Whoosh

In some places that I've visited in tropical climates, life seems to slow down to a leisurely pace, perhaps in the interest of not overheating. Taiwan is not one of those places. Taiwan is a young and energetic place. At least Hsinchu and Taipei are. This is a time for thinking big here. They're building tall buildings and fast trains and big semiconductor fabs that crank out massive numbers of tiny devices. Step out onto the street and you're already in the way of the Taiwanese youth on their scooters, getting after it while the getting is good. Don't worry, they won't slow down or stop but they'll do their best to avoid hitting you, as you will only slow them down. Step onto the sidewalk and...nice thought, but there aren't too many sidewalks. There are some used for displaying store merchandise and others used for scooter parking, but they're not much use for walking on. I didn't come here for an island holiday--I came here to make some little improvements in the ways that we make stuff, in the place that makes stuff better than anyone right now. So it's exciting in a way to be a part of it, but it's tiring. I don't know where they find the energy.

I took a trip with a colleague to Taipei on Saturday, to visit Yangmingshan, a national park just outside of Taipei. Thanks to a bit of a late start and general confusion at various points of the journey, I don't think we saw much of what Yangmingshan had to offer. The main value of the trip for me was figuring out how to take the high-speed rail, the MRT, and the bus. Hopefully I'll have a chance to go back and see Yangmingshan again, as it looks amazing on the website. A clear day would be ideal.

The high speed rail is pretty impressive. You can go from Taipei to Kaohsiung (208 mi) in 90 minutes. New York to Boston is 228 miles. One and a half hours. Want to give this a try, Northeast corridor? "Wah, government spending, snivel, snivel, boo hoo, I want my snuggie..." Yeah, that's what I thought. Never mind. Why did I ask Joe Lieberman? Anyway, to go from Hsinchu to Taipei takes exactly 32 minutes. Trains run every 25 or so, they're smooth as silk and they drop you off right in the center of the city. Mine got up to 270 km/h, according to the scrolling display in the car. All of that for about $6 US. Brilliant.

Wish I could say the same for the bus. I guess the bus is the bus. We didn't get seats either way so it was a long strenuous dangle as the bus made its way through town and up into the mountains. After hiking uphill another km or so, we found an observation tower but the views were largely obscured by the fog. Somewhere nearby, something was going on that had to do with flowers that everyone was pretty excited about. I would like to have found it, but it was going to involve some more climbing or another bus, so my colleague and I decided to head back into town.

We went up into Taipei 101. This was the second time for me but the first for my colleague. Both times I've been up there it has been pretty foggy. It's worth it for the elevator ride though, which is the vertical version of the high-speed rail.

I posted some photos at my photo site. Have a look.