Taiwan

Sep 17, 2005

first day..arrival in Hong Kong waiting flight to Taiwan

at Hong kong airport they have these cool beds for tansit passengers

modern arch. in Taipei

Show all 24 photos

beautiful streets of Taipei

limestone.with various layers of copper,iron,marble

copper mining town south Taiwan

yep that's me

visiting the village of Chuffen..remember these?

all shots of Chuffen, on Northcoast

this part of Taiwan if beautiful

Chuffen's steep and quaint streets

I'm p..........ed out

marble factory in Toroko Taiwan

spectacular Toroko Gorge ..mountain of marble

lots of waterfalls

these are solid walls of marble

marble 1000m tall, 10km thick

carved of marble

marble carved to look like wood

Greetings to all...well I am on the road again...this time I am doing a three month tour of all of Asia The tour is part of Cathy Pacific all asia pass and includes up to 17 stops all for one price. So here we go.

First stop is Taiwan off the coast of China.You must be familiar with "Made in Taiwan" labels well this is the warehouse-factory capital of the world. The night markets here require days to go through and they have maps to guide you and not just one market but lots. It's exhausting to see how much merchandise they are producing here. After a day in the city I took a tour to Chuffen Village high in the mountains where the locals prepare all sorts of delicious candies, deserts, tofu, and many other brightly wapped goods. Most of it is pretty bland to us but almost all of it is non fattening and made of various roots, seaweed, tofus, vegetables, etc. No sugar or artificial additives of any kind.In this region we also saw the copper mines of Taiwan and how the rivers changes to a gold color... very different.

Next I flew to the South of Taiwan to the famous Marble city of Toroko Gorge. This is really different. The mountains here are solid marble....of various colors including the oriental Jade marble ..the hardest of all marbles and the most sought after. We walked the Toroko Gorge which is their equivalent to the Grand Canyon... carved by a roaring river and still being carved. This marble gorge is 1000 meters top to bottom and believed to 10km thick. As you can imagine everything in the city, streets, statues is made of marble. And still they charge a fortune for a small piece in the tourist shops.

The people in Taiwan, mostly Chinese, are very friendly and hospitable. The food is excellent but a little expensive. Taiwan is good spot to put on your list. Next stop will be Manila, Phillipines. See you there. Glen

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