And then there’s this guy:

You can’t really see him in the photo, but tucked away in that blue truck is a guy sleeping.

Spotted in Jhunan Township down in Miaoli County, typically this blue truck owner rocks up around 11am, sets up his little toys on the side of the road and then has a nap in a hammock set up inside his truck.

I don’t know how profitable this venture is but it seems popular enough that halfway across Taiwan, up in the mountains of Taipei County’s Linkou Township, I spotted the exact same thing:

Since then I’ve come across the ‘guy sleeping in a blue truck selling random stuff’ phenomena multiple times all across Taiwan. I’ve seen shoes, power tools, handbags, $2 shop variety items, seats, picture frames, suits, fruit and vegetables and hell even porn all sold in this way.

Most commonly though, these sleeping blue truck owners seem to prefer to sell childrens toys (and I don’t mean for that to sound as creepy as it does).

Like I said before, no idea how much money is in it but it seems a hell of a better way to spend your day then slaving away in an office or any number of “regular” jobs I can think of.

Here’s to Taiwan’s lazy roadside shop owners!

A question that, if I’d bothered to ask myself, would have time and time again saved me that humiliating walk through the wash area to the waiting toilet paper dispenser outside.

Being a guy I don’t like to carry bags so everything I take out with me has to fit in my pockets. With limited real estate on offer this usually equates to keys, coins, a wallet and phone.

Whereas my girlfriend is a walking 7-11 (her coin purse alone is thicker than most books I read), I’m equipped with just the barest of necessities. For anything more than paying for stuff and showing my ID at various places, I’m the wrong guy to call.

Now whether it’s a cost cutting measure, laziness or just a stop-gap attempt to curtail some multibillion dollar illegal toilet paper trade I don’t know about, for some freaking god awful reason Taiwan is full of toilets that require you to BYO paper.

As a newcomer to the island and nonethewiser to the Chinese sprawled all over them, I initially thought the little vending machines outside were condom dispensers.

A few ‘WHY THE HELL IS THERE NO TOILET PAPER IN HERE??!’ experiences later however, and I soon came to realise these machines served a much more vital purpose.

And just to confuse you even more, for those inquisitive enough to actually go over and inspect these vending machines before you sit down, they’re universally labelled as ’tissue paper’ dispensers.

Thus ‘idiots, why do I need tissue paper to go to the toilet??’ shortly thereafter turns into ‘WHY OH WHY DIDN’T I BUY THE FREAKING TISSUE PAPER!‘

Oh and you can forget about any ‘psst, can I borrow a few sheets’ action from underneath the stall walls. With all the farting, grunting, spitting, nasal snorting and what not that goes on in a Taiwanese public toilet, weighing the benefits of asking anyone for anything vs. communication issues becomes an exercise in analytic frustration in itself.

Cleaning wise there’s somebody cleaning the toilet so why they don’t just put toilet paper in there I have no idea. Is the $10 TWD or so for a pack really that much of an income generator for whoever is running the public toilet paper racket in Taiwan?

What’s next, a BYO bottle of water scheme to wash ‘er down after you’re done?

Thankfully I haven’t had an ‘oh crap’ moment in months but I know I’m due for one any day now. Luckily if the girlfriend is there I can usually rush outside and make the ‘omgtoiletpapertoiletpapertoiletpaper!’ face she’s now all too familiar with… but if I’m on my own it’s a walk of shame to the vending machine and then back into the toilets.

Unmistakably hilarious no doubt for anyone that’s watching.

Personally I think the lowest I’ve sunk thusfar was walking out of a 7-11 toilet to an eating area that was full of gawking people, having to go and buy some toilet paper and then trudge back into the stall.

…god help me the day I find myself without a few $10 coins in my wallet. And don’t get me started on those utterly useless toilets set up around Taipei’s riverside bike paths that don’t even have a toilet paper dispenser!

The fuck are you supposed to wipe yourself with?! Blades of freaking grass!?!

People crap on about air quality, intrapersonal differences, the general cost of living and what not when it comes to life in Taiwan but for me? Honestly? 

Call me simple but it’s the little things like not having to worry about toilet paper everywhere you go that ultimately make all the difference.

I read an interesting article last week on the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) calling on the Taipei government to be mindful of the preservation of historically significant buildings when considering urban renewal projects.

Their calls came after the building that houses their headquarters, known as the Wen Meng Building (文萌樓), was recently sold with ‘a number of construction firms have expressed an interest in launching an urban renewal project in the area‘.

With several recent examples in Taiwan or urban renewal projects literally demolishing the history of an area, COSWAS are calling on the government to preserve not only the Wen Meng Building but also the surrounding area.

Located in Taipei City’s Datong District, the Wen Meng Building

was used as a brothel from the Japanese colonial period until all licensed brothels were abolished by the city government in 2001, and now houses the collective’s headquarters.

“The area was designated a red light district for Taiwanese in the early 1900s by the Japanese colonial government and according to official figures in 1917, there were 420 registered prostitutes in the area,” COSWAS secretary-general Wang Fang-ping (王芳萍) said.

“There are many very interesting stories connected to this area.”

Curious as to what this little area actually looked like, I saddled up the Long Haul Trucker and headed down to the Wen Meng Building to take a look.

The Wen Meng Building itself is nothing and special and Japanese architecture aside doesn’t really stand out:

Inside sat a lone elderly old woman and although I suppose I could have asked if I was able to have a peek inside and snap some photos, something about this being a brothel for roughly 100 years kinda turned me off the idea.

All I could think about was the amount of orgasm faces the insides of this building must have seen so I passed.

Looking at the greater neighbourhood the Wen Meng Building belonged to, taking in the visuals could be summed up with the contrast of some really old Japanese inspired architecture:

with the abundant toll time had taken on the area:

Whilst most buildings in the colonial period strip the Wen Meng Building was a part of stood weathered beaten, evidently some residents had already taken to renovating their property:

Between stonewall white and the character of the older buildings it’s not an easy choice to appreciate visual practicality over structural soundness. I suppose if you’re going to fix up your place though why go with white? In Taipei’s muggy humidity it’s only a few years before that building is going to be an off-white cream color streaked with grime and layered with blotches of green mold.

Meanwhile just across tiny Guisui street, the urban renewal projects COSWAS was worried would cleanse all memory of the history of the area were well underway:

Walking around the greater block that the Wen Meng Building was a part of, I soon came to understand why COSWAS were urging the government to preserve the historical architecture here.

Everywhere you looked, new architecture clashed with old:

Around the back of Guisui Street were little lanes that truly encompassed the phrase ‘lost in time’:

This particular wooden house caught my attention:

Wood isn’t something you usually see used as building material here in Taiwan so I could only wonder at how old the wooden extension was.

Next to the wooden house was an equally beat up yet charismatic dump:

Giving you an idea of just how old some of these buildings are, there were quite a few of these doors about:

They don’t look anything special but with me standing at 6ft1 or so, these doors barely reached my shoulder level. I’d have to completely hunch over to step through.

Evidently tall people didn’t exist back then.

Perhaps most ironic of all was that just opposite all these old buildings was a gigantic Carrefour complex.

Now I’m obviously not against shopping (people have to buy shit to eat after all) but I couldn’t help but wonder how much historical and cultural history had been demolished to make way for the multi-story merchandising monolith of concrete.

If you’re willing to spend the money though, there were several examples in the surrounding area that showed colonial architecture was able to be preserved without completely destroying the original look of buildings.

Two of the most prominent examples was the government building that houses the ‘Council of Labor Affairs’ branch of the Executive Yuan:

and the Datong District police station:

Notably both are government buildings but show what can be done if you’re willing to spend enough money to properly preserve historically significant buildings and their architecture.

All in all I don’t really envy the Taipei government when it comes to deciding what does and doesn’t have cause to be culturally preserved due to historical significance.

Luckily for COSWAS the Wen Meng Building has already been classified as a ‘designated historical building’ meaning that it can’t be demolished, but most of the surrounding area has not.

I imagine if these urban renewal projects are pushed through it’s entirely within the realm of possibility that they could find themselves surrounding by gaudy highrises.

On the other side of the coin though there’s no doubt that the line between eyesore and appreciation of historic architecture is incredibly thin.

It’s no good preserving buildings under cultural and historical significance if they’re on the verge of collapsing and putting the public at risk either.

Not withstanding the fact that the government has urban developers all too willingly ready to throw bundles of cash down to get the approval they need to start demolishing. The fact that most of these buildings are either single or double story and taking up prime real estate in the heart of a city in one of the most densely populated cities on Earth doesn’t escape me either.

As Taipei’s (and to a larger extent Taiwan’s) landscape shifts and remoulds itself I wouldn’t mind travelling back to the Wen Meng Building block in perhaps a decade and seeing how things have evolved. Hopefully a relatively balanced position between historical preservation and development is forged.

Wishful thinking perhaps, but one can always dream.

Late last year 7-11 kicked up a furore in Taiwan when they teamed up with Taiwanese author Mark Lee to sell merchandise featuring a character based on Hitler.

Naturally the Israel embassy weren’t too impressed and after first claiming Hitler’s moustache was a tooth and then claiming that there was no resemblance of Lee’s character to Hitler… they pulled the products from sale.

Interestingly enough, Lee then went on to apologise after ‘carefully reviewing the history of Israel’.

Despite having read up on his history, less than a year later Hitler is once again being used to flog tech gear.

On the surface, the May 2012 edition of ‘BIZ Interactive Business Magazine’ looks like any other regular magazine…

Flip it open though and right there on page one is a giant full-sized ad from Ergotech featuring Hitler flogging some tablet PC promotion they have going:

Not as prominent as Hitler themed merchandise being sold in 7-11 stores… but still remarkably unmistakable.

Now whereas Ergotech’s blunder could be chalked up to be a local Taiwanese company who could pull the ‘we didn’t know any better’ excuse and go educate themselves on the most significant event of last century, BIZ Interactive Business Magazine however should know better.

Biz Interactive Business Magazine is published by LiveABC, who claim they are ‘an innovator in designing language-learning tools‘ with their publications ‘enhancing Taiwan’s international reputation as a centre of culture and learning’.

Just to put things entirely into context here, BIZ Interactive Business Magazine is an English learning magazine aimed at businesspeople looking to brush up on their English skills in a business environment.

How on Earth a full-sized ad featuring a Hitler lookalike cartoon character on page 1 got past the editors is then not only a complete mystery but painfully inexcusable. Especially when you’re also running around claiming Taiwan is an epicenter of cultural learning.

Interestingly enough, LiveABC cite the USA as one of their target markets. I understand that BIZ Interactive Magazine isn’t really aimed at English-speaking readers but I’m still kind of curious as to whether or not the magazine is on sale there. Forget about Taiwan’s tiny market, being caught out with Hitler ads in the US is a gigantic PR disaster just waiting to happen…

As for Ergotech, thankfully they don’t have Hitler plastered all over their website but I did find this Youtube video embedded on one of their product pages:

I don’t know how big Ergotech is here in Taiwan (the above video has been viewed over 2000 times without raising an eyebrow) but they seem to have no problems using Hitler to market their goods. Hell, they even seem entirely enthusiastic about it.

Meanwhile despite Mark Lee claiming he’s brushed up on his world history, apparently he still doesn’t get why using the image of Hitler to pimp goods is a bad idea.

One can only hope that a Taiwanese businessman doesn’t one day stick his foot into it abroad by referring to Hitler as that ‘cute funny guy’ should the opportunity present itself.

Then again, one would hope members of the Taiwanese business community would be educated enough to know beforehand who Hitler was in the first place and why it’s not really appropriate to use his likeness to market things.

I’ve contacted the Israel embassy in Taiwan for comment and will update here if I hear anything back. They weren’t too happy with 7-11 last year so it’ll be interesting to see when faced with the promotion of the same character whether or not they’re amused.


Update 4th May 2012 – I received a reply today from the Israeli Embassy:

Dear Oz,

Thank you very much for informing us!

Frankly, we feel it’s very regretful that this kind of incident occurred again.

We approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding this case, and they contacted both Mr. Lee and Ergotech.

Both responded immediately and positively: Mr. Lee apologized for the contract of this case was signed before the 7-11 incident, when he wasn’t aware of the sensitivity.

He apologized that he couldn’t take action about it in this case. However he is modifying the character’s appearance for future use, and intends to show us his final version before he sent it out in the market.

We will also meet him personally to broaden his understanding and knowledge about the horrors of the Holocaust.

Ergotech representative, a manager, said they would pull down the advertisements on website, but unfortunately, they couldn’t get back the ones that were already printed and in the market.

They assured the MoFA official that they will not commit such a blunder in the future.

We’re still waiting to hear from the magazine – especially since you mention they were advised against running the ad. We’ll let you know.

We really appreciate your approaching us, making it possible to remove those terrible ads & products from the market. Thank you!

Best Regards,

Anna Shen
Media & Public Affairs Officer

Glad to see Mark Lee apologised and more importantly is going to modify the Hitler character. Hitler is pretty recognisable so I don’t see why, if he wants to market with the character, he can’t use a less than carbon copy of Hitler (keep the jacket (maybe minus the armband) but change the head etc.).

Although I suppose the identity might then be lost on the general Taiwanese the comic is aimed at but maybe not if they’re already familiar with it.

Ergotech are pulling the ads so good on them and it’s a bit disappointing to see LiveABC haven’t replied yet, considering they approved the ad for publication and claiming to propagate an image of ‘cultural learning’ for Taiwan.

Personally I’ve never really understood the concept of watching porn in a group. To me, it just doesn’t make sense.

You sit down, watch for a few minutes, do your thing and then get on with your day right?

Watching porn in a group on the otherhand, what’s the point? I mean it’s not like you’re going to laugh at the jokes together or sit down and discuss the intricate plot afterwards…

Oh and then there’s the fact that you’d pretty much be looking at a 100% male turnout so… unless you’re gay, uncomfortable much?

Well, not according to the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation.

Publishing a call to arms last Wednesday, the group is requesting members of the public to sit down as a group and watch some porn together.

The foundation is seeking

20 volunteers who are at least 18 years of age, have five years of experience watching adult videos and are familiar with Aoi Sora, a Japanese adult video actress who has branched out into non-porn movies and TV shows.

With Japanese adult videos enjoying religion-like status in Taiwan, no doubt there’s no shortage of Taiwanese people who fit their criteria… but how many of them are going to be willing to sign up?

Shortly after the announcement was posted, more than 100 people — half of whom were women — sent in applications.

I’m all for women’s rights and rescuing them but seriously?

Surely the only thing worse than watching porn with a bunch of guys is watching porn with a bunch of feminist nazis. I mean seriously, imagine everytime you sit down to rub one out images of accusing raging feminists enter your fantasies.

‘Yeah… feel good watching this? YOU’RE THE REASON MY HUSBAND BEATS ME!’

‘Enjoying the show…? you better be – I HATE MY LIFE!‘

Jesus Christ, although I don’t speak Chinese I’d love to be a fly on the wall for some of those post-viewing verbally beating the hell out of any guys that dare to show up ”discussion” sessions.

Amusingly demonstrating a complete lack of their supposedly target demographic however, the Women’s Rescue Foundation stress that they’re only interested in people who

watch adult videos for entertainment and tend to have a negative view of the industry and see it as mistreating women.

They are not seeking reporters, people ethically at odds with the event, or perverts — but that women’s group haters are especially welcome.

Uh what? They want people who watch porn for entertainment and have a negative view of the industry?

And no perverts…? Phew – that’s a relief.

Overall I can’t help but feel the specified criteria is a little demanding. You can’t be a pervert but you have to enjoy watching porn… but at the same time also have a negative view of the industry – and hating women’s groups is a bonus, despite being required to think that porn degrades women.

Yeah, good luck with that one guys.

Foundation executive chief Kang Shu-hua (康淑華) said that the general public’s perception of women self-help groups is that they “live in their own little world”.

…really? I wonder why that is?

Traffic management, patrols, responding to disturbances, witnessing the signing of documents, escorting high-profile persons and the list goes on and on. Here in Taiwan, aside from the usual tasks performed by the police around the world, they are also available to be used as a deposit box with 24 hour availability.

And apparently they’ll accept anything… even dildos.

So the story goes, a middle-aged Changhua couple who lived together broke up. Following the breakup the boyfriend decided he wanted the dildo he’d given his girlfriend as a gift back.

Seriously… the hell are you going to do with the used dildo of your now ex? I mean it’s not like you can recycle it with a new woman… well… ok maybe you can but seriously, eww much?

Anyway not wanting to meet up and exchange the dildo in question, the fifty-three year old girlfriend put the dildo in a box, wrote down her ex’s contact details and left the box at a local police station.

Upon doing so, she requested the police contact her ex-boyfriend and ask that he come and collect his dildo.

Upon hearing this the police recoiled in horror and told her to take her disgusting stinky dildo home politely accepted the box, knowing full well what was inside and set about contacting the husband.

Later that afternoon the ex-boyfriend fronted the police station and asked to collect his box. After playing with him for a while, the police eventually got him to specifically state that he was there to collect his dildo.

Turns out one police officer at the station was into drawing comics (yeah, go figure), and subsequently did a short strip of the whole story. She published this on Facebook but despite the strip receiving a fair bit of attention and positive comments… had to take it down shortly after it was published.

You can chase members of the public down and shove cameras in their faces… but don’t you dare draw a comic strip highlighting the absurdity of getting the local police to hold your dildo for you.

That sir is too much.

Meanwhile in other ‘wtf Taiwan?’ news, a guy in Pingtung county (ok so southern Taiwanese clearly have way too much time on their hands) had been chatting up some married bird on Facebook.

Playing the not-so-stereotypical-in-Taiwan ‘attention whore meets the desperate virgin online’ roles perfectly, their conversations went something like this:

“I want to get McDonalds! Which nice man will take me there?”

“I am about to arrive at your house!”

Now either McDonalds is sex… or these guys were complete looney tunes. In any case, eventually hubby found out and went ballistic.

That may or may not have something to do with the fact that Mr. McDonalds chauffeur referred to the married woman as his wife online.

Using his wife’s phone, crazy husband then organises a meeting with McDonalds chauffeur.

…at a bar.

…at 2 in the morning.

Probably figuring that he was finally going to get some bow-chika-wow-wow (McDonalds chauffeur and internet attention whore had never met before), McDonalds chauffeur rocks up to the bar where he’s confronted with an epically pissed off husband and two friends.

Armed with metal crowbars, the trio proceed to have a civilised conversation on the dangers of running around the internets flirting with married women and calling them your wife.

Investigators said that Chuang did not survive due to head trauma and he died of a serious intracranial hemorrhage.

Finally a 27 year old Japanese woman who ‘chewed gum all the time‘ found out the ‘cartilage in (her) skull‘ had shifted meaning she couldn’t open her mouth beyond ‘about two finger widths’.

Her response?

‘HOW AM I GOING TO GIVE MY BOYFRIEND HIS FREAKING BLOWJOBS?!’

Perhaps if said woman wasn’t stuffing copious amounts of sausage down her throat, she wouldn’t need to chew gum all the time.

And that my friends wraps up just another day in “traditionally conservative” Taiwan. More news at 6.


Footnote: Two of these news stories use a Chinese language news source that has not been published in English and as such I’ve done my best to translate. I’m not a fluent in Mandarin so my translations might be slightly off.

Any corrections are welcome and can be published below as a comment.

When I think working holiday, apart from money there has to be opportunity and some degree of functionality.

Picking mushrooms and working the orchards might not be the most tantalizing work… but at least it pays well. And if you don’t like the outdoors there’s always the hospitality industry, tourism and if your English and resume are up to scratch you could even aim to climb a bit higher on the employment ladder during your holiday.

At least that’s the situation in Australia. Here in Taiwan it’s an entirely different matter.

It’s no secret that amongst young people in Taiwan there’s a strong attraction to go overseas and experience life in another country under the working visa program.

Just the other day my girlfriend was telling me about some Taiwanese guy who worked in a hotel back in Australia for a year or so and along with some travel, still managed to save up around a million Taiwan dollars before heading home ($33,800 USD).

When you consider that sum in AUD ($32,000), it’s around the low-end of annual wages in Australia but still enough to get by on. Compared to Taiwan where the national around $35,000 to $40,000 TWD a month ($14,232 – $16,260 USD a year), for a year or so work with travel, this guy is obviously miles in front.

The tragedy? Those earning $40,000 worked killer hours, countless hours of unpaid overtime, are seen as entirely expendable by the company they work for and most likely have the same job security as someone slinging burgers at McDonalds.

And keep in mind, these are the locals. Outside of teaching English and working in IT or Engineering (yawn), there’s not all that much for non-Chinese speakers to do in Taiwan work wise. Let alone on a working visa.

Yet despite the obviousness of this problem, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) attempts at a solution seem somewhat lacking and feeble.

With the exception of Australia, who does not cap the number of Taiwanese working holiday applicants it accepts, all the other countries Taiwan has an agreement with do.

With the wages paid even in the crappiest of jobs overseas equalling or being more than 8-12 hour a day office jobs in Taiwan, demand for these quota positions is ridiculously high.

In wanting to increase these quotas, this is where MoFA have a problem. Working holiday agreements are mutual and any young people Taiwan sends its own working holiday applicants to can also apply for a working holiday in Taiwan.

As it stands, the number of overseas applicants for working holidays in Taiwan is abysmal.

Taiwan issued 43 working holiday visas to New Zealanders from June 2004 to January and to 517 Japanese from June 2009 and January.

Taiwan has issued working holiday visas to 38 Canadians since July 2010, to 27 Germans since October 2010, to 175 South Koreans since January last year and to 128 Australians since the deal with Australia was reached in November 2004.

More than 10,000 Taiwanese youngsters now travel overseas every year on working holidays, compared with less than 1,000 young people from abroad who have come to Taiwan over the past eight years.

To further illustrate just how bad the discrepancy is between the attraction of having a working holiday in Taiwan is vs. elsewhere, back in January Taiwan reached an agreement with the UK to start issuing working holiday visas.

And to date, not one visa from the UK has been issued.

MoFA blame the lack of attraction of holiday workers on

the country’s relatively low pay rates and the lack of orchards or farms like those in Australia that need temporary workers during the harvest season.

Taiwan’s restaurants and shopping malls are also not used to hiring short-term foreign workers, limiting employment opportunities suitable for the program.

I dunno what MoFA are on about but farms and orchards do exist in Taiwan, but they are already populated with workers from South East Asia. These workers quite happily work for peanuts because peanuts here in Taiwan is relatively more than what they could make back home doing to the same job.

Nobody from a developed country is going to work for the wages someone from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philipines etc. would happily work for.

Language is also a massive barrier here, which is primarily why if you’re not interested in teaching English, you’re best looking elsewhere to work. Take for example McDonalds.

All you need to work in McDonalds in Australia is a basic level of English. And for that you get a decent enough wage.

Here in Taiwan McDonalds pays just over $100 TWD ($3 AUD) an hour and Chinese speaking is mandatory as 99.9% of your orders will be in Chinese.

7-11 also pay roughly the same amount so they’re out too. And those farms we were talking about? Even lower (a bi-product of food being so cheap in Taiwan).

Who in their right mind is going to work in these places on a working visa, even if they could?

Completely failing to address these core issues, MoFa meanwhile suggest that

youth hostels and restaurants in tourist areas hire foreign youths on working holidays, saying “it would be mutually beneficial.”

Seriously? I’ve been in Taiwan a few years now, have a basic level of Chinese understanding (extremely basic, but still leaps and bounds above anyone on a working visa who’s never spoken a word of Chinese in their life), and would balk at the prospect of working in a youth hostel of restaurant in Taiwan.

And forget about crappy wages or potentially long hours… it’d be solely because I know that functionally it just can’t be done unless you’re fluent in Chinese.

There’s nowhere near enough English-speaking visitors to justify fulltime non-Chinese speaking staff at businesses in even the busiest of Taiwan’s tourist destinations.

So how are these same businesses going to justify hiring non-Chinese speaking working holiday applicants?

Personally I think MoFA unintentionally hit the nail on the head first time around when they cited Taiwan’s ‘relatively low pay rates‘ as a negative in attracting working holiday applicants.

And I’m not even talking about working holiday pay rates, I’m talking about Taiwan in general. With the cost of living slowly but steadily rising, Taiwan’s salaries are meanwhile still stuck in the 70s.

If you’ve got little to offer people in the way of employment opportunities, conditions or variety, the bottom line is you’re simply not going to attract working holiday applicants in any great number.

Stop worrying about increasing the quotas of working holiday applicants other countries are willing to accept from Taiwan, and instead focus on why so many Taiwanese young people feel the need to leave Taiwan to work elsewhere for a few years.

Taiwan will be all the better for it and so will the local workforce.

A few months ago I was hiking around the base of Mt Shamao when I happened across the visually appalling scene of what was literally a mountainside of rubbish overflowing onto the hiking path.

Curious as to the source, I followed a sidepath up to the top of the mountainside rubbish dump only to find that the source appeared to be a residential house.

Beckoning disbelief, despite being surrounded by natural beauty the locals of the area were literally using the mountainside of Mt Shamao as their own personal rubbish bin.

Snapping a few photos at the time, I eventually got around to writing about this experience last week. In response to the article a few readers suggest I report the site to the EPA but upon investigating this matter I realised that I didn’t have enough exact information to make a report.

Yesterday me and the girlfriend saddled up the bicycles and made the trek back out to Mt Shamao to gather more evidence to give to the EPA when we make a formal complaint.

Here’s what we found.

From the entrance of the Tian Mu Waterpipe Trail, you want to take a hard left and head up Mt. Shamao Rd. A few kms into the road you’ll pass a temple on your left, and then the road does a bit of a loop towards the right, before banking hard left. On this stretch of road you’ll then pass this set of stairs on your right:

This is the trail we were hiking along at the time as an alternative descent to backtracking the Waterpipe Trail, which is a one way trek.

A few hundred meters up these stairs and you’ll then start to see the environmental destruction going on:

Setting out to capture a bit more information this time around, we’ve worked out that the house in question is number 38.

If you travel a ways up Mt Shamao Rd past the staircase you can see the road access to the house with number 38 being behind a corner (indicated in red).

There were some unleashed dogs (one had a muzzle on) who started barking as I approached the front lane so I didn’t go any further (had Leela with me).

The staircase lower down on Mt Shamao road however takes you around the back of the house and provides a closeup view of the carnage these guys are inflicting on the mountain:

I took some video footage this time around too:


There are no other houses around the garbage dump and given its proximity to house number 38 and the fact that it’s all household garbage (nobody is climbing the hiking trail steps to randomly dump shit there), I think it’s pretty clear they are the culprits.

We’ll be passing on all this info to the citizen’s report line (1999) early next week and I’ll keep this article updated if anything comes of it.

Ultimately I don’t really care if these clowns are punished or not with fines, I just want the mountain cleaned up and for them to stop polluting the shit out of it.

Alarmingly surrounding the site you have various crops being grown (all <100m from the garbage dump) and being a mountain (with water running through the site) it’s inevitable that the soil is going to be polluted and the water feeding the crops is tainted by the garbage.

Who is eating these crops I have no idea but if it’s the general public then that’s simply not good enough. Would you want to sit down to a cafe in Tian Mu knowing the veggies might come from this area?

Usually my girlfriend sends me stories like this (in Chinese) as she knows I’ve got a particular fascination with them. When I asked her about this one slipped through the cracks she said she knew about it, but because I hadn’t replied to some comment she’d made on MSN earlier in the day (can’t remember what now), that she’d decided to ignore me the rest of the day unless I wrote something first.

This was supposed to punish and teach me a lesson, you see.

Thankfully this about the extent of Taiwanese Princess syndrome I have to deal with these days and to be honest… it’s somewhat of a relief. Ultimately no harm, no foul.

Some other guys? Not so lucky. These guys have to deal with their Taiwanese girlfriends committing suicide…

…on their birthday…

…on Facebook.

So the story goes thirty-one year old Claire Lin (photo right) arrived home in Taipei on the 18th March, the night of her birthday.

Out celebrating with her boyfriend, she had returned home alone… with her boyfriend refusing to come home. He wanted to stay out.

Lin suspected her boyfriend (aged 36 and surnamed Wang) was cheating on her, something she’d suspected for a while, despite the couple being together for roughly three years. As such, when she arrived home she decided to end the relationship – in ultimate Taiwanese Princess style.

Grabbing a disposable charcoal barbecue, the kind usually used to celebrate Moon Festival or Chinese New Year with family, Lin loaded it up with charcoal and then set it on fire.

She then logged onto Facebook and began to chat with some of her friends online. Even going so far as to attention-whore it up by taking photos of the barbecue and uploading them.

The presence of cutesy pink and blue teddy bears in a thirty-one year old’s bedroom pretty much confirm that this wasn’t some random act of depression, but rather the calculated act of a Princess out for the ultimate revenge.

As the charcoal burned and slowly filled Lin’s bedroom with fumes, she continued to chat on Facebook,

I really thought Wang will settle down for me after all I paid for him all my for him to endure can not endure. Bai Bai! love me with the people I love, I had enough of this world!

Her final message stated that the fumes were hurting her eyes, and she urged people not to send her anymore messages.

At 7am the next day, Chang returned home to find Lin dead.

When police questioned him, Chang initially told them that the couple were emotionally stable and hadn’t quarreled. Analysis of Wang’s mobile phone however told a much different story, revealing several SMSs sent by Lin before she died:

You hold the woman to sleep, but I insomnia, this is the attitude of your feelings?

Do you not come back yet? You are out with your ex-girlfriend (aren’t) you? I see your mother talk to her very happy.

Today is my birthday, can not you go home early? my existence is redundant for you?

Of course the rational thing to do would have been to break it off and get on with your life… but I digress, that is simply not the way of the ever attention-seeking Taiwanese Princess.

From the sounds of it, Lin was your typical over-the-top dramatic Princess and Chang was just another ‘I’ll sleep with whoever I want, even on your birthday’ deadshit boyfriend.

In short, the pair (who had previously announced their marriage plans on Facebook) totally deserved eachother.

I know it’s easy to see Lin as the victim here but analysing the way in which she committed suicide, I’m pretty sure there’d be a lot of weight to the assumption that she was prone to the usual Princess craziness that goes on.

Doesn’t of course excuse Chang banging his ex, but well… if you’re not happy in a relationship you get out of it. You don’t sit at home broadcasting a live suicide show with your Facebook buddies.

The Facebook friends of Lin’s have copped a bit of flak for not alerting the authorities, but honestly can you blame them? This sort of attention-whoring behaviour is so common here that it’s nearly impossible to sort the posers from the real deal.

That and I don’t imagine the police would be taking you all too seriously if you called up to report a possible suicide happening at an undisclosed loaction on Facebook (although after this particular case they might).

I think perhaps the most telling of this case is that fact that we’re not talking silly teenagers, but rather thirty year olds. My girlfriend mentioned that in Taiwanese culture these people are referred to as ‘strawberries’ because they can’t handle any stress and go rotten easily (apparently committing suicide makes you “rotten”?).

Honestly, with half the country still opting to live at home until they’re 50, shunning personal responsibility and running off to their parents to fix any problem they come across, sadly I imagine we’re only going to see an increase in cases like this in the future.


Source: Apple Daily (English)


Footnote: This news story uses a Chinese language news source that has not been published in English and as such I’ve done my best to translate. I’m not a fluent in Mandarin so my translations might be slightly off.

Any corrections are welcome and can be published below as a comment.

Saving plastic bags for re-use, riding my bike around instead of the scooter, fixing things instead of just throwing them out, turning down bags when every vendor in Taiwan seems to want to give me one, use a fan sparingly in Summer instead of the aircon… it’s not hardcore but I like to think it makes some difference.

One of the more challenging aspects of living in Taiwan for me has been a common disregard for the environment. People use scooters for even the shortest of trips, have air conditioners blaring 24/7 in summer, toss cigarettes and all sort of other rubbish into drains (which lead into rivers and then the ocean), use plastic (bags, containers, wrappers) like it’s candy etc.

I’m not here to preach, but overall the level of waste management in Taiwan leaves a lot to be desired. If half the island’s population of old people weren’t running around trying to make ends meet by collection discarded rubbish – I think within a few days we’d all be swimming in it.

The government failing to provide bins for use in the vast majority of the island doesn’t help either.

That said, it’s always nice to escape out in the mountains and enjoy Taiwanese nature. Half jungle, half forest… you soon forget about LCD screen runoff polluted rivers and plastic tainted food.

Well, at least that’s how it should be. After hiking up the Tian Mu Waterpipe trail, we decided to take an alternative route down along the foothills of Mt. Shamao.

Along the way we came across a house presumably owned by a local. The environmental devastation surrounding the house left me near heartbroken.

The Tian Mu Waterpipe hiking trail is a one way trail which takes you up near Mt Shamao. There’s a few hiking trails up here you can continue on with, but if you want to go down you can either turn back along the waterpipe trail (boring!) or find an alternative route down yourself.

We opted for the latter and set out making our own way down towards the west side of the waterpipe trail.

As we made our descent, at one point we found ourselves loosely shadowing Shamao Road along a nice scenic path:

One minute I was taking in the luscious greenery of Mt Shamao and the surrounding mountains, and the next I found myself staring at this:

Trailing down the side of the mountain, it appeared to have been rubbish dumped from above. A little ways further down the path I saw a turnoff to the right of the path (the rubbish trail above was down the left), so I headed up it to investigate.

Sure enough the path led me to a house:

And just infront of the house,

was the start of the garbage dump.

From the looks of it, most likely due to laziness, the residents of this house had taken to stepping out the front of their house and simply dumping their garbage down the side of the mountain.

Over time, so much garbage had accumulated that it had started to trickle down and spill over the walking path below, a good hundred meters or so from where they’d initially started to dump their garbage.

Had it have been organic waste (veggie clippings and what not) it wouldn’t have mattered, but these people were dumping all manner of hard plastics and what not.

I tried to get closer to the house but heard some dogs barking and running towards me so I had to bolt back down the path up to the house to the safety of the walking path.

As we got to the bottom of the walking path where it intersected Mt Shamao Road, the full scope of the carnage these locals were inflicting on the environment was painfully evident:

Strewn out along the walking path was so much plastic garbage that it had fused itself with the landscape and become embedded into the soil.

To give you an idea of just how much garbage was being dumped here, the last shot was taken roughly 250m or so down the path from when I first saw the garbage trail.

It appears the residents of this house have been using Mt. Shamao as their own personal garbage dump for some time now.

…and what’s worse is nobody seems to care.

How anybody visiting this area can miss a mountainside of plastic I have no idea, and why the other locals in the area haven’t said anything I also don’t know.

Had the dogs not have come running I’d have tried to get some further answers (but with the girlfriend having to translate that’s not the same as engaging into a dialogue with them myself).

I really do try to maintain my travels around Taiwan as an observer to catalogue and share with the world what I see, but experiences like this leave me completely at a loss.

If you have the opportunity to surround yourself with such natural beauty, why would you go and turn your own backyard into a giant plastic rubbish dump?

Words don’t even begin to describe just how heartbreakingly depressing the sight of all that garbage was. I don’t care how poor you are or how much of a hassle it might be to make a run to the garbage truck – there is no excuse for that level of environmental negligence.

Largely passing by unnoticed by anyone who doesn’t speak fluent Chinese, Taiwan’s local media run stories every few months or so that, although usually not directly, criticise the general concept of Taiwanese women and girls dating non-Taiwanese men.

Playing on an inferiority complex that’s easy to push (Taiwan is full of succesful but unattractive men who live at home with their parents), these stories are rarely translated into English but they don’t go by unnoticed.

If you want further evidence of the racist undertones that mar the Taiwanese media, you only need to look at how big the Makiyo taxi driver bashing scandal got.

Yes she initially lied about her involvement and yes it was handled poorly on Makiyo’s behalf, but would it have been covered as relentlessly and enduringly if she didn’t have Japanese roots?

Hardly.

Of course when you live in a society that’s inherently mono-cultural it’d naive not to expect this sort of thing. That doesn’t excuse it of course, but well… it’s convenient to get together and blame your own shortcomings on those pesky minority groups from time to time I guess.

For me that means walking around being stared at like a zoo exhibit and my girlfriend forever having to deal with the ‘why do you date foreigners?’ ‘what’s it like dating a foreigner?’ ‘are you just with him to learn English?’ ‘Wow you’re English is so good, you must have learnt so much from him!’ type questions and social commentary.

During these exchanges I’m largely ignored as just another faceless “waigoren” from an Apple Daily animation, who’s only here to ruin Taiwan as much as possible for the locals who live here.

Whilst this kind of stereotypical (masked) criticism is usually reserved to non-Taiwanese males “stealing” Taiwanese women from the Taiwanese males, recently non-Taiwanese females have also come under fire.

Two days ago, People First Party legislator Chang Show-foong (張曉風, photo right) asked in a legislature’s Internal Administration Committee sitting that

“Taiwanese men do not eat foreign beef, so why do they marry foreign women?”

Chang urged Taiwanese men to refrain from marrying foreign women, since “when one more man marries a foreign woman, that’s one less opportunity for one local woman to get married.”

She said Taiwanese men have chosen to marry women from Southeast Asia, probably because “foreign brides are easier to control and they don’t even make a sound when they are beaten.”

Effectively Chang equates marriage between Taiwanese men and anyone who wasn’t Taiwanese to choosing what to have for dinner, and that the marriages only happen so that Taiwanese men can control and beat their wives.

Of course we all know Taiwanese marriages (a unique species of marriage unlike anywhere else in the world) never suffer from control issues (both genders) and domestic violence. Doesn’t happen.

Naturally (albeit surprisingly, as nobody kicks up a fuss when non-Taiwanese males go through the social grinder), Chang’s comments drew strong criticism from the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR), TransAsia Sisters Association Taiwan (TASAT), Awakening Foundation, Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan and Taiwan International Family Association (TIFA).

These groups (and some others) held a protest outside the Legislative Yuan yesterday calling on Chang to ‘apologize for the remarks on marriages she made on Thursday‘.

Chang’s response?

Go fuck yourselves (My) ‘remarks were misinterpreted and (I) refuse to apologize (because I have) said nothing wrong.

Chang went on to clarify her initial remarks Taiwanese men marrying non-Taiwanese women, stating that

her remarks were in fact a criticism of Taiwanese men, and not aimed at women or immigrants. She said she wasn’t sure why her comments had caused such a strong reaction from some women.

This from the woman who suggested that Taiwanese men only marry overseas so that they can get away with beating their wives and that these women inherently were just objects akin to mindless drones, purchased in the same manner as one goes to an electronics store to buy a television set.

Or maybe it’s because she referred to Taiwan’s unmarried women as ‘leftover women‘.

Take your pick really.

Meanwhile whilst much of the criticism has been from Chang’s remarks on women, nobody seems to be making much of a fuss on her portrayal of Taiwanese men who don’t marry locally.

Not a peep on the suggestion that these men just marry abroad because they have domestic violence and control issues…

Seriously? If I was a Taiwanese male, married locally or not I’d want to slap this woman into early retirement just for making the suggestion. And keep in mind this isn’t some old grandmother on the street ranting and raving, Chang Show-foong is a politician who openly got up and made these remarks in Taiwanese parliament.

And the final kick in the nuts (or vagina as it were)?

There are actually more unmarried Taiwanese men than there are women:

Around 50 percent of women between the ages of 20 to 49 are married, while only 44 percent of men in the same age bracket are married, an MOI survey conducted in 2010 said.

At the end of 2011, 2.17 million women in Taiwan were unmarried, while the figure for men was 2.7 million.

Politics wise, I can’t even see the angle Chang’s coming from. She reduces Taiwanese males to women bashing thugs and apparently Taiwanese females are empowered women who yet remain nothing unless they get married – but only to Taiwanese men mind you (I’d love to hear Chang’s thoughts on Taiwanese women marrying non-Taiwanese men).

So in alienating both Taiwanese men and women, who exactly makes up her voterbase, Taiwanese seniors of non-descript gender?

I’m not too well versed in the political history of the People First Party but they do seem to attract more than their fair share of nutjobs. Last year  People First Party candidate Lin Ruey-shiung (林瑞雄) made the claim that the government was shooting electromagnetic waves into his house in an attempt to ruin his political campaign.

Great for tabloid drama and social commentary… but probably not the type of people you’d want running a country.


Additional Source: Apple Daily (English)


Footnote: This news story uses a Chinese language news source that has not been published in English and as such I’ve done my best to translate. I’m not a fluent in Mandarin so my translations might be slightly off.

Any corrections are welcome and can be published below as a comment.

If you caught your spouse cheating on you in bed with another person… how much trust would you have in that person?

Would you trust your spouse to not cheat on you in the future? Would you trust them with your money? Your life?

As one Taiwanese husband recently found out, whatever trust is extended to cheating partners usually doesn’t last very long.

So the story goes, around March last year Taipei resident Zhu suspected his wife of cheating and led two investigators into a hotel.

Upon gaining entry to his wife’s hotel room, Zhu found his wife and a work colleague getting it on with a dildo and what not.

Furious, but willing to accept a cash settlement, Zhu’s wife and the guy she was sleeping with agreed to pay Zhu $800,000 TWD ($27,100 USD). This agreement was overseen by the investigators Zhu had hired, drawn up as a contract and signed by both Zhu’s wife and her colleague.

Police also attended the “scene of the crime”.

Meanwhile Zhu and his wife separated with his wife getting together with her colleague. After an unspecified amount of time passed and Zhu failed to receive any money, he realised he’d been conned and took the pair to court.

Despite the affidavit contract signed by Zhu’s wife and her colleague promising a payment of $800,000 TWD to him and confessing to adultery, the court ultimately ruled against Zhu citing lack of evidence.

You see, after he had his signed contract, Zhu disposed of the dildo in question along with waste containing incriminating bodily fluids.

The court accepted that Zhu had found his wife naked in bed with another man with the pair using sex toys… but ruled it wasn’t adultery because there was a lack of evidence supporting actual penetration between the two parties.

Seriously…?

I get the lack of evidence supporting penetration thing, but what else were they doing there?!

A man and a married woman were lying naked on a hotel bed getting off with a dildo … and yet that somehow doesn’t legally qualify for adultery?

Apple Daily quotes lawyer Xieyue Long recommending to married people who find their spouses cheating on them to keep any and all evidence until the matter is formally resolved. However long that may be.

‘Hey can I grab a beer?’

‘Yeah no worries’

‘EWWW OMFG WHAT IS THAT?!?!’

‘Ah don’t worry about that. That’s just the dildo my wife was banging when I caught her cheating.. have to keep it as evidence for the trial, which is in 6 months time. It doubles for a pretty good bottle opener, drink up!’

‘…‘

‘…yeah so I’m not thirsty anymore. I’ll see you round (or not).’

Stay classy Taiwan, stay classy.


Source: Apple Daily (English)


Footnote: This news story uses a Chinese language news source that has not been published in English and as such I’ve done my best to translate. I’m not a fluent in Mandarin so my translations might be slightly off.

Any corrections are welcome and can be published below as a comment.

None of this ‘we just met yesterday let’s get married I love you forever!’ crap.

Unfortunately however the above appears to be still all to common a line of thinking. Take for instance the case of the Taiwanese wife and her seemingly gay husband.

So the story goes, a guy in Taichung surnamed Hsu married a woman and after five months they still hadn’t had sex. I assume that this also meant that they hadn’t had sex before the marriage either.

Suspecting that her husband was impotent, Hsu’s wife filed for divorce claiming that her had lied to her (about being able to get an erection??).

During the proceedings a National Taiwan University Hospital confirmed Hsu suffers from impotency problems although he maintains it’s because ‘he has diabetes’.

But that’s not the only reason. For some reason Hsu’s first wife was also involved in the divorce proceedings, and she had her own story to tell.

Hsu’s first marriage didn’t last too long either with his wife suspecting that ‘her ex-husband (was) impotent because they never really lived like a married couple‘.

I take it that means they never had sex either.

That much isn’t surprising, however Hsu’s ex-wife also went on to add that

she decided to file for divorce after she eventually realized Hsu could be gay and preferred to spend much time with male partners.

And that pretty much paints a clear picture of the scenario. Gay guy in the closet who works for the government marries to save face, can’t get it up and wife files for divorce.

Then instead of coming out of the closet he tries it again with another woman.

Hsu’s second wife originally had asked for compensation of 2 million TWD ($67,700 USD) but a judge reduced that to $400,000 TWD ($13,550 USD) before granting her a divorce.

Under the existing laws, a marriage can be nullified if any of the parties cannot fulfill their sexual obligation to their spouse.

I wonder if that “obligation” goes both ways?

In any case, how exactly do you hide the fact that you’re impotent or gay from a potential wife? And how exactly do you lie about it?

The accusation that Hsu lied would mean what, that his second wife at some point asked him if he could get an erection and he said he could? Wouldn’t a test in the bedroom have just confirmed that either way?

I mean if you marry someone and they reject your sexual advances for five months something is obviously up. And what’s with first wifey marrying a guy who hangs out with male partners all the time?

The $400,000 TWD payout is also a bit of a kick in the nuts, I mean… if Hsu is gay and able to get it up with his male partners then he’s really got no excuse does he? Of course at the same time it’s difficult to entirely discount the suspicions of a jealous wife who isn’t getting any at home.

I’m starting to think being a judge in Taiwan is quite possibly one of the most hilariously entertaining jobs a person can have. Where do I sign up?

You’re sitting at a bar minding your own business. It’s late enough that the groups of friends have gone home but not too late that everybody who set out to go home with someone has.

‘Hey you, what do you think?’

You turn around and standing there is a young woman in a dress. Seconds tick over as you wait to see if this is some sort of trap or worse still, a joke… but it appears to be a genuine question.

‘sorry, what?’

‘…what do you think?’

Trying to preemptively wash the effects of alcohol from your answer, you draw breath and begin to speak…

If you ever find yourself in this situation in Taiwan, think long and hard about what you’re about to say. Although the answer to the above question should be subjective, evidently there’s now a right and wrong answer to it.

Give the young woman asking the question the wrong answer… and you might just find yourself staring down the barrel of a defamation suit.

So the story goes, a cleaner working down in Kaohsiung surnamed Fan was unhappy about her brother-in-law giving evidence that incriminated her husband in a court case.

What this evidence was or what the case about is unknown, but Fan was so infuriated by this action that she approached her sister-in-law, a woman surnamed Shuei and began to assault her.

Scratching Shuei, Fan also insulted her breasts, claiming that Shuei didn’t have any.

Shuei suffers from cancer… although the news report fails to mention what type. Putting two and two together though, there’s a good chance we’re talking breast cancer here.

Of course being Taiwan and all, there’s also an equal chance that Shuei does indeed just have a flat chest.

Reporting the incident to police, they filed assault charges against Fan for assault and Shuei launched her own civil action over the breast insult.

End result?

Fan was convicted of assault and sentenced to 30 days “detention” (jail?) and a $3000 TWD fine (~$100 USD).

In the civil suit, Fan was also convicted of defamation for making insulting remarks about Shuei’s breasts and ordered to pay $8000 TWD in compensation ($270 USD).

Shuei had originally sought a public apology written by Fan to be printed in newspapers and $500,000 TWD in damages (~$17,000 USD). If she feels she has been hard done by though, Shuei now has the option of appealing the damages awarded and taking the case further.

Thank Christ the courts didn’t award Shuei her originally asked amount in damages but nonetheless, it’s  important to note that a precedent has been set.

Too big, too small, non-existent, not round enough, lopsided, perfect (‘no they aren’t, you’re just saying that! HOW DARE YOU!’)… if a Taiwanese princess doesn’t like your answer it’s off to court.

If a woman in Taiwan asks you about her breasts… run. Run screaming for the hills and never look back.


Source: Apple Daily (English)


Footnote: This news story uses a Chinese language news source that has not been published in English and as such I’ve done my best to translate. I’m not a fluent in Mandarin so my translations might be slightly off.

Any corrections are welcome and can be published below as a comment.

Fashioned to inject a bit of Atayal aboriginal culture into the area, the statues feature along the roadside into Wulai Township, with a few inside the township itself.

Some of the statues are nothing more than visual eye candy that you’d only want to spend a few moments taking in but there are a few worth a closer look.


The Warriors

Perched along route 9, these two warriors stand guard around the outskirts of Wulai District overlooking the Nanshih River.

It’s obviously been a bit of a while since they were tended to as you can see the warrior on the right is sporting a bit of a sorry-looking bow.

The warrior on the left’s spear also seems to have been downsized at some point.

Well… either that or he’s hunting mice.


The Gathering

I almost missed this trio of Atayal villagers as I rounded a bend on the Long Haul Trucker.

Frozen mid conversation,

It looks as if the couple are eating a rack of pork… either that or they’re getting married, or being lectured by a nosy mother-in-law (??)


The Mural

As the road into Wulai cuts through the mountainside, there’s a few stretches where you find yourself travelling through cut mountainside.

On one particular stretch there’s a series of murals which I assume depict some  of the more traditional aspects of the Atayal Aboroginie lifestyle of old.

From the looks of it, a lot of the villagey type stuff the Atayal’s did was communal and done in groups.


The Old Couple

Not too sure what the significance of these old two codgers was,

but they’d been placed upon a large decorated dias at a fork between the main road and a side street.

Perhaps they are distant relatives of the people who live down the side street?


The Princess

Inside Wulai Township, a stones throw from the Old Street and over the central bridge was this couple.

Apparently hauling your wife over your back is somewhat of an Atayal custom. Bugger that for a joke, yet this guy seems to be enjoying it just a wee bit too much – so I’m guessing this statue was sculpted by a woman.

Perhaps this is why “princess syndrome” is so devoutly integrated into Taiwanese culture. It all started with the Atayal’s years ago!


The Hunter

Probably my favourite statue out of the bunch, ‘The Hunter’ depicts the relationship between an Atayal hunter and his dogs.

Hunting is a very important event in the life of Atayal tribe. Not only is it a way the tribe gets food, but an indicator to an Atayal man’s social status.

A warrior who can beat a wild boar will be admired by the whole tribe, as the angry wild boar with sharp tooth can kill a strong man.

Different hunting skills should be used according to each type of animal instincts. The one who only owns physical strength but has no experience and wisdom can’t be a great hunter!

Atayal hunters stay in the mountains at least two weeks during hunting season. In this long process, the hunting dogs are the most important partners.

Deeping into the mountains, hunters will get lost without knowledge of the wilderness. Hunting dogs can use their good sense of smell to find the right direction.

No matter how far it is, hunters accompanied by hunting dogs can always find the way back home.

The above is from the plaque underneath the statue so I’ve left the Engrish intact. Usually I’d have a bit of fun but in this instance it was nice just to have any explanation in English. Most of the tourist orientated historical information signage in Wulai doesn’t appear in English.

Dunno about you but I certainly thought the statues looked the part. A good sight bigger than my Taiwanese mountain dog Leela, I certainly wouldn’t want to run into either of those two on a dark night!

There’s an Atayal cultural museum in Wulai that I didn’t get around to visiting on my last trip. If you can’t fit it into your itinerary though the statues dotted around Wulai Township and the surrounding area can suffice for a slither of Atayal cultural history.

The ones on the side of the road can be a little creepy after sun-down though. Stopping by the side of the road and trying to relax for a breather is made a little more difficult when you’ve got towering statues glaring down at you.

‘Wait… did that arm just move or was it me…?!’

Thankfully I’ve never been through the experience of coming home to find my wife or girlfriend in bed with another man.

Had I of found myself in such a situation here in Taiwan however, I could have very easily found myself in jail for trying to do something about it – as one Mr. Huang found out.

So the story goes, local Tainan resident Mr. Huang suspected that his wife was having an affair. After tracking her to a hotel room, Huang decided to escalate the matter and hire a team of private investigators to catch her in the act.

Hiring out the room next to his wife’s, Huang waited overnight with the investigators while his wife did her thing. The next morning when they thought they heard movement, the team then busted into the wife’s room and found Huang’s wife and another man in bed dressed in their underwear.

Videoing the bust and confiscating what evidence they could find (including the wife and man’s clothing), Huang, convinced he had enough evidence to launch an adultery case against his wife, then took the matter to court.

What should have been a slam-dunk case then turned into a nightmare.

Upon further examination of the room, a hotel-provided condom was found – but it was unused and still in its wrapper. Toilet paper was also found but it was free from “bodily fluids”.

Using these two points, the wife’s lawyer(s) argued that nothing suss had gone on between the two. Instead, the wife’s legal team argued that her husband had severely impacted on her and her lover’s freedom.

Huang meanwhile argued that the only reason he’d impacted on their freedom was to gather evidence that adultery had taken place for his lawsuit.

…weighing up the case the presiding judge ultimately decided that although it was highly probably adultery was going on, that indeed Huang’s disregard for the freedom of his wife and her lover was legally more severe than the act of adultery itself.

The judge slammed Huang and the investigators that accompanied him with a 4 month jail sentence whilst Huang’s wife and lover walked free (the maximum penalty for adultery in Taiwan appears to be 12 months in jail).

The greater irony here is that in adultery cases in Taiwan, it is absolutely paramount that the plaintiff have solid evidence against the defendant. Just how paramount?

Well in a similar case (must be adultery week in Taiwan or something), a Taipei County man (also surnamed Huang) came home one day to find his bed messed up. Suspecting that his wife was cheating on him, Huang set up a hidden camera in his living room to catch her.

The camera footage revealed that the man’s wife was indeed cheating on him and was regularly bringing home another man.

Sitting on a couch in the living room in their underwear, the footage showed Huang’s wife fondling the crotch. Shortly after the pair stripped down naked and entered the bedroom and bathroom multiple times.

And while I’m not too sure where Huang was, some nights his wife’s lover even went so far as to spend the night at the house (together in the bedroom).

Another unbelievably water-tight adultery case right?

Wrong.

In her defense, Huang’s wife argued that she was merely seeing if the underwear she’d bought him was too tight or not. Oh and the whole running to the bedroom and bathroom naked thing? That was just innocent chatting and hugging…

Huang’s wife claimed that the man couldn’t get an erection and therefore no sex had taken place. Ergo running around naked and playing with another man’s crotch was not adultery.

Heart-breakingly for Huang, a judge agreed – solely on the fact that there was no explicit footage of Huang’s wife engaged in intercourse with the man and no biological evidence of intercourse between the two took place.

Huang’s case was dismissed and his wife walked free.

In Taiwan, adultery isn’t adultery unless you explicitly catch your spouse going for it. Yet at the same time, victims of adultery are being jailed for doing their best to obtain such evidence…

It’s almost as if the legal system in Taiwan wants to make it as difficult and risky as possible to catch your partner in the act of cheating. I mean seriously, why bother having adultery laws at all if one has to risk jail time just to ensure they get a conviction.

And even with porno footage of adultery taking place… what’s to say the personal freedom of those involved won’t again trump the adultery charges and result in an acquittal?

Crazy doesn’t even begin to describe this nonsense…


Sources: ETtoday (English) & the Apple Daily (English)


Footnote: This news story uses Chinese language news sources that have not been published in English and as such I’ve done my best to translate. I’m not a fluent in Mandarin so my translations might be slightly off.

Any corrections are welcome and can be published below as a comment.

One particular Taiwanese woman took being called a fat pit so strongly that she went ahead and filed a defamation suit over it…

So the story goes, last year in October some of the woman’s colleagues were discussing how fat she was on Facebook (yes, another Facebook lawsuit…). The conversation, which I believe was visible went on during the day and apparently climaxed when a female colleague commented,

(She) is as fat as a pig, who would dare to think otherwise?!

The woman in question, rather than citing workplace harassment or some such (dunno if this exists in Taiwan?), instead filed a defamation lawsuit alleging that the comments ‘damaged her reputation‘.

Now whilst calling someone a fat pig might very well damage their reputation… a defamation suit? Really…?

This story appearing just days after a man sued a colleague for calling him worthless, once again I’m at a loss as to why the Taiwanese courts humour these plaintiffs who run off to the courts at the slightest hint of having their feelings hurt losing face.

Furthermore, Facebook has community guidelines does it not? I don’t use the social network but surely reporting the post should have it removed if you’re not happy about someone discussing your appearance on there. Or maybe not.

Facebook isn’t a Taiwanese company so they probably don’t share the same sense of ‘Fat… you called me fat?!?! THAT’S IT, NINE GAZILLION DOLLARS DEFAMATION LAWSUIT!’ train of thought this woman does.

Of course without photos (usually the Taiwanese media deliver in these kind of instances but this appears to be a rare occasion where they’ve come up blank), it’s hard to ascertain whether there’s any merit to the colleague’s claims or not.

I guess the real kicker would be if she was fat. Not Taiwanese ‘if you’re 41+kg you’re fat’ fat but y’know, fat fat.

I imagine it’d be quite the sight have some obese woman rocking up to court complaining about being called a fat pig… especially if the judge decided to sink his or her teeth in.


Source: The Liberty Times (English)


Footnote: This news story uses a Chinese news source that has not itself been published in English and as such I’ve done my best to translate. I’m not a fluent in Mandarin so my translations might be slightly off.

Any corrections are welcome and can be published below as a comment.

Click a Facebook ‘Like’ button? Defamation!

Call somebody a communist? $10,000 TWD fine!

Complain about salty beef noodles? JAIL AND $200,000 TWD FINE!

As Taiwanese society struggles to comprehend the depths a generation of Taiwanese princesses and little emperors will sink to to protect their precious feelings, an all-time low was reached last Thursday when an academic successfully sued a co-worker for calling him worthless.

So the story goes, back in March last year Taiwan National University (NTU) Department of Agricultural Economics professor Wu Pei-ing (吳珮瑛) was gasbagging to fellow head of the department Hsu Shih-hsun (徐世勳). They were probably talking about shoes or their hair… who knows.

Anyway, whatever they were talking about it was quite a loud conversation and drew the attention of fellow professor Jerome Geaun (官俊榮).

Geaun complained to Wu about the noise and “severely protested”  that Wu was speaking too loudly and asked her to lower her voice.

In response Wu told Geaun to go fuck himself keep out of matters that didn’t concern him. Geaun then again insisted that Wu keep her voice down which caused the 53 year-old dragon-lady to snap:

“Go report it to the police, to the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for noise pollution, OK?”

At this point the department head Hsu tried to settle things but the dispute escalated between the two. As words were exchanged, Geaun warned Wu that ‘her comments came very close to a personal insult’ and this seemingly resulted in Wu firing back:

Who do you think you are? You’re a worthless nobody.

Armed with a tape recording of the conversation and his tail between his legs, Geaun then ran off to the nearest court-house and filed a defamation suit.

Aw shucks, poor widdle diddums.

Why the court didn’t just throw this case out yet again escapes me but it appears that calling someone worthless is indeed libel in Taiwan. Siding with Geaun, the High Court sentenced Wu to either 10 days in jail or a $100,000 TWD ($3,390 USD) fine, suspended for two years.

Naturally Wu appealed the decision but the appeal was rejected.

Initially denying she’d insulted Geaun, Wu claimed she never insulted him – stopping short of asking who he thought he was. When Geaun produced a recording however, I guess the denial defence went out the window.

On a related note, I can’t help but ask who is going around recording arguments they have with people?! Quite obviously it appears that Wu was somewhat baited.

Whether there’s a history between Geaun and Wu is unclear but unless the recording was incidental (someone recording something else with their argument going on in the background), I’d consider it highly suspect…

That said, even with the recording how much of a bloody softcock is this Geaun guy. Jesus Christ, someone calls you worthless so you run off to the court and file a lawsuit?

Fuck me, put down the erotic Japanese comics son and grow some balls. I don’t like hearing the local dragon-women crap on about who knows what first thing in the morning either but you sir are too much.

After warning Wu that she was close to insulting him… it appears the anger caused by the insult fuelled the suit against Wu, rather than any genuine feeling of defamation occurring due to her remark.

Further evidence of this is that the pair couldn’t negotiate a mediation settlement. I mean seriously, how hard is it to settle something like this – unless of course you’re motivating is blind fury at someone insulting you.

If anything, Geaun’s lawsuit proves that he is indeed worthless. Not only that, but it seems to indicate that if they’ve got nothing better to do then entertain ‘WAAAH HE HURT MY FEELINGS’ cases like this, that Taiwanese High Courts are largely useless to.

Up next, Taiwan’s first ‘HE LOOKED AT ME FUNNY, I DEMAND ELEVENTY BILLION DOLLARS!’ lawsuit. Shouldn’t be too far off now…

Trains in Taiwan are usually pretty clean. There’s garbage collectors who run through the trains every hour or so and I’ve yet to walk into a carriage and find my seat dirty or damaged.

That said, be warned the next time you board a Taiwan Rail Administration (TRA) train that you might be sitting in the aftermath of a Taiwanese sex orgy.

It’s what you can’t see that’ll do your head in…

Sometime over the last few weeks a bunch of Taiwanese nerds got together on an online forum and cobbled together a plan to rent a private TRA train carriage, hire a prostitute and hold an eighty minute sex orgy party.

Booked on the 19th of February, the group hired out a TRA carriage on a service between Taipei (up in Taiwan’s north) and Jhunan (down in central Taiwan’s Miaoli County).

At a cost of $800 TWD each, 18 men dressed in suits boarded the privately rented carriage (which comes with a sofa, table and fridge). At Yingge station (a few stations out from Taipei Main), a 19 year old female (photo right, don’t ask me how Apple Daily got her photo!) boarded the carriage and just what precisely happened in the next 80 minutes before the train reached Jhunan is up in the air.

The incident came to light after some orgy attendees were busted discussing the event on a blog. DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-tsing (葉宜津) was tipped off (by whom remains a mystery) to the discussion and from there a police investigation followed.

The train carriage in question was cordoned off and inspected. Using “multi-wave field light’, inspectors only managed to find traces of cleaning fluid.

Not surprising when you consider that TRA carriages are likely cleaned on a daily basis.

Video surveillance confirmed that 18 men and one women boarded and disembarked from the carriage but pending further admission from those involved, what exactly transpired in the carriage remains unclear.

Initially Apple Daily got in contact with one of those discussing the orgy on blog, some guy named Cai (Tsai) Yulin (photo right).

Cai initially denied anything dodgy took place, alleging that ‘nothing remotely naughty happened during the ride‘.

A short time later Cai then changed his story and admitted that the orgy only went so far as to involve the ‘the participation of man touching woman‘, followed by condom masturbation.

Cai stressed that because there was no penetration, none of what transpired constituted sexual behaviour and thus they did nothing illegal (prostitution is illegal in Taiwan).

Police initially called on other orgy participants to come forward and detail exactly what happened, but after nobody came forward I believe they are now going over IP addresses of those involved from their online discussions in order to trace them. Once found the police will bring them in for questioning.

At one point during the 80 minute train ride a TRA officer did attempt to board the carriage, but found that the doors had been locked from the inside.

Shrugging his shoulders and figuring it was none of his business, the TRA officer walked off.

In response to the incident, the TRA have announced plans to

revise the company’s standardized lease forms to include provisions that people who charter TRA carriages for their exclusive use are required to comply with public order and decency laws and regulations.

Good one guys… one would think complying with laws on a privately rented train carriage would be a given – but apparently not.

The private carriages that the TRA make available for rent do not have CCTV fitted and given that the carriage was only inspected after it was cleaned up by the TRA, it appears that the only way the truth is going to come out is if those who participated come clean.

Given that such an admission would incriminate themselves, I think we all know how interviews of those involved are going to turn out.

‘We all sat around an iPad and watched Doraemon cartoons the entire trip, honest!’

At best, if penetration can’t be proven those involved walk free and face a mere 300 TWD ($10 USD) fine for locking the doors, which is a violation of the Social Order Maintenance Act.

As far as the TRA’s Railway Regulations go, holding a sex orgy in one of their carriages (without penetration) carries nothing more severe than possible future denial of the TRA’s services.

Evidently it’s about $7000-$8000 TWD ($236-$270 USD) to hire a TRA carriage between Taipei and Jhunan and with the entry charge of $800 generating $14,400 TWD ($487 USD) in revenue, that means (assuming there were no other costs) the 19yo woman was paid roughly $6,400 TWD ($216 USD).

Not bad for 80 minutes work, if you discount the ‘ewwww that’s totally gross!‘ factor.

The Apple Daily managed to interview some guy who claimed to have ‘attended such wild parties‘ and all he had to say was ‘NT$800 was “impossibly cheap” and it was “impossible for a woman to have sex with 18 men in 80 minutes‘.

18 men and 80 minutes puts it at roughly 4:30 minutes a pop… not impossible. Freaking gross yeah… but impossible? Hardly.

As for the cheap claim… well I dunno what the going rate is but Yingge is pretty much on the outskirts of Taipei County and I guess subsequently cheaper than either Taoyuan or Taipei cities.

What strikes me as most revealing however, is that this guy claims he’s ‘attended such wild parties‘. Seriously, how frequently are sex orgies held on public trains here?!

And for how long has this been going on!?

Dunno about you but I’m never going to look at a passing train in Taiwan the same way again… if the train carriage is a’rockin – don’t come a’knockin CATCH A FREAKING TAXI!


Sources: Taipei Times & Apple Daily (English)


Update 29th February 2012 – Shit seems to have hit the fan after it was revealed that the girl participating was just seventeen years old (a high-school drop out).

After being identified, Cai (Tsai) was supposed to call into a police station for an interview on Sunday. Instead he met in secret with other participants of the orgy in a parking lot near Ximending, presumably to get their stories straight for the police.

After the press got wind of it and rocked up, Cai and friends fled. Shortly after two of those at the meeting gave themselves up and confessed to police what went on in the train carriage:

All the male participants were wearing suits and were asked to pay NT$800 to be admitted into the party inside the Juguang train carriage at around 3:20 p.m. on Feb. 19.

Some 10 minutes later, two female assistants distributed condoms and mouthwash to them.

When a woman, 170 centimeters tall and weighing 50 kilograms, showed up in the train carriage, the male members were at loss for what to do. Then Tsai took the initiative to show them how to flirt with her, causing other members to follow suit.

As a result, the woman had sex with all 18 men who paid the admission fee before the train reached Zhunan Station after an 80-minute ride.

Here’s another account:

Tsai, hosted what was said to be a “sex party” in a chartered carriage of a Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) train on Feb. 19.

A total of 25 people, including the host, three bouncers, and two female assistants, were involved in the party.

On Feb. 19, after boarding the train, the participants first handed over their cellphones to Tsai for “safekeeping” before they were treated to a “foreplay demonstration” by their host.

Tsai then covered the carriage floor with large towels and ordered his female assistants to give the participants condoms and lubricant jelly before they sprang into action.

Police investigators later picked up a set of clothes, presumably worn by the woman before the activities, bottles of mouth wash, tubes of lubricant jelly, condoms, and towels used during the “sex party.” A computer was also removed from Tsai’s home.

The underage hooker thing has led to Cai being arrested ‘on charges of violating public order and decency laws and regulations’.

According to the prosecutor assigned the case, the host’s offer of service and demands for payment, as well as the transfer of money by the participants constitute a transaction.

As such, the host may be accused of “pimping,” which carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment under the country’s Criminal Code.

Under the Regulations for the Prevention of Juvenile Sex Transactions, a person who tries to make pecuniary gains by arranging for people younger than 18 to have sex with others can be sentenced to anywhere between three and 10 years behind bars.

The underage girl has also been charged with ‘violation of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) and of the Children and Youth Welfare Act (兒童及少年福利法)’ after she ‘told the Railway Police Bureau earlier in the day that the sex was consensual’.

And for those who took part?

The participants in the party, some of whom said to be well educated people with higher or even doctoral degrees, may be sentenced to short prison terms, fined and have their identities exposed for having sex with a minor.

The participants in the “sex party” may be sentenced to up to one year behind bars.

Moral of the story: Don’t participate in underage gangbangs…


Update 21st March 2012 – Yesterday prosecutors indicted the orgy organiser Tsai Yulin on charges of ‘sexual offenses‘. Prosecutors have asked for a six-month jail term for Yulin’s part in organising the orgy.

Three bouncers ‘male assistants who are suspected of maintaining order in the carriage‘ and two female assistants ‘who stood by and provided condoms and towels‘ Yulin was working with, were also indicted on the same charges. Prosecutors have asked for a two-month jail term for their part in the orgy.

Meanwhile the rest of the men who participated and actually had sex with the underage girl get off scott free because ‘ there was no evidence that they knew she was under the age of 18‘.

…fair enough I guess. Although six-months for organising an underage gangbang seems a bit light.


Update 8th May 2012 – I’m a bit late with this update but last Friday the six accused had their chance to plead in court and universally plead ‘not guilty’.

I’m not sure on what grounds his helpers plead they weren’t guilty but orgy organiser and ringleader Tsai Yu-lin (蔡育林)

was accused of holding an orgy for profit, based on prosecutors’ evidence that there was money leftover after the party and the funds were not returned to the participants.

However, Tsai said in court he never intended to profit from the party. He said he had planned to return the surplus to the participants, but later felt it was too much trouble and so treated everyone to dinner instead.

Lol, no profit no crime? And can you imagine sitting around a dinner table with these guys all discussing the days events after the fact… ewww much?

Hopefully the judge sees through the shenanigans and gives this guy what he deserves.


Footnote: This news story uses a Chinese news source that has not itself been published in English and as such I’ve done my best to translate. I’m not a fluent in Mandarin so my translations might be slightly off.

Any corrections are welcome and can be published below as a comment.

Every New Years Eve billions of people from around the world see the new year in by making a set of resolutions they have no intention of keeping.

Along with these wishes come a series of hopes, plans, dreams and aspirations. If I had to describe Taiwan’s Lantern Festival to someone – I’d do so by describing it as a kind of mish-mash of all these ideas.

Held fifteen days after Chinese New Year (which varies in date from year to year as it’s based on the Chinese lunar calendar), the Sky Lantern Festival in Pingxi ((平溪區) dates back to 1999 and allows participants to send their wishes into the sky and have them read by the gods.

The idea then being that the gods see your wishes and grant them.

Although the history of Sky Lanterns in Chinese culture dates back to the 3rd century, it is only in recent times that it has come to be the symbol of an annual festival in Pingxi.

Pingxi itself wasn’t much until the discovery of coal there in 1907. With the coal industry dying out over the last few decades, Pingxi has sought to re-invent itself as a tourist destination due to its scenic surroundings.

The town itself has a history with Sky Lanterns which explains the significance between the lanterns and Pingxi itself.

So the story goes, when settlers arrived from China’s Fujian province and established Pingxi as a town, the village found themselves frequently being attacked by bandits around Chinese New Year.

With each attack Pingxi’s villagers would run off into the mountains and wouldn’t return until the watchmen left behind launched sky lanterns into the air to signal the town was safe again.

In memory of those times and out of tradition, each Chinese New Year people from Pingxi would return to the town and release sky lanterns into the sky.

After the Taiwanese government turned this tradition into a cultural festival and pumped considerable resources into it, Pingxi now gets thousands of visitors each Lantern Festival with the festival enjoying popularity and success island-wide.

This year I was fortunate enough to make my way up to Pingxi and be a part of the action.

First and foremost, if you’re thinking of driving to Pingxi, either by car or scooter, forget about it.

A drive into the mountains will have you stopped around 5-10kms out of Pingxi and amongst a sea of cars, you’ll then have to find parking and take a shuttle bus into Pingxi.

These buses depart from Taipei Zoo and had we of known they were mandatory to gain access to Pingxi during the festival, we’d probably just have ridden the scooter to the zoo and caught a bus from there.

Price wise you’re looking at 30 TWD return from the shuttle bus stop we got onto, and 50 TWD return from Taipei Zoo. Buses start around 10am and run till midnight.

The bus ride took about 25 minutes into Pingxi and once we got there it soon became clear why they don’t let people drive into Pingxi;

Space is limited and the town is packed.

There are people everywhere and lanterns being let off all over the place. Sky lanterns themselves are made out of oiled paper held together by either a bamboo or thin metal frame, with the wick being either paper money or some other flammable material.

Some people’s lanterns went much higher than others so there seem to be varying degrees of “fuel” used to launch lanterns with.

Due to it being Lantern Festival and all, there are an abundance of lantern stalls around and lanterns will generally set you back $100-$200 TWD. The more expensive lanterns have patterns and designs on them, or are theme shaped (rockets were quite popular with little wings on the bottom).

With the lanterns being so cheap, setting off your own lantern is highly recommended – although make sure you do it properly!

I saw more than a few lanterns crash-land and set trees alight. Good thing it’s the middle of winter in Taiwan during Lantern Festival and more often than not the vegetation is saturated with moisture!

At various periodic times (three times an evening I believe) there is a stage area towards the north-east side of Pingxi where a ton of lanterns are set off together.


The spectacle of seeing so many lanterns let off at once into the sky is something you just have to see for yourself, as neither the video or photos I took do the event any real justice.

It’s literally a sky full of lanterns!

Other than lanterns there’s also your usual street food to eat:

but wading through the crowds can get a bit tedious:

This temple (I didn’t catch the name) was doubling as a lantern stall,

but also had some sort of talent show going on out the front:

No idea what that was about but there was some singing, dancing and KTV…

After setting off our own lantern, we found a local grandma and grandpa stall selling fireworks and found a good secluded area to let them off for a good half hour or so.

Finally, bellies full, lantern released and fireworks launched – we headed back to the bus area and that’s where the full impact of the crowd attending the lantern festival hits you.


With everyone waiting on buses to ferry them back, the queues are huge and I highly recommend you forget the idea of getting a seat and just join the standing room only line.

While the seat line barely moved the standing room only queue was decent enough and we were only stuck in the queue for 10-15 minutes or so.

Pingxi is located just north of Taipei City up in the mountains. On a normal day you can just drive up there following route 106 but when the Lantern Festival is on you have to catch the shuttle bus from either Taipei Zoo or the freeway stop roughly halfway between Pingxi and Taipei.

Held in the first few months of the year (depending on when Chinese New Year falls), I’d highly recommend a visit to the Lantern Festival at least once if you find yourself in Taiwan when it’s on.

Even when it’s not on, lanterns are readily available for purchase in Pingxi all year round so it’s something you can do yourself outside of the festival.

That said, there’s nothing quite like the experience of looking up and seeing hundreds of lanterns flying off into the starless night…