Day Four
Although we only graduated about a week and a half ago, it was great to see some Ross folks in Taipei today. My classmate Ellie (who lived in Taiwan right up until she came to Ross) arrived in Taiwan from Ann Arbor yesterday, so today we met up for lunch. Ellie gave me a ton of great tips and recommendations before I got here, so I owe her a big thanks. She passed along the name and address of a restaurant not far from the hotel, and I carefully copied all of the characters in case I needed to ask directions or match them up to a sign somewhere. I think I did a pretty good job.
When I got to lunch I was happy to find out that three other Ross classmates were joining too - Vikram (one of my sectionmates), Kaiping and Kirtan all arrived in Taipei last night after spending a few days on the east side of the island in Hualien. They'll be flying to Tokyo tomorrow to join up with the crowd doing the official Japan trek. Ellie "just happened" to have her Michigan flag with her, so a group photo was naturally in order.
After lunch I had to book it to the train station to catch the Taiwan High Speed Rail to Kaohsiung. This all-new train line opened about five years ago and is now the preferred way to get around on the densely populated west coast of Taiwan (before the line opened, most people flew; today there are very few domestic flights in the country.)
I was looking forward to seeing the Taiwanese countryside, but it turns out there's really no such thing, at least on the west side of the island. Aside from a few scattered mountainous segments where the train popped in and out of tunnels, there was urban and suburban development out the window all the way to Kaohsiung. In between all the factories, apartment blocks, highways and warehouses, there was the occasional rice field or fruit orchard. Apparently the east side of the island is more sparsely populated and has a lot more of the agriculture and parkland.
Kaohsiung is Taiwan's second city and is situated at the far southern edge of the island. It had finally cooled off in Taipei (walking around before lunch today was really pleasant) but Kaohsiung was boiling hot and really humid from the moment I stepped off the train. It doesn't feel quite as bustling as Taipei - for a few hours this afternoon the streets seemed almost empty - but there's a few million people living in the area, which became more apparent as rush hour started up.
Taipei, as the capital, has always been the nerve center of Taiwan, and Kaohsiung was traditionally its industrial powerhouse. True to form, as my train came into the city, we passed several miles of oil and gas refineries, steel mills, and railway switching yards. Over the last decade, however, Kaohsiung has been working hard to reinvent itself and spruce itself up as more of a tourist destination. The oddly-named Love River runs right through the center of town, and the city has done a really nice job landscaping it and inviting restaurants and bars to open up along the banks. They've also turned an old railway line into an elevated walking/bike path, just like New York's High Line Park. There are beaches nearby, too, so the city has adopted the rather odd moniker of "Capital of Marine Tourism." What I saw of the city seemed really pleasant, though.
For dinner I went to the Liouhe Night Market just a few blocks from my hotel. Just like the Shilin market in Taipei, there were tons of stalls selling freshly-made food. This being the Capital of Marine Tourism, however, a lot of the offerings either contained seafood or were seafood. I had to be a little braver and ask what some items were, so I wound up eating a basket full of pork and chicken steamed buns, and a pepper cake with minced pork baked inside. For dessert I had a bowl of Taiwan's signature "snowflake ice" - something I've had in Chicago before, but completely forgot about. Basically, they take a large block of flavored ice (in my case it was cantaloupe flavor), put it in a giant machine, and shave big horizontal sheets off of that form a large, fluffy wad of frozen goodness. Then they pour on flavored syrup. It's really refreshing, especially when the humidity is running at 80 percent - I'm glad I remembered to try it before I left the island.
I'm up bright and early tomorrow morning for a flight back to Hong Kong, where I'll connect on to Singapore. This time tomorrow, I'll probably be nostalgic for 80 percent humidity!
Today I'm in: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Although we only graduated about a week and a half ago, it was great to see some Ross folks in Taipei today. My classmate Ellie (who lived in Taiwan right up until she came to Ross) arrived in Taiwan from Ann Arbor yesterday, so today we met up for lunch. Ellie gave me a ton of great tips and recommendations before I got here, so I owe her a big thanks. She passed along the name and address of a restaurant not far from the hotel, and I carefully copied all of the characters in case I needed to ask directions or match them up to a sign somewhere. I think I did a pretty good job. 
When I got to lunch I was happy to find out that three other Ross classmates were joining too - Vikram (one of my sectionmates), Kaiping and Kirtan all arrived in Taipei last night after spending a few days on the east side of the island in Hualien. They'll be flying to Tokyo tomorrow to join up with the crowd doing the official Japan trek. Ellie "just happened" to have her Michigan flag with her, so a group photo was naturally in order. 
After lunch I had to book it to the train station to catch the Taiwan High Speed Rail to Kaohsiung. This all-new train line opened about five years ago and is now the preferred way to get around on the densely populated west coast of Taiwan (before the line opened, most people flew; today there are very few domestic flights in the country.)
The trip to Kaohsiung took about 90 minutes and was smooth as glass. This is the fifth country I've been to where I've used high-speed trains (after Germany, France, Spain and China) and it always makes me sad that we haven't managed to get anything like this in place in the US yet. We're a big country, so a national network definitely isn't feasible, but there are certain geographic areas where rail makes a lot more sense than the high-frequency flights we have right now. Americans don't like to spend on infrastructure anymore, though, so it'll never happen.
I was looking forward to seeing the Taiwanese countryside, but it turns out there's really no such thing, at least on the west side of the island. Aside from a few scattered mountainous segments where the train popped in and out of tunnels, there was urban and suburban development out the window all the way to Kaohsiung. In between all the factories, apartment blocks, highways and warehouses, there was the occasional rice field or fruit orchard. Apparently the east side of the island is more sparsely populated and has a lot more of the agriculture and parkland. 
Kaohsiung is Taiwan's second city and is situated at the far southern edge of the island. It had finally cooled off in Taipei (walking around before lunch today was really pleasant) but Kaohsiung was boiling hot and really humid from the moment I stepped off the train. It doesn't feel quite as bustling as Taipei - for a few hours this afternoon the streets seemed almost empty - but there's a few million people living in the area, which became more apparent as rush hour started up.
Taipei, as the capital, has always been the nerve center of Taiwan, and Kaohsiung was traditionally its industrial powerhouse. True to form, as my train came into the city, we passed several miles of oil and gas refineries, steel mills, and railway switching yards. Over the last decade, however, Kaohsiung has been working hard to reinvent itself and spruce itself up as more of a tourist destination. The oddly-named Love River runs right through the center of town, and the city has done a really nice job landscaping it and inviting restaurants and bars to open up along the banks. They've also turned an old railway line into an elevated walking/bike path, just like New York's High Line Park. There are beaches nearby, too, so the city has adopted the rather odd moniker of "Capital of Marine Tourism." What I saw of the city seemed really pleasant, though. 
For dinner I went to the Liouhe Night Market just a few blocks from my hotel. Just like the Shilin market in Taipei, there were tons of stalls selling freshly-made food. This being the Capital of Marine Tourism, however, a lot of the offerings either contained seafood or were seafood. I had to be a little braver and ask what some items were, so I wound up eating a basket full of pork and chicken steamed buns, and a pepper cake with minced pork baked inside. For dessert I had a bowl of Taiwan's signature "snowflake ice" - something I've had in Chicago before, but completely forgot about. Basically, they take a large block of flavored ice (in my case it was cantaloupe flavor), put it in a giant machine, and shave big horizontal sheets off of that form a large, fluffy wad of frozen goodness. Then they pour on flavored syrup. It's really refreshing, especially when the humidity is running at 80 percent - I'm glad I remembered to try it before I left the island. I'm up bright and early tomorrow morning for a flight back to Hong Kong, where I'll connect on to Singapore. This time tomorrow, I'll probably be nostalgic for 80 percent humidity!
Hi Jamie! So fun to catch up on your trip - you're making me excited for mine! Enjoy every minute :)
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