Taipei, the modern city

20 August 2010 - Taipei 101

Taipei 101, by itself, is a nice mall to hang out. If you aren't prepared to pay NT$400 to take the view from the 101th floor, you will be delighted to spend an afternoon in the cozy coffee houses, restaurants and bookstore that surround the open square on the 4th floor.

Looking up, I discovered the lovely transparent roof structure that's letting the natural light bathe the activities here.

While I was happily snapping away at whatever catches my eye, I heard a voice saying, "Where are you from?". Hmm... oh an elderly grandfather calling out to me. Out of respect, I responded.

"People who love to take photos never have a photo with them inside." he said, kindly offering to take a picture of me with my camera.

When I was reviewing the photos back home, I understood why he said that...

The old man invited me to sit down for a chat. Not rushing anywhere, I obliged. He asked where I was heading to for the next few days. I fished out my notebook and rattled some names which I had copied from the travelguides in the bookstores.

"四四南村, 剥皮寮, 林安泰古厝..."
(translate: 44th South Village, Bo Pi Liao Street, Lin An Tai Mansion... etc) I said.

"你怎么选的都是台北最老最旧最脏的地方啊?你应该去那些好一点的地方才对!"
(translate: Why do you choose the oldest, dirtiest and most tattered places to visit? You should visit the better places!)

Hahaha... I burst out laughing...

My reply? See last paragraph of this entry.

Browsing through the photos, I realised that I had unknowingly taken him as part of the landscape here. Hmm, how careless I was not to notice him staring straight into my camera... :{

Freedom to choose where to go is the best thing of an F&E trip.  I'm really glad to have the luxury of time and independence to explore this beautiful city.

I like Taipei!

Taipei trip ~ 16-28 August 2010

 
With clear skies, well-mannered folks, familiar Mandarin accent, TV programmes, books and yummy food, Taiwan felt so much like home.

Vincent and Ah Min's first meal was something they can never find in BJ - fried bee hoon, accompanied with fishball soup, kang kong, pig blood soup, Taiwanese-style.

Taipei 101, one building, many looks.

 

The rest of the trip, Ah Min went (at a very leisurely pace) to:

• Taipei 101
• Eslite Bookstore @ Xinyi
• Taipei Fine Arts Museum
• 44th South Military Community
• Tong Hua Night Market (aka Lin Jiang St Night Market)
• The Grand Hotel
• Danshui Old Street
• Shilin Night Market
• Keelung Guanyin Temple
• Yehliu Geopark
• Shin Yeh Restaurant
• Ximending
• National Science Education Centre, Taipei
• Eslite 24-hr Bookstore @ Zhongxiao Dunhua
• Shenkeng Old Street
• Hualien
• Taroko Gorge
• Chishingtan Beach

These lovely places were covered in Sep 2008.

• Jiufen Old Street
• National Palace Museum, Taipei

Other visit-worthy places in Taipei,

• Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Going to school - Graduation

How time flies, the four week class (Jul 12 - Aug 14, 2010) ended just like that...  Ah Min was surprised that the certificate bore the title "DIPLOMA".

Look how proud Ah Min, Yi and Wei were with their "DIPLOMAs" @___@

The oldest student in the class, 62 year-old Aunty Wang Fengchun from Jiangsu.

Going to school - Potluck lunch

At the beginning of the course, Ah Min was a bit shy and wary of the Chinese. Towards the end, Ah Min  found some friends sharing the same likes - FOOD! :D

One of the girls suggested a potluck lunch. Ah Min was the laziest, she pan-fried Thai Tumeric chicken marinaded in a ready-mix sauce. She tried to make it up by cooking rice...

Clockwise from bottom right: Tumeric chicken with rice (Ah Min), Duck braised with beer and dark soya sauce (Wei), Pan fried prawn with peppers (Yi), Stir-fried potato strips with ginger box 1 (Ping), Steamed buns (Yi), Stir-fried radish strips with ginger (Wei), Stir-fried potato strips with ginger box 2 (Ping).

Clockwise from bottom left: Chef Wei, Chef Yi, Chef Ping, Chef Min

Going to school - Miscellaneous

These are things that Ah Min finds interesting cos these seemed to be commonplace in BJ.

Old-fashioned Vacuum Flask
The Chinese like to drink hot water, even on very very hot summer days.

Top Model Student
This guy cleans the chalkboard EVERY SINGLE DAY during breaks. He also takes vacuum flasks (photo above) for topup at a nearby block EVERY SINGLE DAY. (*__*) wow!

Nice Volunteers
Trying to concentrate on a sunny mid-summer day in a 36 degree room is unimaginable. How could anyone survive..... (@__@)
Finally, the white chiffon curtains arrived one week after class started and the tallest guy in the class and his buddy volunteered to climb onto a desk to hang them up.

Guy with Tired Leg
This guy had been putting his foot on the back of the previous row of chairs for more than an hour. He might had finished a marathon the day before. Hee hee... (^__^)

More Tired Classmates
Too tired or too comfortable? After we moved to the air-conditioned classroom on Week 3, more and more people fell asleep during class.

Going to school - Food

Canteen food is cheap in China's standards. Buying from the free-selection cai-fan counter is the most flexible. Veggies cost RMB1-2, meat cost RMB1.5-4, staples (rice, porridge, buns) cost RMB1-2. So a meal usually costs less than RMB10.

Students just scan their card (similar to our Ezilink card) to pay for food. I think it's good to use this method as both the sellers and the students won't have to dirty their hands handling money.


The northern people love to take their meals with buns (馒头).

Ah min likes soupy stuff, eg, porridge ^__^

I like this zhajiangmian ( 炸酱面). It costs only RMB6 a bowl. The portion is HUGE. It can feed 2-3 Singaporean girls.

Going to school - Biology class

Ah Min likes biology lessons because what's taught are the tangible parts of the human body. These are more straightforward and easier to grasp than intangible stuff like qi and meridians in TCM >__<

 

 

Going to school - Massage

Massaging and tuina are different things in TCM. Tuina can only be practised by qualified doctors, whereas massage can be practised by anyone (eg, beauticians, blind people). Here, I'll refer to all massaging as tuina cos it sounds more professional ;)

I felt the most connection with tuina teacher, Prof Zhang Jian Bao (张健宝). Know why? Haha... Cos he has a typical Cantonese-Singaporean slang. Whenever he lectures, I feel like giggling, cos he sounds so much like one of my uncles. Eversince I came to China, I've been looking for people that speak with the same slang as I do, but they are really difficult to find. Prof Zhang is the only closest match. He's from Fujian Province, same as my ancestors.

This is Prof Zhang showing us how to "adjust" (搬) a patient's spine. He looks so cool and sporty! ^__<

We were assigned beds for tuina practice. 

In this picture, Ping and I looked as if we were molesting Wei's buttocks.... hahahaha.... :D

Nobody will smile like that when being 'molested'... hehehehe.... (^__^) 

Clockwise from bottom left: Wei, Yi, Ping & Ah Min

Going to school - Ear plastering

I don't know what this is called English. It's not acupuncture cos no needle is used. All you have to stick a special plaster onto your ear reflex point and some part of your body will start to self-heal. So I call it "ear plastering".

The special 7x7mm ear plaster has a tiny hard seed (the size of sesame seeds) embedded underneath to create a localised pressure onto your ear acupoint.

Photo below: Sinseh Min is giving ear-plaster treatment to classmate-patient Xiaoling. Xiaoling is pointing to the rubber dummy ear and telling Sinseh Min which points to use & where they are.

Notice two guys at the back row also studying the rubber dummy ear? This is how it looks like:

This is a demo of the points to use (done by our teacher) on a classmate's ear to help in slimming.

Going to school - Acupuncture

It is amazing how a tiny needle of 0.3mm can create such big effect on the human body. We listened most intently for this topic taught by Prof Ren Xiu Jun （任秀君）.

Hahaha... I regretted letting Prof Ren stick that needle into my hegu (合谷) point.















Junyi (left) and Yi (right) experiencing the most nerve-wrecking moment of their lives with their first acupuncture experience.















The last photo, is not for the faint hearted. Click on "Read more" only if you are as brave as I am ;)