Hualien

I could not see much of the city. We were leaving the hotel and going to the university for the talks between 8am and 8:30am and when the sessions finished, after 7pm, it was already dark. From what I could see, it has a different aspect from Taipei. The buildings are packed downtown, where the night market and the shops are, with a lot of light, color and shops. In the rest of the city, houses are smaller with a lot of open fields around. I think it is very extended, but since I was made to move by taxi all the time, I didn't get a clear view. Most of the people here don't seem to like to walk, and the truth is that taxis are cheap.

I did't see much of the sea, because he weather wasn't very good,

but I had a few beers in a bar next to the sea the second night and it was very nice, after the rain of the night before. Yes, there were a couple of good rainstorms, for a change.

One thing I did do was to try the local cuisine. Taiwanese like to eat, very much, and if you go with a group of them, you end up trying many different dishes. I went with some students on Saturday night to a supposed-to-be aboriginal-cuisine restaurant (from the island's original inhabitants, which live mostly in the mountain regions now, in some cases in reserved zones). Very good. A couple of pictures to show some of the things we ate