Planalto Cycles

It was a hot night. I’m afraid I’ll have to give up sleeping without air conditioning because not only was I sweating profusely, but I also had a hard time sleeping. (Update: a fan brought sufficient relief in following nights)

LAN took me to the traditional market, but because of the Mid-Autumn Festival, some of the markets they wanted to visit were closed. We also went to two temples, one for good luck, one for getting good grades in school, or even getting a driver’s license. I find it strange that a god is responsible for something that’s part of the modern world. But I also don’t like it when a god says things that might have been appropriate in ancient times and should be contextualized and adapted. (“As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it, subdue the earth.” – we have multiplied and sub done enough…)

We went to the Giant exhibition, which showcases the evolution of the bicycle, explains the physics behind cycling, and has several interactive sections. One of these was cycling with VR headsets. Neil and I participated in a “race,” and our task was to sprint for 30 seconds. I experienced something I’d experienced before in a lesser form, but this time I panicked slightly: I could easily have cycled longer or faster, or both, but even though I was only pushing myself 80%, I couldn’t get enough air after that sprint and was afraid I wouldn’t recover. Perhaps the VR headset or the unusual intensity after months without training made it worse, but I’ll never do that again unless I practice. At home, I sometimes run up to the 7th floor, which takes about 50 seconds, and of course, I’m out of breath, but it’s different; my breathing calms down, and I manage without anxiety.

I would like to mention the buffalo bike, which was originally designed by World Bicycle Relief, but has been further developed by Giant since 2010.

Afterwards, we explored the campus of Tunghai University, where Amy had studied languages. This campus is also huge! Interestingly, there are cows there, so you can buy their own yogurt, and a Catholic church, the Luce Memorial Chapel (designed by Japanese architects I.M. Pei and Chi-Kuan Chen in memory of Rev. Henry W. Luce, a 19th-century American missionary). Amy explained that freshmen must stay on campus and clean up. If they fail, they have to continue in their second year.

We had dessert (Lien and I had mango shaved ice before heading home, where Neil ordered dumplings and noodles for dinner.

Addendum to d48 – Around Kaohsiung (October 4, 2025):

We had been talking about accidents caused by elderly people (like his parents), and Mark had told me that in Taiwan, people over 70 are encouraged to surrender their driver’s licenses by offering them 3,500 NTD per year for taxi rides. I think this is a good idea, because independence is important to them, and perhaps the financial aspect will help them with this transition into a new phase of life.

K25&beyond d50 – Holiday in Taichung (6.10.25)

It was a hot night. I’m afraid I’ll have to give up sleeping without air conditioning because not only was I sweating profusely, but I also had a hard time sleeping.

LAN took me to the traditional market, but because of the Mid-Autumn Festival, some of the markets they wanted to visit were closed. We also went to two temples, one for good luck, one for getting good grades in school, or even getting a driver’s license. I find it strange that a god is responsible for something that’s part of the modern world. But I also don’t like it when a god says things that might have been appropriate in ancient times and should be contextualized and adapted. (“As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it, subdue the earth.” – we have multiplied and sub done enough…)

We went to the Giant exhibition, which showcases the evolution of the bicycle, explains the physics behind cycling, and has several interactive sections. One of these was cycling with VR headsets. Neil and I participated in a “race,” and our task was to sprint for 30 seconds. I experienced something I’d experienced before in a lesser form, but this time I panicked slightly: I could easily have cycled longer or faster, or both, but even though I was only pushing myself 80%, I couldn’t get enough air after that sprint and was afraid I wouldn’t recover. Perhaps the VR headset or the unusual intensity after months without training made it worse, but I’ll never do that again unless I practice. At home, I sometimes run up to the 7th floor, which takes about 50 seconds, and of course, I’m out of breath, but it’s different; my breathing calms down, and I manage without anxiety.

Afterwards, we explored the campus of Tunghai University, where Amy had studied languages. This campus is also huge! Interestingly, there are cows there, so you can buy their own yogurt, and a Catholic church, the Luce Memorial Chapel (designed by Japanese architects I.M. Pei and Chi-Kuan Chen in memory of Rev. Henry W. Luce, a 19th-century American missionary). Amy explained that freshmen must stay on campus and clean up. If they fail, they have to continue in their second year.

We had dessert (Lien and I had mango shaved ice before heading home, where Neil ordered dumplings and noodles for dinner.

Addendum to d48 – Around Kaohsiung (October 4, 2025):

We had been talking about accidents caused by elderly people (like his parents), and Mark had told me that in Taiwan, people over 70 are encouraged to surrender their driver’s licenses by offering them 3,500 NTD per year for taxi rides. I think this is a good idea, because independence is important to them, and perhaps the financial aspect will help them with this transition into a new phase of life.

At 5:40 a.m., I went to Central Park to take a beautiful photo of a striking tree with the rising sun playing in its branches. Many people were already active, playing tennis, practicing golf swings, jogging, walking, etc. It was already light, but the sunrise was too late, coming from the wrong direction, and taking place behind tall buildings.

Instead – just those buildings. Let’s say that some of them look interesting?

With Mark’s bike and my luggage, I cycled to the train station, which was more convenient than I thought, as it was much shorter and the breeze was pleasant. We met at the station to say goodbye.

Mark has a daughter with Canadian citizenship, and if he travels, it’s there, not back to Vienna. We won’t see each other again…

In Taichung, Lien, Amy, and Neil (=LAN) were waiting for me at the train station. At home, Neil was preparing a barbecue (after Lien had shown me the “historical background” for the connection between Mid-Autumn Festival and BBQ – an advertisement). We shared memories and news, and I was excited that Lien speaks English so fluently (okay, she goes to a bilingual school, but still!). Besides, I already “knew” her pretty well from seeing so much of LAN’s activity on Facebook. But now I can immerse myself in her daily life.

I had breakfast at 7 a.m. before meeting Mark at 8 a.m.

We cycled to Pier 2, which used to be used for loading cargo but is now mainly used for art and events. We were both fascinated by the mechanism of the suspension bridge and decided to come back at 3 p.m., when it was scheduled to open.

In the meantime, we sat in front of a temple and watched two police horses very patiently endure people who came way too close and were way too loud.

Mark showed me the university, we took a ferry to Cijin, a fairly touristy place, and first had dessert (since 2015, I’ve been dreaming about the mango sticky rice I had with Mark and Angel somewhere in the south; this time, at least, it was mango ice cream), then lunch before we headed back to the bridge, stopping off at an exhibition along the way.

We arrived at the bridge very early, as we expected a lot of people to see this event. But after a long wait, we learned that the bridge wouldn’t be rotating today due to an event.

That evening, I went to the night market, even though I wasn’t hungry, but it would most likely be my last time there.

Mark and I met up for a chat in Central Park afterward, but I still didn’t arrive at the hotel too late.

Later in the morning, Li accompanied me to the train station. I had spent a week with them, a quiet and pleasant week full of wonderful moments, so I decided to leave in a good mood. This was easier for me, as we will see each other again, as Li together with Glen will come to Europe another time.

It was a high-speed train to Zuoying, where you have to change to a regular train or the MRT to get to Kaohsiung. This is surprising, as Kaohsiung is one of Taiwan’s three largest cities but isn’t connected to the HSR system. It was difficult for me to find the platform for the regular train, but at least all three people I had to ask were helpful.

Mark came to my hotel to meet me, and together we went to his house, where I met up with his wife and parents again. One of his brothers also came for dinner.

Then we went to his friend’s house, the “Captain.” He got his title partly because he organizes bike tours and other events for a group of friends, but I suspect also because of his determined, no-nonsense attitude. Mark acted as translator so we could communicate. Mark suggested we go back to his house so he could lend me one of his bikes so we could go on a bike tour the next day, and I could also get around on my own.

This time, I was more experienced at finding a route for my morning run.

Later, I took another walk through the city, mainly to explore the train station and access to the platform, but also to find that large supermarket from Saturday to buy cereal. But I failed and went to another one. Then I struggled with the train app to buy the next train ticket. I managed that, but then couldn’t find the ticket in the app. (This is necessary because you then have a QR code that allows you to get through the barrier.)

A message came from Turkmenistan from a potential travel partner in Australia, which didn’t reduce the price to two-thirds, but only by €100, because he wanted to pack more into the tour. But I see it as a win-win situation, because I would get more for less money and, with a bit of luck, also have someone with whom I can share this rather unique experience. For our last evening, Li and Glen had opted for hot pot at Chin Hua Jiao, for me a rather elegant place, and a great dinner with them.

In the morning, I visited the Banqiao Library with the secondary intention of finding a good place to put my two German-language books (“My Grandfather’s Dream,” English title “Dream of Ding Village,” by Yan Lianke) and “Ali and Nino,” a book I stopped reading after about 30 pages because of its bias.

As I waited at a yellow line, the lady at the counter waved in a manner that seemed more like scaring away instead of “scaring towards”. After a while, we were able to clear up this misunderstanding, but the next was waiting: She thought I wanted the books instead of donating them, but then she was happy with taking them after all.

In the German section on the 9th floor (it’s a large library!), there were at least 100 German-language books, but only a few famous ones. Perhaps they arrived by similarly convoluted routes as mine did?

One floor was dedicated to magazines, and among countless magazines, I also found the latest issues of “Der Spiegel” and “Schöner Wohnen.”

My next stop was The Lin Family Mansion and Garden

“The merchant dynasty founded by Lin Ping-Hou made a great fortune trading rice and salt in the mid-19th century. Lin Ping-Hou came to Taiwan from Zhangzhou with his father, Lin Ying-Yin. In 1949, after the Kuomintang lost the Chinese Civil War, war veterans were housed in the garden. It was subsequently occupied by squatters. The gardens were in disarray. It took years of city planning to relocate over 125 families. The garden and its buildings were restored from 1982 to 1986 and opened to the public.” (German and English Wikipedia, mixed)

On the way back, I walked through the traditional market and tried not to buy too much food, as Li&Glen had plenty. However, I couldn’t resist buying ready-to-eat chestnuts, which were much cheaper than in Austria.

Li had suggested going to the cinema, and I watched the French film “Second Tour” in the original language with Chinese subtitles. My French was good enough for, say, 10% of the dialogue, but in the end, I more or less understood the film, although of course, a lot gets lost that way.

Li and Glen met later with me, and we went to the night market. They had brought their own containers for collecting different food before we sat down in a restaurant specialized on oyster-based food where we ate a nice mixture of stinky tofu, a kind of pancake, some veggies, an oyster omelette, etc
At home they watched a show with foreigners challenged with Chinese in different settings.

Li and Glen met up with me later, and we went to the night market. They had brought their own containers to collect various food items before we sat down at a restaurant specializing in oysters, where we ate a delicious mix of stinky tofu, some vegetables, a kind of pancake, an oyster omelette, and so on.

At home, they watched a program with foreigners challenged with Chinese language in various settings.

The fun is over today! The weekend and holiday are over.

Glen has gone to work, and Li is working from home. At least I want to focus on “my work” today, which means mainly updating my blog (currently 20 days behind because of China’s internet. Update on 5th of October – 5 days left to catch up!), my travel plans (currently completed until I arrive back in Urumqi), and once that’s done, there are a lot of videos to go through, edit (or delete), and upload.

But maybe that’s not the real point of being in Taipei?

I realize once again that I’m not really a traveller. My previous experiences have given me a rough idea of what it’s like elsewhere, and it’s not clear to me whether a greater quantity of travel experience would also lead to a higher quality.

Actually, I travelled mainly to see friends again (relatives included!).

But tomorrow I’ll play a little tourist again!

In the morning, I tried to go for a run again. I wanted to reach the artificial wetlands of Fuzhou, but it took three attempts, twice I was stopped by dead ends, and the third time I used the bike path to get anywhere.

So, if I were to take this opportunity to point out potential improvements in Taipei, they would be reducing the number of noisy motorcycles in favor of electric motorcycles and (E-)bikes, making it more pedestrian-friendly where necessary, and better waste separation. By the way, I always wonder how difficult it is to find a trash can and how clean the city still is.

It was another day off, one I hadn’t found in the holiday list. This is because a holiday that would normally fall on a Sunday is moved to Monday. However, the contrast between holidays and weekdays is smaller than in Austria, as many shops are open, traffic is still heavy, and even Glenn went to the office to do some work he couldn’t finish on Friday because of the basketball tournament.

For dinner, I invited Li and Glen to the Czech restaurant Divadlo. The Czech Republic had been standing continuously to Taiwan when other countries switched sides and succumbed to Chinese pressure. The food was Czech-“inspired” but seemed to be adapted to (assumed or actual) Taiwanese tastes. (In Yunnan, we Austrians lamented daily that the Chinese food in Austria only remotely resembled what we enjoyed during our Yunnan days.)

At home, we watched a video of a Taiwanese band competition. You could hear the bands playing but also interviews and some pithy commentary. The subtitles were sometimes too fast to read for me and distracted from watching, but overall, I got an idea. All over the world, it’s becoming more difficult for bands to assert themselves in the market. The technical level is high; creating an image that isn’t just a copycat; being cool, funny, and unusual; creating your own musical style and writing unique songs in this long musical history is a challenge. And then these people are still young—how are they supposed to know if something already happened 20, 40, or 60 years ago?

Together with Bernie, we enjoyed a delicious brunch before heading to “tipf,” the Taiwan International Photography Festival. The entry was the “democratic camera,” made exclusively from parts produced in democratic countries. In this respect, it’s a further development of the Fairphone concept, which is manufactured in China, but with a focus on fair wages and the avoidance of child labor along the process from mining to assembling.
The resulting photo is initially sharp and then blurred, symbolizing the obvious and hidden aspects of democratic practice.

Afterwards, we ate running sushi …

…and met Li’s parents and Quincy & Tanya (brother and wife) at a men’s suit shop for their wedding in November. Afterward, we had dinner at the brother and sister’s apartment, where I had been a guest in 2015 and 2019. I now use “sister,” as Li does, when she refers to Tanya, which is merely a simplification of the Chinese vocabulary, where you can even differentiate between the wife of the older and the wife of the younger brother. Marriage preparation was a big topic, but didn’t seem stressful.

Li had lots of ideas for the weekend, and the three of us started with brunch at Tamed Fox. We saw not only a good portion of foreigners there, but Li also pointed out the number of children (plus a heavily pregnant woman) and said that Taiwan, along with South Korea, has the lowest birth rate.
Having children is a complicated matter, and the easiest solution is it just happens and to get along with it. But when you ponder all the questions: “When? How parenting? And why at all?”, it’s hard to come up with a solution. And for women in particular, the time for this decision is now being shortened by both sides: Although everyone is getting older, living healthier lives, and staying young much longer, for them the biological clock keeps ticking. And on the other hand, the years before 30 or 35 are flying by, and fewer and fewer people are willing to give up their gradually acquired independence and unstructured lives again soon in favour of the lively madness and uncertainty of parenthood.

For me, this is nothing new, just progress. But anyone who knows me: I only have to drop the term climate change (…disaster, catastrophe, whatever). No fun is awaiting new generations, and every additional person not only suffers with the others, but contributes to the suffering.

This creates entirely new and far more serious decision-making bases. Or, to put it even more clearly: you can no longer make a sensible decision, because it IS already decided. “We,” the upper half of the world’s population, have decided once and for all.

At lunchtime, friends came to visit. Bernie had studied at the same forest university as Li and even works in the same field. He came with Josh, who is from Seattle and learned Chinese there. Now, in Taipei, he’s an English teacher, and I’m not the only one impressed by his Chinese. And Yu Chen, who also studied with Li and Bernie, is now a geography teacher.

Time flew by, and at 5:00, Glen played another round of basketball tournaments. The other three went home, and Li and I met two other good friends of hers, Ice and Yi Lun, and went to a concert of “Jade”. (“Formed in 2018, Taiwanese duo JADE is known for its polished indie rock tracks with big choruses, catchy hooks, and great production.“) For me, the first thing to mention was the audience. Of course, every genre of music brings its own audience, and so also in Taiwan you will find metalheads, mosh pits, and roaring, but here still it was such a quiet, measured crowd, and not a single moment did anyone touch me; everyone kept their distance.

The music was an interesting mix for me, and the visual elements were more than I’d ever seen before. They may not always have been closely aligned with the music, but they were still art in their own right.

Everything is well organized and tidy; you know where you’re allowed to stand, where you’re not allowed to eat, etc. And in the subway station, you can finally get rid of the trash that you can carry around for hours in Taipei without finding a trash can.
But: Even so, there’s less trash on the streets than in most places I know (perhaps Switzerland can keep up?)