop a comment below. Thanks.

Cheers
zhusun

Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongzhi_Festival

Another Failed Apocalypse Prediction

It's 22-12-12. I'm living to type these letters and words right now. There is still electricity - hence my computer is functioning. Hey, I'm connected to the internet. Go figure. The earth survived 21-12-12, like it has for 4.54 billion years.

Today, coincidentally, is also the winter solstice, which is also the shortest day of the year and marks the start of winter. On this day, the north pole is at its furthest distance away from the sun. Different cultures celebrate this annual event with their own significance. I'll discuss this in another post.

This failed prediction of an apocalypse can come as a shocker - a disappointment, even - to believers, but it is no novelty. Throughout history, there have been failed attempts by priests, preachers and enthusiasts have tried in vain - and luckily - to pin-point a specific date for the second coming, or an armageddon. Calculations were even made.

I don't think the attempts to try to pin-point the day of the apocalypse will ever end, nor will be hype ever be dulled. Maybe we can all share a hope that the prophecies of an end-of-the-world continue to be wrong.

Cheers
zhusun

Further reading:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20712815

The End of the World?

Lo and behold! It's the day before the dreaded 21-12-12. What have you been up to leading up to the faithful day? Have you been stocking up on food supplies? Have you been building a bunker beneath your house? Or have you just been living out each day, not expecting anything extraordinary to happen? Whatever you've been doing, I'm sure you're well aware of tomorrow's date.

According to the Mayan calender, well, there are no more days after 21-12-12. I came by a comic somewhere, and it goes like this: a man was asking an ancient Mayan why he'd stopped carving the calender, and the Mayan replied that he had run out of stone. From this, you can tell that there really are many ways to look at it.

The most popularised and if not, frightening, interpretation of the termination of the Mayan calender is the termination of life on earth. This is just a theory put forward by modern scientists. Many sorts of cataclysmic events are predicted such as shifting of poles, a sort of celestial alignment that only happens once every 26,000 years, solar storms and horrific earthquakes and tsunamis. What makes this sound rather fantastical is that different people expect so many different things to happen on one single day.

Another way to look at this is, of course, that the ancient Mayans simply ran out of stone to carve on, as mentioned above. Besides that, we can take the concept of the Mayan calender like how we take our modern calender - the Gregorian calender or Western calender. In fact, the Gregorian calender ends on 31 December every year. Do we theorise an end-of-the-world event? According to an article on the National Geographic News, the Mayan calender ends so that it can start a new cycle, actually repeating it. The circular calender that is the image of the Mayan calender is called the Long Count. The Mayans called the day of creation as Day Zero, approximately in 3114 BC. Therefore, the end of the Mayan calender simply means the start of a new, lengthy cycle. In other words, the Mayans did not prophesise an armageddon.

While I think it's a good idea to be on the alert of disasters and to be ready at all times, I don't think you should panic over the coming of 21-12-12. Let's just hope for the best.


Cheers
zhusun


Further reading:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091106-2012-end-of-world-myths.html

12-12-12

There is some hype surrounding the date 12-12-12 which only occurs once every century. This will be the last time we see all numerals in the date repeat for the next 88 years. So some people have planned to do some significant tings today.

I can predict many couples getting married today, and especially at the time 12:12. According to the New York Daily News, 65,000 couples got married on 7-7-7. Mass weddings, anyone? Besides that, there will be concert called '121212 Concert: The Concert for Sandy Relief' to benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund where the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, The Rollings Stones, Paul McCartney, Alicia Keys etc. will perform in Madison Square Garden. There are even people who will turn 12 today. A boy named Kiam Moriya is one such child whose time of birth matches the day and month of birth. Furthermore, some people are trying their luck with the lottery or other forms of gambling. Some people are starting businesses, trade, buying property etc.

Though, don't let the date's significance cower you into a corner due to fear of a doomsday event. From the years 2001 to 2012, we have witnessed these kind of days come and go with normality. Of course, you shouldn't let your guard down. Well, we being humans, always want to seek out some significance to patterns or dates that seem too good to be insignificant. This date is special, no doubt. The number 12 is significant because its everywhere: the modern 12-hour clock face; in Christianity, there were 12 apostles of Jesus; there are 12 signs in Western astrology; in the Chinese zodiac, there are 12 animals; 12 inches in a foot; 12 months in a year - obviously; 12 days of Christmas. And by the way, there are only 12 more days to Christmas. So you might think people over the ages were obsessed with the number 12.

This date should not be confused with 21-12-12 which is the prophesied 'doomsday' because the Mayan calender ends there. That topic is for another blog entry.

In the meantime, enjoy your 12-12-12, the last date with repeating numerals until 1st January 2101.

Cheers
zhusun