That's all she wrote! Everything is winding down here in Taiwan and I am headed back to the US in less than 48 hours. It has been a very busy and great eight weeks here.
For the last weekend I finally made it down to southern Taiwan to Kaohsiung--ironically I was putting it off until the after-effects of the typhoon were handled, but another typhoon was coming on! All of last week it did nothing but pour day and night in Taipei, but I decided to travel anyway and was lucky in that it only rained once for about 10 minutes in Kaohsiung.
What a cool city, and very different from Taipei. The streets are huge, the Harbor is really impressive and it's always nice being right on the water.
One cool place to watch boats in the Harbor is the former British Consular Residence, completed in 1879 and the first European-style building in Taiwan. For a long time it was thought to be the consular office, but 'investigations in the British National Archives proved that the actual consular office was in a separate building at the foot of the hill, and the building standing on top of the hill was in fact the residence attached to the consulate.' So, a re-naming ceremony was in order! Now it's a cafe and tourist attration, complete with a music gallery honoring the Beatles. (?!)
Down at the water in Cijin--I don't know if this is left from the typhoon a few weeks ago,
or from the one that just passed...
The Dome of Light. This is the largest one-piece stained-glass installation in the world (so says my guidebook, although I haven't been able to verify this online...) and it is located--of all places--inside a subway station.
"The dome, which is made of 4,500 glass panels, symbolizes rebirth and Taiwan’s democratic process. The four parts that comprise it — water, earth, light and fire — symbolize birth, growth, glory and destruction respectively."
Down at Kaohsiung Harbor...highly recommend the ferry tour...
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