For the last month or so we've been enduring the usual northern Taiwan
winter weather: Cold, gray, rainy
skies. The temperature hadn't been too
low yet, but it wasn't shirtsleeve weather either. We had started to fall into the emotional winter grays, as
well. Living in northern Taiwan in the
winter is like I imagine living through England’s winter weather would be.
The main differences between a northern Taiwanese winter and a normal
English winter are heaters and fireplaces.
Very few, if any central heaters in homes and apartments exist and to
this day I have never even seen a chimney indicating a fireplace here. If you think about it, Taiwan is a small
island and if everyone was burning wood all winter the islands would be balder
than I am. So winter, because of the
high double-digit humidity and the utter lack of heating in homes, can get
bone-chillingly cold.
I don’t do well in cold weather.
I have a tendency to hole up next to a space heater and mutter
incoherently, but enough about me. Let’s
just say that the weather wasn't beautiful. Then, last Saturday, December 29, as if a miracle had occurred I thrust off the
blankets. The joints didn't hurt, the
mumbling had stopped, I almost spoke a coherent sentence. Last Saturday dawned brilliantly. Last Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous,
warm, spring-like day. Life returned to
northern Taiwan.
My daughters and a number of their friends took a trip to Danshui. Danshui is in the north of Taipei just
across the Keelung River: The very last
stop on the MRT. Here are some striking
pictures they took of Danshui, Fisherman’s wharf, and the Taipei Skyline.
Thanks to Elizabeth and Emily Banducci for the Pictures.
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| Danshui the last stop on the MRT |
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| Bali's Skyline from a boat on the Keelung River |
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| A couple of electric bicycles and about a gazillion people |
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| An Evening Shot |
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