Waiting

Lots of scooters, in their parking lots. Forests of handlebars and mirrors. All over Taipei.

Press the button

To stop the bus in the next bus stop.

In Chinese, of course

Grips

Martian facilities in Taipei?

No, just some big balls where kids can exercise their climbing skills. The first impression I had, though, was very weird.

Visit to Beijing

I am late. Again. It looks like I am losing some good habits. But, as I promised a few weeks, or months, ago, something about my visit to Beijing in mid-September.

It was a trip purely for pleasure, of course. I took a direct flight from Taipei to Beijing, now that it is possible. It might be a little bit more expensive than flying through Macao or Hong Kong, but you get there in only three hours. If the trip is only for three days, as in my case, it is an important factor in the decision.

I arrived to the new Terminal 3, another monster in the middle of nowhere —some megalomaniac countries have this obsession—, finished for the olympic games. I was picked up there and we headed back to Taipei in a taxi. My first impression of Beijing were concrete towers and freeways everywhere under a grey sky. Fortunately, I had my own Sun next to me, so to speak.

After lunch,

and experiencing my first bus trip —with one guy collecting money inside if you did not have the magnetic car, a curious mix of old and new times— we went to the Summer Palace.

It was the summer residence of the emperors, where they escaped from the royal court. Now, it is a very large and beautiful public park.


With the old buildings in a reasonable good state, even if there are signs of old destructions in some of them, and with magnificent forests and lakes.



A very nice place that we peacefully toured as the afternoon was slowly dying away. After so much time in Taipei, the temperature difference was almost shocking.


On our return to the city, with a mix-up of bus stops included, I had a first experience of the huge amount of people on the streets, and the accompanying chaos, and a very pleasant night taxi trip back home looking at the very modern-looking buildings along the way. A promising first day.

(There will be more)

Parking tickets

The first time I saw one of these women, sitting with one foot on the ground and the other on her bycyle pedal, wearing some kind of uniform, the conical hat down to her ears, the mask around her mouth, and taking out of some pocket the ticket-printing machine, print out a ticket, which she would immediately put on the windshield of a car, I thouhgt she was having a field day putting fines.

Later, I saw her/them many days until somebody's explanation made me realize that I had been wrong. They do not put parking tickets as fines, they mark the time intervals during which cars are stopped in the parking zones. As in the picture I took the other day.

The car owner must then go pay what is owed—I guess before a few days— to any 7-11 or similar store. I found it quite odd, but it's not such a bad idea, because they save the cost of installing the automatic coin machines. You cannot get rid of the watchmen/women anyway.

Short walk

Weekends are very slow again, lately. For different reasons, not hard to understand. Today, though, I managed to go out and take a walk after lunch, using the short time I had before the Sun set, and I went to Yuanshan, in the northern part of Taipei. Since last Wednesday, the weather is almost as warm as during the summer and it feels really good to walk in the street. So, I took my camera and started taking pictures of more temples, with dragons and phoenix,



reddened clouds,

absurdly highly elevated freeways,

and red, of course, bridges.

Later, a quiet coffe near Shida, in a place with nice memories, putting some order in my ideas. The way things are, that is the best I can do.

Contract

A few days later than it ought to be, but still on time. Last Wednesday, I signed the renewal of my post-doctoral contract. For another year. So, I am assured to have that time to be here. And probably, more afterwards, but it will all depend on how many things I can do during this year. Right now, there are many and who knows if I will be able to stick to the plans.

Just keep on going.

November sky

The weather is colder and we had a day between sunny and some clouds. Another failed try on the personal side, but I expected it. A real pity.

The sunset, though, was spectacular. Really worth anything.