Taiwan Blog 1

Day 4 in Taiwan started with a bus ride outside Taipei to Pinglin Cultural Landscape. The green mountains interspersed with small tea farms created a stunning view. Seeing the mountains in Asia almost feels like looking at those landscape paintings come to life. I had the same impression outside Beijing visiting the Great Wall and it really makes me wonder what makes the mountains here have such a distinct shape compared to the Americas or Europe. I would love to know the geological reason.  After our short hike we traveled into this small but quaint old town and had some delicious tea and tea-flavored food. After we walked around the town we went to the tea museum. Beyond learning a bit more about the processes of making tea and its place in traditional Chinese culture, the most interesting impression I had was about the use of AI in the exhibition design. While it was immediately apparent that they had used AI to make the mouths of historical paintings come to life in a silly if ...

Arriving in the afternoon sleepy from my morning flight from Shanghai, and stepping off the train in Taipei Main Station my first impression was the palpable "vibe". At first, coming from Shanghai, the Japanese influence was unmistakable to me. Beyond the Japanese restaurants, import stores and gachapons there is a sense in the arrangement of the building that I can only attribute as coming from a Japanese influence. Honestly, I figured Taipei would seem like a bustling metropolis, but instead to me it almost feels cozy, especially visiting the old street DaDaoCheng. The rhythm of the signs, windows and ledges on buildings on the street create a feeling of entering consecutive rooms in a large but lively house. With the near constant rain it only increases the coziness. The two or three story houses with covered walkways past small businesses reminds me of the old Peranakan style houses in Singapore, complete with the “copy-baroque” embellishments. Moving to the cutting ed...