Qixing Mountain (七星山)

As alluded to in my previous post, I wanted to climb a mountain this weekend... and so I did. The great thing about Taipei is that it's close to a whole score of them, some of which lie within Yangmingshan National Park. I chose the tallest peak to climb, being Qixing, or Seven Star. It's no Mauna Kea, but it was a pretty challenging 1120m, namely due to the entire climb consisting of stairs of varying degrees of steepness and slipperiness (damp moss-covered stones). It made the CN Tower climb seem like a joke.  All it took was a 30 minute bus ride from Jiantan station on R5 (once I figured out which side to actually catch the bus from).  Given its proximity to Taipei City, there weren't as many people as I thought there'd be, thankfully.  What a great experience, to be climbing a mountain through the clouds on a 21C mid-December day.

Danshui

Having spent too much time in 'downtown' Taipei, I decided to visit the historic seaside "town" of Danshui, 20 km away, at the mouth of the river with the same name.  It was one of the first colonial outposts - initially inhabited by the Spanish, then the Dutch, Chinese, and finally the Japanese. It was nice to breathe fresh air, eat fresh seafood, and hike along the hilly terrain while visiting sites of historical significance.  The best part of this was that it was accessible by subway and I didn't even have to change trains once. Maybe next weekend I'll hike up Qixing peak in Yangmingshan, a 1100m mountain just outside of Taipei.

People

Since coming to Taiwan I've had the great fortune of meeting people from all walks of life, ranging from street vendors and performers to professionals and business leaders.  Overall I've been warmly touched by their genuine hospitality and joie de vivre. I've also been quite impressed by how polite (most) people are here, something I hadn't experienced the likes of since travelling in Japan.  This is one of the reasons I came back to Taiwan, and just wish there was more I could do here from a professional point of view, because I think out of all the places I've been in this world (41 countries now) it would be nice to call this place home one day.