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Public Zone 公開區 => Travelogues 遊記相薄 => Topic started by: chin on 03 April 2011, 23:58:36
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8 of us took a trip to Taiwan for sight seeing. This is the thread to share pictures publicly.
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先拋磚, these are some of the photos shot in the Floral Exhibition. Except the red sky one, all photos are minor altered only.
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Nice pic!
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OK I will post some "pretty" pictures first.
Right after landing in Taipei, before checking into our hotel, we asked the driver to take us to places where we can see sexy betel nut girls. This is a very uniquely Taiwanese.
On almost every street in Taiwan, you can see glass "boxes" at the street corner, or small store front with large clear glass, selling betel nuts. Very often the glass box or store front would have simple blue or green florescent lights constructed like a neon light to attract attention.
Sexy betel nut girl 檳榔西施 is so famous that before my first trip to Taiwan, I thought you can find them in every betel nut selling stales. But I found out that the Taiwanese government have been trying to get rid of 檳榔西施 such that now it actually takes some effort to find them.
The girl in this picture is our first found.
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As soon as our van stopped, she came up to our van asking what would we liked. I then followed her out to the store.
I asked the girl in black if I can come in to take some pictures. And she said NO. Maybe I should have tipped first?!
Anyway, on reviewing the picture, I think the mama inside is prettier.
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Our driver then took us to another betel nut store. Again she came right up to our van, taking orders.
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This 檳榔西施 is very cooperative, and seemed happy to have pictures taken. A few of us took pictures with the girl. I asked if she would pose for me in front of her store sign, and she gladly posed.
At the end, I gave her a little tip of NT$200. I later asked the driver if it's common to tip. He told me it's OK to tip, but did not say if it was common.
My friend explained that these girls do not have much schooling, and by dressing sexily selling betel nuts and drinks to drivers, they can make maybe NT$10,000 per month. This is considered a very decent sum for what they can or willing to do.
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After 檳榔西施 and visit to the local golf store to buy some cheap balls, our next stop is Jiufen 九份. I have posted many pictures of Jiufen form my last trip in the link below.
http://chinman.com/index.php/topic,526.0.html
In my last trip, I was mainly walking the smaller streets to take pictures. This time I tried some of the street food in the 九份老街 - the main tourist trap in Jiufen. The first picture below shaved peanut candy wrapped in a thin waffle with some kind of ice cream or sherbet. It actually tasted very good.
The second picture features the famous Black Pig Meat sausage on the left, then squid and other varieties.
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This must be one of the most photographed street of Jiufen. The sign on the top right says "悲情城市" which is a very famous movie that I never bothered to watch. (I like the music from the movie though.) I think the movie must have a scene in this street, in this house. Many many people, including my friends, stopped here to take pictures.
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More random shots taken in Jiufen.
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Yet another random shot taken in Jiufen.
Before moving on to other area/subject, I would like to make the observation that most of the stuff on sell in the main tourist spot 九份老街 had nothing to do with Jiufen, nor they local. The good are sold there because tourists are in buying mood in general.
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In the evening of the first day, we went to Maokong 貓空（不是毛孔喔）for the famous tea cafes. Maokong is sitting on a little hill overlooking Taipei.
Our vehicle passed a directory quickly and at a glance, there must be 50+ tea cafe in the area. We just pick the first one with a nice open view and stopped. My friend should have some pictures of the cafe we went.
The system there work like this - we pick a tea from the house, plus a fee of NT$50 per head. We picked a NT$600 tea (which is nice but hugely over priced) and ordered some food. We ended up mostly drinking our own Puer tea, and played the Bang! card game. Food wise, the vegetable dishes were fine by the soup we ordered was really tasteless other then MSG taste. ???
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The next morning, after visiting the Palace Museum in the morning, we went to Danshui Fisherman's Wharf 淡水漁人碼頭, then the local tourist trap 淡水老街。
This is the landmark bridge at the 淡水漁人碼頭. The place is really a working fisherman's wharf. We saw fishermen unloading buckets after buckets of fishes on the ground. Then later someone, presumably the buyer, would pick up the fishes from the ground to an ice box.
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I later found out that the area where I took these pictures were supposedly restricted access area.
But then I think we were not the only ones. This photographer was enjoying his time there.
In fact in the same place there was a sign that says "ship hands from the mainland are not allowed to leave the restricted area".
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After the wharf, we moved on to the Danshui town, where there are lots of shops catering to tourists between the see front and the main street. More shopping!
And more random shots.
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The seaside path was really a nice walk. At the head end there was a little bar where people can just sit down and enjoy the sun set.
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In the evening of the second day, we arrived at Jiaoxi 礁溪. The area is famous for the hot spring resorts. This is the second time I visited a hot spring resort in Taiwan, and let's say I still have not learned to appreciate their way of "doing" hot spring.
The next day, we got up very early in the morning to play a round of golf in the local country club. This has to be the most "country" country club I have been to so far. It was a very enjoyable round. The caddies were old women, like the caddies we had in Phuket. (In the mainland China, the caddies are almost always young girls.) And the two caddies we had were the most funny caddies I had so far. They kept cracking jokes, and they read the greens very well too.
I was congratulated by the caddies for having the most cost effective round! (Lowest $/hit) ;D
--- [my narration and photo continued in #49] ---
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Here comes the betel nuts beauties. Woh oh. :D :D
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When we walked at the seashore in Danshui, it's the time when sun set. We took some very nice photos. (it's the best sunset photos for me so far)
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When we walked at the seashore in Danshui, it's the time when sun set. We took some very nice photos. (it's the best sunset photos for me so far)
Nice pic!
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Nice pic!
Of course I need a tutor for taking these beauty scenes.
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Can't wait for Kai's photos!!!!
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Chan Man: Your Sunset Photos are good! Protrait shot for the girls is also good!
Chin: The Sunset girl pic is great, I like the composition. ;D
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I am interested by this part of the photo (see the finger of these people)
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Oh man, I will take a look at the large file...
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Kai, I think we'd better move our group pictures into PRIVATE section.....
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接下来是一些风景照，请大家给点意见：
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Kai, I think we'd better move our group pictures into PRIVATE section.....
???Why?
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???Why?
[hide]
This section can be viewed by any guest. We don't want our face to show in the public, don't want the pictures with our face to be collected by search engines.
Anyway, I have moved the group picture to the private section, and deleted two (九份 and 淡水橋2).
Sorry for the edit, but it was necessary for everyone to feel better. ;)
[/hide]
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The B/W pictures are wonderful.......
Kai, did you touch up the colour of the sky? It seems that it has some green tone there.
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明白了！ 有样的就不要放在这儿了！ ;)
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The B/W pictures are wonderful.......
Kai, did you touch up the colour of the sky? It seems that it has some green tone there.
是的！这是‘青色’，我喜欢青色的天空，就是‘青天’了。 如果你有留意欧洲和韩国的照片，他们的天空都是‘青色’的， 不过我这些照片的青色效果还不是十分的好，前期光线不够好。 ;)
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Kai,
Why is the color of your photos look more 'solid' and 'concrete'? My color is not as solid as yours, is that due to equipment, or due to the resolution, or due to my lens quality and/or focus?
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my turn...
i store some of my collection in below:-
https://cid-f87daf469068a638.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/Taipei
;D ;D ;D
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Kai,
Why is the color of your photos look more 'solid' and 'concrete'? My color is not as solid as yours, is that due to equipment, or due to the resolution, or due to my lens quality and/or focus?
Chan Man: This is fifty fifty. Half is because of the equipment, and another half is because of the touch up. Usually, '去灰‘ and sharpening is required for landscape photography. I will show you how to do next time. ;)
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Some of my shots......The first one is the "Japanese at the balcony"
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Jiufeng......Holiday Inn and the museum......
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Tried 3 times to capture the sun set ...... but......it seems I failed to get a good one
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Chin used my camera and took these......
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Some shots at Taroko.......Remeber what the next one is..... ;D
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I took the first one....then Kai teached me to reduce the exposure and I took the second one......
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Tried to shoot a flower like a person.....
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Some more pictures taken at the Floral Expo in Taipei. But the first two were taken at the early morning at Tairoko. ;D
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The flower pics are nice.
Did you use soft filter then, or in post production?
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Some of my shots......The first one is the "Japanese at the balcony"
I really like the pose, this is really cool for the girl. You really got it at the right time!!!! ;D ;D ;D
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The flower pics are nice.
Did you use soft filter then, or in post production?
No filter was used.
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No filter was used.
very strong contrast by using shallow depth of focus???
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These are closed up shot by macro lense, depth of view is usually very short. I used aperture of 5.6 or higher in order to keep the flower clear. I also try to shoot with little back lite and over exposed im order to have a better feel.
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I still have many pictures not posted, including the traffic accident, etc... I will try to post tomorrow.
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OK the last time I posted pictures and descriptions on the trip was in #16. I am now continue to post more pictures...
On the way to Taroko 太魯閣 near Hualian 花蓮, we have to drove through a long narrow seaside road. Both side of the road are cliffs - one side high up above us, and one side straight down to the sea.
The locals were really crazy - they would pass when they couldn't see more than 20 meters ahead!
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The only reason I was able to take the above picture was because our van stopped at what we initially thought was a traffic jam. As we saw other people getting out of their vehicles, we figured that it's going to be a long delay. I took my camera and went ahead to see what happened.
About 100 meters ahead of our van was the entrance to the Ao Hua Tunnel 澳花隧道. A BMW passenger car collided with an on coming truck!
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It was around 17:15. The accident must just happened a few minutes ago. The firemen were trying to cut through the metal, while some other people trying to comfort and help the driver. He was trapped inside with the roof of his car collapsed on him.
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Apparently the fireman's attempt to cut through the metal wasn't successful.
I think it was at the initiation of the civilians, a few people nearby started to pull the front hood away so they can access the driver easier.
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They then again use their hands to pull up the roof a bit, so someone can get inside the back seats to get some medical help to the driver.
Eventually, they figured that the steering wheel column was collapsed and trapping the driver's lower body inside. They moved a lift truck, chained the steering wheel, and was able to lifted up the steering wheel, and somewhat freeing the injured driver.
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At the moment, I was considering getting closer to take close up photos. However I could see that the lifting arm was sort of pulling the BMW slightly side way, and I was afraid that the cable may snap and would pose great dangers to people around.
In the following picture, you can see the front half of the BMW was lifted up a few inches.
Eventually the urge to take more photos over taken my fear, and I went up. And then another accident almost happened. As the lifting arm was pulling the BMW straight up, and the ground was very slippery with leaked oils, suddenly the who BMW wreckage was sliding to toward me for maybe 2 or 3 feet, pushing the people around it.
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In this picture, the front hood, the roof, and the steering wheel column were all lifted up, two firemen got into the car trying to free the driver. By this time, the driver wasn't moving much.
At around 17:46, or about 30 mins after the initial crash, the driver was freed. People was speaking in Taiwanese, and I can only guess that someone said the driver was still moving.
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This was the first ever that I witnessed such a serious accident and the rescue effort up close.
Almost at all time, I was thinking many things. Fore most was what can I do to help. People were speaking in Taiwanese which I don't understand, and there were many people around already. It seemed quite helplessly standing there trying to help. Eventually I didn't do anything, beside helped a bit to pull up the front hood.
The second things that I considered most while taking pictures were deciding to stay or to move away. I was very conscious trying not to take up any space that the rescue workers may need. Yet inside me that was also the urge to take photos up close. Our driver repeatedly pull me away from the scene, and I was thankful for his considerations.
In some of the pictures able, you can see that there were maybe 20 other people standing nearby watching. I wonder if they were like me - trying to help but didn't know how. A few of them just using their phone or small digicam taking pictures. I can see that besides the official rescue workers, there was a core group of a handful of passerby (in shorts and slippers) who was almost guiding the effort to free the driver. Again my observation could be wrong as I don't understand their language. But a few times I can see that the initiative to use hands to lift up the hood & roof, the gestures to get the lift up truck up front to release the steering wheel, all seemed to come from the plain clothed people. I wonder how much a factor to the timing of the rescue, if there were more onlookers rather than action takers?
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This photo was taken on the way back. You can see the road was effectively crafted out from the rocks!
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We eventually arrived at our hotel Silks Place Taroko 太魯閣晶英 (taroko.silksplace.com.tw) at around 20:30. It was very dark already so we couldn't really tell how the surrounding was like.
This is the inner courtyard of the hotel.
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In the morning I got the chance to walk around the outside.
And what a magnificent place it was! The hotel was built on some big rocks were two rivers meet, and is surrounded by big mountains & huge rocks.
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On one side of the hotel is a temple on a small hill. The hill was very steep that they get their supplies by this cable trolley.
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On the other side of the hotel, there were a few colorful buildings. I did not get a chance to check out what they were. Further back, I saw a large statue and apparently a monument of some sort. After reading the sign in this photo, I am guessing it was a monument for Wen Tian Xiang 文天祥.
From what I understood, a few years after Kuomingtang lost mainland China and retreated to Taiwan, they decided that they need to have an east-west road through the high mountains in the middle of Taiwan. After the road was built, this particularly scenic spot was named Tian Xiang Taroko and was slated to be a tourism spot. Tian Xiang was referring to a heroic figure in the Chinese history.
In the photo below, you can see that the Chinese words which roughly mean "Wen Tian Xiang, hero of the Chinese people" was defaced. I can only guess that it's the work of Taiwan independence supporters. During the ruling of Chen Shui Bian, the government tried hard to rid Chinese names and Chinese concepts, replaced by Taiwan or Taiwanese ones.
I took the second picture trying to show how large the rocks were - the road and the tunnel entrance was two laned, and the rocks in the river were easily many times the size of the tunnel entrance!
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After breakfast, we decided to walk to the nearby scenic spots by foot.
The first picture was just 1km or so out of the hotel. The temple is still visible on the hill. On the left side of the tunnel entrance, you can still see the old road that was crafted out of the rocks! This was just the beginning of many many such scenes. During our 5 hours walk, we have walk passed many tunnels.
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The first picture was taken in the first scenic spot Lu Shui 綠水. After a few steps up and a small dark tunnel, we were on a path parallel to the highway below. On this path, there was a tomb stone crafted out of a very large rock (around 3 meters tall) commemorating a few Japanese soldiers died in the initial construction of the road into Taroko.
From what I understood, the Japanese colonized Taiwan after the Russo-Japan war, but they were mainly ruling the large coastal area. After a war with the Taroko people, the Japanese decided that they need a road into the mountain if they are to rule the area effectively. There were supposedly more than 100 similar tomb stones for the dead Japanese soldiers. Of course, the labors who built the road were Chinese and indigenous Taiwanese people, and probably thousands died in the construction and conquest.
Along the scenic route are nice and well prepared camp site. In the second picture, you can see the pre-built elevated platforms to setup tents! There were also toilets and water supply, and instructions to other nearby camp sites.
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A bit further down was this suspension bridge. In the second picture you can see my shadow on the river, and get an idea of how large the rocks were.
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The warning sign on the other side of the suspension bridge. It's very clear that you need to be well equipped to walk this path. A good hiking boot would be a start.
On our side of the suspension bridge is a small rest area named Yue Wang Ding (岳王亭) - Pagoda of Yue Fei.
Yue Fei (岳飛) is another heroic Chinese general in the Song dynasty, a time when the Chinese empire was constantly attacked by the "barbarians" from the west and north. The imperial court was divided - to fight or to seek peace by giving concessions. Yue Fei fought and won many battles, only to be betrayed by the prime minister who made secret deals with the invaders.
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Chin: Good Job! Very detailed report on the accident and the sights we had visited.
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OK I am back and continue to post more pictures.
The followings are two more pictures showing how incredible the terrain and how small man-made structures compare to natures.
In the 2nd pictures, the rock on top of the cement supporting structure is simple huge!
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The red bridge is 慈母橋 and the picture above with two card was taken from the small pagoda on the big rock.
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These two pictures clear show how the road was crafted out from the mountain.
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When we first arrived the Toroko area, it was at night, and many of us sleeping in the van. Only after we see in daylight how difficult it was to drive on this road, then we can fully appreciate the driver's complain about how much he hate to drive here.
Many parts of the road here are one-lane only.
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This is one of the scenic attraction, 九曲洞. However it was closed due to some recent rockfalls.
In the first picture, you can see some man-made structure on the left side of the road. The function of this structure seemed to be a barrier before the rockfalls reach the road.
Apparently the original road is now the tourist track (that was closed on the day.) There is a newer 1.2km long tunnel for through traffic.
Around this area we saw lots of small fallen rocks. Rockfalls was a real danger. There were signs that say tourists should have hardhats on. Only when we leave the area then we found out that we could have borrowed hardhats at the entrance of the national park. When we entered, it was dark and the driver may not have thought that we would walk.
We saw many other tourists wearing hardhats.
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After about 3 hours walk from the hotel, we arrived 燕子口 which is a major scenic spot and the end of our walk that day.
This is the split where through traffics would use the new tunnel, and pedestrian or tourism vehicles use the one-way only old road.
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Just another shot of the incredible road.
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We spent the last two days of the trip in Taipei. One of the morning was spent in the Floral Expo. Unfortunately for us, that day was also the first day of a long weekend holiday, and the Floral Expo was very crowded. I will post some flower pictures once I got the chance to sort them out.
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while i visiting the Taipei International Aquarium Expo, i took a day off to sigthseeing a beautiful place where its famous in selling pottery, namely 鶯歌:-
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Get any nice ones?