Construction Boom

We live in a pretty new neighborhood.  By pretty new I mean that most of the apartments weren't here a year ago.  In fact, just in one section of street by our house there are seven apartments and one mall being built.

It’s amazing.  I see all these articles about how the population of Taiwan is declining and I wonder who’s going to live in all these places.  There is room for probably forty thousand new residents, and that’s just in my neighborhood.  The apartments that are for sale here are in about the US $450,000 to US $500,000 range.  That's a lot of Mazoola, but they're pretty luxurious.  You can rent one for about US $650 per month.  That's what we pay for a fairly large 4 bedroom apartment, that's less than a year old.  That's in Taoyuan City though, prices in Taipei are much, much higher.  

We see apartments being built all over Taoyuan and Bade Cities.  Growth is huge.  One of the reasons for that is that it is convenient for people who work in Taipei to live in Taoyuan and commute.  It’s going to get even more convenient as the MRT extends to Taoyuan. You won’t need to ride the train and switch to the MRT or a bus to get to your location.  You will be able jump on the MRT and find your way to anyplace in Taipei. 

I think the real problem with all this growth will be the local roads.  Don’t get me wrong the roads are modern and easy to drive.  Well, the roads are easy to drive on but the traffic is not easy to get through.  I think traffic will become much worse as the construction boom continues, because I notice all of the building but not any widening of the streets.  Small two lane roads serving all these apartment complexes and the mall are bound to become congested. 

 

 I’m kind of looking forward to the completion of the construction because the buildings are beautiful and modern.  I’m tired of the construction dirt and noise, and all the blue trucks.  For the uninitiated, blue trucks are the scourges of traffic in Taiwan.  They drive fast and it seems like they go out of their way to violate traffic laws and startle pedestrians and motorists.  They make taxi drivers look like concerned and careful drivers. 

Taoyuan City is an urban environment by American standards.  When I was young I always thought that I wanted to live in the country.  Away from the city and enjoying the natural scenery.  But in the US for a time, I lived in Dunsmuir, which is a small town of 1,500 near Mount Shasta in California.  I fished, I hiked, I did all the things the country dwellers did.  But since being in Taiwan and living in this type of urban environment I have discovered that I’m really more comfortable in the city.  I like having a lot of people around.  I enjoy the fact that something is happening all the time.  I liked Dunsmuir well enough, but give me that old hustle and bustle.  I guess I’m just a city guy.  

Other Posts you may be interested in:

On The Move:  Changing Places in Taiwan

On the Move:  Finding a Home in Taiwan

Random Asianess:  Driving in Taiwan

Cruising Around: Exploring Close to Home.

Have Wheelchair will Travel

The weather here has become Autumn weather.  So the temperature has come down, a fresh little breeze is blowing and the weather is perfect for a cruise on the the old scooter.  So after I got back from my morning trip to downtown Taoyuan I decided to hit the open road.  I took a few pictures of some things that I thought were interesting or beautiful, or both, as the case may be.  I've recently been spending quite a bit of time looking at photographer Craig Ferguson's travel photos.  His photos are so good that I'm almost intimidated to take pictures.  His are art, mine should be in your grandmother's scrapbook.  You can see Craig's excellent photos at http://www.craigfergusonimages.com  and you'll see why I'm intimidated.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not that good a photographer, basically because I'm lazy.  I have a small digital camera and mostly take snapshot like photos.  I'm wanting to get a really good, digital camera, like a canon rebel with a 55mm to 128mm lens or some other technical stuff.  I had a nice SLR film camera, but film is a pain when you're using it to blog.  So, I guess I'm not too technical when it comes to cameras.  I have a friend who's so technical that he uses only numbers when he talks.  Anyway such as they are, here are my photos and a brief description

These three photos above are a a large Taoist temple.  I found this temple by following a line of lanterns hung from the telephone poles.  The lanterns are red and spherical.  They're the common lanterns that are sold in Chinese gift shops across America.  They have a purpose beyond decoration and that purpose is to point out the location of a temple.  If you see lanterns strung down the side of a road and follow them they will end at a temple site.

This is a photo of the garden in front of my apartment community.  Many apartments have a beautiful park like Garden for the residents to enjoy.  My daughter Elizabeth loves to take her laptop down to the garden to do her schoolwork.  I have on occasion sat down there in the morning to pray.  It's really very beautiful. 

This stream seems to appear out of nowhere.  On one side of the road is the pond in the picture above where the temple roof can be seen and on the other side of the road is this stream.  But I can't see what feeds the pond.  It's just there, then this stream.  But the stream isn't a trickle it's a pretty good sized creek.  In order to find the source, I'm probably going to have to get off the bike and explore, but I think it would be hard with a wheel chair.  You can see the brush is fairly thick.  So...I guess I'll have to make Emily and Elizabeth do it.

You can see how close I am to the city right here.  This is about three quarters of a kilometer from my apartment.  Elizabeth found this place while walking her dog.















This is the same field as the one in the picture above.  The birds are called Egrets, in English, I don't know what they're called in Chinese.  These are the birds that are often depicted in Chinese art.  Usually they're called Cranes, although, I don't believe they are Cranes in a  taxonomic sense.

 

The first photo in this group of two is a photo of an altar.  You can see on the altar is a small incense urn, with sticks of incense sticking out of it.  There is a statue of the Goddess on there as well.  So people in this small neighborhood probably burn incense the local deity here.  The incense sticks tell me that someone worshiped here before I came this morning.  The bottom photo is of a couple of family tombs.  These two tombs are beautifully cared for.  You cans see an incense urn and two vases for flowers on the one on the left.  The character in the circle on the top of the one on the right is Wang, a family name, which translates to King.



After I left this road, I circled back and went about 2 kilometers down another road, which leads to a city called Ping Zhen (Ping Jun).  As I came out of the city I came across another stream and found this guy fishing.

A little farther down I came across this apartment community.  the interesting thing here is that this community has a private temple for worshipers living in the community.  I haven't often seen that.

Finally, as I turned toward my own community, I came across this cool little car.  This car is run by a dog grooming company who apparently comes to your house to groom your dog.  You see a lot of these little "VW buses".  They're made from a kit.  I've seen a number of them outfitted for serving hot food off the back.  the panels fold up and in to reveal a propane grill and preparation table.  I've even seen one made to be a small van.  They used a pink one as a van in an Idol Drama, starring Joe Cheng and Ariel Lin called, "It Started with a Kiss."  I like the little paw print shaped vents on this one.

Photos by Chris and Emily Banducci

Other posts you may be interested in:

Clearing Out the Camera:  Random Shots of Taiwan
Local Color:  The Color is Green
Local Color:  The Colors of Kenting
Local Color:  The Temples of Taoyuan City

The Trees are Alive with the Sound of Music...Sort of!

We left about three weeks ago to travel to the US.  On our return we found that the trees were alive with the sound of music.  It’s not like they were playing jazz or anything but apparently we returned right into the middle of the most recent emergence of cicadas.

According to the National Taiwan University Insect Museum there are 65 different species of Cicadas in Taiwan.  They range in size from two to five centimeters but some can get as large as 7 centimeters, that’s 2.75 inches for you Americans.  That sounds like either a large bug or a small bird.  Fortunately, they don’t feed on human or animal flesh, although, I have no idea how I would react if a three inch bug landed on my shoulder.

Cicadas feed by attaching their proboscis into a tree and sucking the sap from under the tree branches.  They make a species specific sound to attract a mate.  That’s the sound that we are hearing, day and night, night and day, light and dark, dark and light.  It’s pretty noisy around here right now.  In fact, there is one species of cicada that makes a sound at 120 decibels.  That’s loud enough to cause hearing damage near your ear.  So imagine that three-inch bug on your shoulder YELLING at you at 120 decibels.  That might be a tad startling.

How'd you like to turn your head and see this dude yelling at you at 120 dB

Cicadas don’t make sounds like crickets.  Crickets rub their legs together to produce their sound.  Instead they click their exoskeleton to make sound.  Built into their abdominal exoskeleton are some small flexible membranes between thick ribs called tymbals. As they contract their tymbalic muscles their bodies produce a click, when those muscles are relaxed it clicks again.  Cicadas contract and relax the muscles very quickly to produce their sound.

As you might imagine cicadas have very few predators.  Mostly birds and sometimes squirrels eat them.  In my fertile imagination I can see a dogfight in the skies over Bade between a swallow and a three-inch cicada and I’m not at all sure who would end up the winner.  They have two methods of protecting themselves from predators.  The first is called the predator satiation method.  In this method so many cicadas emerge at one time that the predators can’t eat them all.  The predators eat so many that they become satiated and have no more interest in eating cicadas.  Another name for this might be the, “What cicadas for dinner again?” method.  The other method involves deception, as they emerge from the ground they shed their nymphal exoskeleton and leave it sitting around.  Birds attack the discarded exoskeleton while the actual cicada is up in the tree eating and looking for a mate.

Platypleura Kaempferi:  A species of Taiwanese Cicada

Cicadas mate and then the female cuts slits in the twigs or small branches of the tree, she may lay several hundred eggs.  When the eggs hatch the cicada nymphs fall to the ground and burrow.  They will remain there until they are ready to emerge from the ground and begin the process all over again.  A cicada nymph may remain in the ground for as long as 13 to 17 years, but more commonly, two to five years before emerging and going up into the tree to eat and find a mate. 

Photo credit:  NTU Insect Museum
Video Credit: iceanajenn

Other Posts you may find interesting;

Taiwanese Lifestyles:  Hanging at the Park
Taiwan Travelogue:  The Traditional Market
Taiwanese Weather:  Monsoons and Typhoons

Taiwanese Lifestyles: Hanging at the Park

One thing that’s nice about the Taoyuan City/Bade City area that we live in is the number of parks throughout the cities.  In a half kilometer circle around my house are five parks.  The really cool thing is that in the evenings there are large numbers of people at the parks enjoying the cool shade and other things.

The park right across the street from our apartment is a gathering place for old chess players.  This is quite a tradition in China and Taiwan.  At any given time there are several chess players huddled over boards playing the game, surrounded by up to ten others watching, offering advice, or trying to learn techniques or strategies from the old masters.   I’ve seen games going on at 11:30 at night. I have to admit that I sit there and watch, too.  I want to learn the game well enough to play without feeling intimidated.  So far I will only play the game on my computer, but I’m practicing so I can join in.

My Chess buddies in a late game

Every park is also outfitted with exercising equipment.  In the mornings the parks are full of people, exercising on the equipment, briskly walking around the park, practicing Taichi or just doing park exercises.  Park exercises seem to be peculiar to Southeast Asia; they consist of vigorously swinging arms, and shaking butts, kind of low impact calisthenics.  We saw a woman the other day, and I thought she was dancing until I saw that some of her “moves” were park exercise moves.

The parks are also a great social atmosphere.  People gather in the parks to walk dogs and generally gossip about the neighbors.  Unfortunately, because of our foreigner status we are often the topic of conversation.  People are always friendly to us and invite us to join in conversation, with them.  Some of the old chess masters have invited us to watch and learn.  They try to engage us in conversation and it’s really an enjoyable time. 

The parks are one of the reasons I like Taiwan at this time of the year.  There’s a lot of people around doing interesting things and for me one the real pleasures is to sit in the cool of the evening and just watch.

Other posts you may be interested in:

Taiwanese Travelogue:  The Traditional Market

Taiwanese Traditions:  The Hidden Temples of Taiwan

Taiwan Travelogue:  Overlooking Taoyuan City

On The Move: Changing Places in Taiwan

Da Nang Traditional Market

A while back I was writing about finding a new home in Taiwan.  Well, we finally decided to actually do it.  So we have moved into a new home in Bade, City.  Bade is right next to Taoyuan City, in fact, unless you know where to look, you can’t tell where Taoyuan ends and Bade begins.  

We actually only moved about two kilometers from where we were before, but the atmosphere is completely different.  We are living half a block from the famous Da Nang market.  It’s not actually a famous place except in my little world.  The traditional market is sort of like an American swap meet and bazaar at the same time.  People are yelling out what they’re selling. It’s colorful and interesting…and absolutely wall-to-wall with people.  They sell everything there, from meat, to vegetables, to clothing to sundries, to prepared food.  I can just hang out there and watch people.  The nice thing about the traditional market is that is an eight square block area with vendors on curbs and in buildings and is the most handicapped accessible place I’ve been in Bade.  Everything takes place right on the street, no curbs and steps to worry about.

10th floor view

The apartment we moved into is a brand new modern building.  We live on the tenth floor.  Every two apartments on each floor has it’s own elevator.  Say for example, apartment 2 and 4 next to each other.  Only those two apartments on each floor have access to that elevator, all the way up, (twenty-six apartments per elevator).  The ground floor has a garden, gym and an entertainment room with pool and air hockey tables.  Each apartment has three levels of security, the guarded entrance, security elevators, and door locks, so its all safe and secure.  There’s not a lot of violent crime in Taiwan, it’s one of the ten safest nations to live in, but I get the feeling there’s a lot of theft. 

The easiest way to find an apartment is through a real estate agent.  Typically, real estate firms charge half of the first month’s rent to help you to find a place.  We had some friends who went on websites that list apartments and found this one for us.  There are many listings in just about any place you want to live.  Most apartments are for sale, but some individual owners are willing to rent.  Apartments in places like Taipei are fairly expensive, but outlying areas like Taoyuan or Bade City are less expensive and it’s only a thirty-minute train ride from Taoyaun City to Taipei.

Part of the moving Crew

When we moved here from the US we used a company called Lucky Moving to transport our stuff to Taiwan.  I thought they were reasonably priced for that move.  They came to our home, packed up all of our furniture, moved it to their warehouse, loaded it into the container, sailed it across the Pacific Ocean, stored it until we had a place to live, then delivered and unpacked it and set it up in our new home.  They really worked with us on making sure that all of our needs were met.  So when we wanted to pack it up and move we remembered them.  Again for a reasonable fee they took all of the stress and pressure out of the move.  They hauled our furniture to two different locations (one location for storage the other was our home) and gave us the same high level of service we had as an international customer.  They made sure that their on the job supervisor was fluent in English and even agreed to come another day for some other things.

Lucky Moving's Phone Number in Taoyuan City

We've had bad experiences with moving companies in the US.  One company refused to unload some of our furniture until we paid them with a credit card and the payment was secured.  The price was higher than quoted and the crew was unhelpful, even insulting.  But this move was carried out professionally, for exactly what was quoted.  The crew was young, energetic and positive, what a difference.  We were lucky to find Lucky Moving!

Lucky Moving is located in Taiwan and three cities in the US:

Lucky Moving, Irwindale, CA 626-333-1306

Lucky Moving, Sugarland, Texas 281-265-6233

Lucky Moving, East Brunswick, NJ 732-432-4299

I received no goods, services or money for this post.

Other posts you may be interested in:

On the Move:  Finding a Home in Taiwan
Taiwan Travelogue:  The Traditional Market