Toastmasters conference in Taipei

Needing desperately to find people to speak English with, I found and joined the local Toastmasters club here in Hualien a couple of months ago. Immediately, I was asked to help improve the quality of English, and I am glad to be of help. This weekend, our club president and I and a few others attended the spring conference in Taipei.

The quality of the speeches were excellent, and even for some non native English speakers, the contents and delivery were amazing.

There was a show after dinner and it was also very good. Most of them featured members of different clubs in Taiwan.

This is the first time that I have the opportunity to visit Taipei since moving to Taiwan. Most other times I was passing thru on the way to the airport, catching a plane to HK. It is not too different than what I experienced twenty years ago, but Taipei is definitely cleaner and more civilized.

Taipei 101 is certainly impressive, and the area it is in is not crowded as I would have expected. Nothing like HK of course. In fact, Taipei resembles an American city in some ways.....

It was a beautiful day with sunny sky, and temperature around 30C. One thing I did noticed is the women. Generally speaking, Taiwanese women are prettier than HK women, much easier on the eyes IMHO. Why is that? I cannot tell you. That just the way it is.

Women in Taipei are more cosmopolitan, nicely dressed and stylish. Women in Hualien are more down to earth, with slightly darker and healthier complexion. That is the difference between city and country living I guess.

It was an eye opener for me, and I am inspired and motivated to return to our home club, to help the club members to become more proficient in the English language. Toastmasters International has just reached mainland China recently, and clubs are springing up like bamboos everywhere. However, the clubs are underground as the Chinese government has not given permits for such clubs yet. There is a conference in Xiamen in May, and I'm thinking of going......

Jimmy in Hualien & Michael in Dongguan

Jimmy came to visit us in Hualien and stayed with us.

Then we left for Dongguan together, and visited Michael who has a factory there.

Went to a seafood restaurant, and what a place it was. China is amazing in many ways by sheer numbers!

Tennis buddies

Its been a year since I began playing tennis socially at the Hualien tennis club, and I have made good progress at making new friends with the local players.

I was invited to a group dinner after the games, and what a feast it was!

I was also invited to be a member of their tennis team, participating in tournaments and social events.

Frankie at school

Frankie's school hours is actually 8am to 4pm, which is still quite long, comparing to the Canadian school hours. After 4pm, kids are allowed to stay in class to do homework or study, up until 7pm under a teacher's care. This is very welcomed by many working parents as they don't need to rush to pick up their kids. I usually pick Frankie up around 5pm when she usually finishes her homework.

This past weekend, the school had an outing at a local farm, and kids could catch some type of mud eels in the pond......

But her favorite spot is still the beach, which is 10 minutes from our house......We had a tsunami warning after the Japanese earthquake, and folks were nervous after watching the devastation in Japan. Thank God it never reached our shores here.

La jin 拉筋

My 拉筋 bench arrived last week, costs about $270Cdn, made here in Taiwan.
If you want to know more about this wonderful stretching exercise, visit this link:
http://yixingtianxia.com/newpage/en/index.html

Year of the bunny

Gung hay fat choy to everyone, its the year of the bunny!
Hualien county government spends a lot of money on fireworks, perhaps it is because the cost of fireworks is much cheaper here. We are treated to spectacular displays about every other month. I didn't even know there was fireworks for Chinese new year until I was promptly disturbed while I was doing laundry on our balcony. What a show it was!



Temperature has returned to normal after some cold days just before Chinese new year, it is now 18 to 25C which is very comfortable. Perfect weather for tennis and I manage to play about five hours everyday.

Xiamen & Gulangyu

After spending two days in Kinmen, we are off to Xiamen for a three day visit, mostly because of Gulangyu. I read about that little island a few years ago, and have been wanting to see it in person. But first, we must take the fast cat across from Kinmen which takes an hour.



Xiamen is a city of about 4 million people, a nice city but nevertheless crowded and air quality is surprisingly poor for a coastal city.

Shopping and street browsing at night on Zhongshan road, similar to Nanjing Road in Shanghai.

Xiamen zoo: watch the very beginning of the video again..yes, the horses were mating, caught on camera!

Xiamen zoo has a safari, with tigers, lions, and brown bears. We have never seen animals so close and we were a bit nervous, especially with the bears just inches away, face to face.

Frankie took a ride on a horse, a first for her.....

Next day, we went to Gulangyu, a very small island only 10 minute ferry ride from Xiamen city. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but this once island paradise has fallen victim to commercialism just like most Chinese cities have in recent years. Tacky tourists rip offs, over priced restaurants, admission to every thing including pay toilets, and worst of all, dirty streets littered with cigarette buttes, spits, and unrecyclable garbage.

Nevertheless, we saw some beautiful heritage western architecture, and had lunch twice at a bistro which served the most fantastic pasta dishes and tiramisu to die for.

A very nice beach on Gulangyu.....

Back to Kinmen and a visit to small Kinmen island.

After two days on Gulangyu and a day in Xiamen city, we headed back to Kinmen.

A typical Kinmen village which has all of the characteristics of a typical Fujian style homestead from hundreds of years ago. Earliest recorded inhabitants arrived here in the Tang dynasty about 1600 years ago.

More Kinmen landmarks........

Best dumblings right here in Kinmen!

Where's the beef? Kinmen raises its own cattles, free range style. Although a little chewy and very lean, its not gamey like Aussie beef. Yes, chewy and lean beef is perfect for making beef jerky and Kinmen beef jerky with Sorghum liquor (高梁酒) is one nice treat.

Kinmen is also known for its knives. But a tiny island like this, where would all the steel come from? Apparently, there were over one million mortars dumped on the island by the communists during a twenty year period when Kinmen island was bombarded on a daily basis as Red China tried hard to invade Taiwan but failed obviously; anyways, some very smart folks in Kinmen began salvaging the steel from these shells and made knives and cleavers. To this day, there are still thousands upon thousands of unexploded bombs on the island and the steel industry has a long way to go.......Yes, some areas of Kinmen are roped off with warning signs of landmines......Naturally, with so many soldiers and civilians killed in fierce battles, there are abundant ghost stories.

From small Kinmen, we can see Xiamen city clearly. We hired a cab and toured the whole island in less than a day. Cost was $35 US. With Chinese new year just days away, we picked the perfect time to visit as we were the only tourists everywhere we went. Apparently the busy season starts a few days after the new year begins as most Chinese are too busy with their families before and during the new year celebrations. Good to know.

If you are interested to see more about Kinmen, here is a good video shot by a couple of fellows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MevF6pR93gg&feature=player_embedded#