Sansia V: Wooden Sandals

Traditionally, espically in Taiwan due to the tradition from the period of Japanese occupation, people wore wooden sandals.  We all wore them around the house when we were kids.  The practice is much less now.  On the old street of Sansia, there are several stores custom make wooden sandals for the customers.  They are no longer a piece of wood with a plastic top to hold the feet.  They are much more sophisticated with colorful design.  Here was a pair that was signed by our current President, which the store owner proudly desplayed.

Of course, there are also plastic walking sandals, copies from the popular American design.

A similar pair in pink color is also shown on the Taipei metro warning sign.  It warns wearers of possible accident in wearning this type of shoes on the escalator.

Sansia IV: Lantern

We just passed Lantern Festival not too long ago.  Thus, there were still quite a few shops on the Sansia Old Street selling lanterns for the children.  They are very different from the lantern when we were kids.  They are folded from printed color paper.  Obviously, this year is the Year of Ox.  Here is a cow lantern.

Taipei just received two pandas from China.  Thus panda is also a popular choice for the lantern.

Sansia III: What they sell

This photo was taken from a high-end store on the old street of Sansia.  I was chased out from the store by the owner.  No photo please.

Grace got her shot by standing outside of the shop using her 200 mm lens.

Yellow Butterfly

This Thursday, I met this little butterfly at the small hill behind our condo.  It behaved extremely well, danced around the wild flowers and stayed put every now and then just long enough for me to photograph.

Sky Watch Friday 2

Mountain cherry blossom at outskirt of Taipei.  

Where is the sky?!  Sorry, it was obscured by the mountain cloud/fog.  You can see more of my pictures of Taiwan's mountain cherry blossom here.

See more entries of Skywatch Friday here.

ABC Wednesday: E is for Eyelashes

Chinese usually does not have very long eyelashes.  The most fashionable makeup accessaries in Taiwan for the moment are those 1/2 inch long fake eyelashes.  Our daughter married a very nice young gentleman from India.  Our granddaughter although has all the features of a typical Chinese girl from her mother,  she has the most beautiful long eyelashes inherited from her father.  Grace took this picture last summer during their visit to our home on Cape Cod.  She will be soon 2 years old this summer.  Click on the picture to get a closer look.

Visit more entries of ABC Wednesday here.

Sansia II: Store signs

The old street of Sansia is very much like all the old town/village tourist attractions in Taiwan.  They are just shopping streets end to end packed with stores selling delicacies and handcrafts.

This store at street no. 99 says "Sansia Old Street Stomach-full area"  

This stores sells a really local Taiwanese delicacy.  It is a cake made of pig blood and sticky rice.  A lot of people love it!!!

Now, this bread is really famous Taiwan-wide.  It is shaped like croissant but not as fluffy and is  smaller.  The original store claims to be the one at no. 63 of the old street.  Of course, now there are so many copy-cats all over the place.  This is one of them, but got a nice colorful sign.

Sansia I: Introduction

Sansia（三峽) is a village not far from Taipei and belongs to Taipei county.  Not too long ago, I overheard on the metro that two ladies were talking about taking the metro to the old street of Sansia for sightseeing.  It picked my interest.  That was what we did on Sunday February 15.  Indeed, the metro was just elongated to reach the next town.  After arriving at the terminal station, we still have to take a 20 minutes taxi ride to reach the old street of Sansia.  

Sansia is at the junction of three rivers.  The name is a variation of its Japanese name SanKyuo. In 1895, when Ching Dynastey of China ceded Taiwan to Japan, there were several battles fought between the locals and the incoming Japanese occupation forces around the region.  The old village was burned.  In 1916, under the Japanese colonial government, the street was rebuilt.  The houses were styled after European street designs which were fashionable at the time.  The basic structures of the houses had a lot character and were preserved.  In 2007, the renovation of the street won Second Gold Medal in FIABCI Prix d'Excellence Award at Barcelona, Spain.  The street is 248 meteer long, 8 meter wide with 102 storefronts.

The major industry at the turn of the 20th century for Sansia is Indigo Dyeing.  After dyeing, the cloth was washed in the river (talking about enviromental friendly) then dried on the riverbank.  Sansia supplied indigo dyed cloth all over Southeast China.  Many of the stores on the street were formal dyeing factory.  As you can see on this street sign, the Chinese character means "Dye".  Now the village trys to keep the tradition going by offering DIY workshop at the local youth organization.  

ABC Wednesday: D is for Darkness

That was what we were doing in the afternoon of Sunday, February 8th, waiting for the Darkness to fall.  The Darkness brought us the brilliant color of Lantern Festival. February 9th was January 15th of Chinese calendar, the first full-moon after the New Year.  It was traditional celebrated by the Lantern Festival.

How a festival in the Year of Ox can do without a "Rock 'N' Roll Band of Cow".  You can see more pictures of Lantern Festival here.

Daily Flower 7: Poinsett (聖誕紅), tagged 6th Picture

We are new to this game.  Carol from Photophase tagged us to post my 6th photo from my 6th file.  I blindly choosed our 6th photo-file of 2009. The 6th picture in the file is a close-up shot of poinsett.  Not a bad choice for my Daily Flower also.

Visit Carol at http://photo-phase.blogspot.com/2009/02/tagging-day.html

Daily Flower 6: Apricot Blossom (杏花)

Apricot trees are cultivated throughout Southern China for thousands of years.  It has beens associted with ancient Chinese literatures and paintings.  Early February, or just after Chinese New Year is the Apricot blossom season.  

There is a small farm called Apricot Tree Forest (杏花林) at outskirt of Taipei cultivates over a thousad apricot trees.  We took a short ride to the farm on Saturday, February 7th.  The flower comes in two colors, pink and white.  Actually the plum flower, peach flower and apricot flower all look very similar.

Sky Watch Friday 1

Kite flying at Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial in front of the Taipei 101.

See more entries of Skywatch.

Fishing vessels

This a follow up on our blog of our trip to Jinshan on Saturday, January 31. The port was packed with colorful fishing vessels both large ocean going ships and small dingys.


Taiwan is surrounded by sea. On the Western side, it is the Taiwan strait. The coast is formed by many flood plans. A lot of fish and shell fish farming on this side of the coast. At the east, it is the Pacific ocean and the coast is very rugged. Kuroshio current flow through the east coast at speed of 100 cm/s and is about 100 km wide.


Thus fishing is an important industry for Taiwan. Locally, we mostly eat small fish from the coastal water. We prepare them whole, never filet them. In the meantime, our deep sea fishing vessels are part of the culprits for the overfishing in the world ocean.

ABC Wednesday: C is for "La Coupole"

La Coupole is the largest brassery established in 1927 on Boulevard Montparnasse in Paris. It was frequented by many famous people, such as Ernest Hemingway, Jean-Paul Sartre, Pablo Picasso, and others .  Bradley started to go there more than 20 years ago when he lived around that area.  I, Grace dined at this restaurant almost every time when I am in Paris.  I like their simple but consistent comfort French food in a yesteryear decor.  

The restaurant was sold to Jean-Paul Bucher of Groupe Flo recently.  Last November, I was pleasantly surprised by their renovation including a huge round painting on their dome.  Here you can see the artwork from where I sat.  

The canvas was a joint effort from four internationally renowned artists: Carole Benzaken (French), Fouad Bellamine (Moroccan), Ricardo Mosner (Argentinian) and Xio Fan (Chinese). Here are their large black and white photographs on the back wall of the restaurant. 

The other part of the unique decor comes from 32 pillars, many of which were created by struggling painters in exchange of their free meals many years ago.  Aren't they fabulous? 

See more entries of ABC Wednesday here.

Fishing Floats

On Saturday, January 31, the last weekend of our Chinese New Year holiday.  We drove to the sea coast village, Jinshan (金山).  It is almost at the nothern tip of Taiwan.  The literal translation of Jinshan is Gold Mountain.  Normally, we only drive through the village either using the by-pass or the central passway.  Did not think much of it.  It is famous for the hot spring spa, which is one of the the very few in the world that comes from undersea.  On this day, we saw the sign of alternative route and took it.  It took us to a harbor that we have never been.  It is actually a twin-harbor on either side of a small peninsula.  We had a marvelous lunch of fresh crabs, fish and clams by the harbor .  They were all alive and kicking from the water tank.  

At one of the harbors, Grace took the pictures of these colorful fishing floats hanging on the wall. We also photographed many fishing vessels in the harbor, which we will show next time.

Daily Flower 5: Rapeseed Flower (油菜花)

Taroko (太魯閣) National Park has the most dramatic scenery in Taiwan.  Its gorge, a small version of Grand Canyon, is world famous.  Liwu River (立霧溪) cuts through the mountain that is formed by pure marble to form the gorge.  It is part of Central Cross-island Highway, which cut accross the central mountainous region of Taiwan.  The highway is now not passable due to the earthquake of 1999.  On January 28, the third day of Chinese New Year, we reached the area from the north using Rt 7A from Yilan (宜蘭) through Lishan (梨山) and Dayuling (大禹嶺).  We have tried to go through this highway for six years and finally made it this time.

On the way to Lishan, we pass by this rapeseed flower field at Nanshan (南山), a tribal village up in the mountain.  By the time we reached Tiansian (天祥) at the Taroko Gorge, it was 5 o'clock in the afternoon.  We planned to be home in Taipei at 9 to have dinner.  We did not arrive till 1 AM due to the Chinese New Year traffic, both deep in the mountain and in the Snow Mountain Tunnel.

Daily Flower 4: Flowers from Chinese new Year

Narcissus (水仙)

My mother always had Narcissus at home for the Chinese New Year.  She put the bulbs in a plate with water and left them for flowering.  I bought some this year also and did the same.  They bloom very well and are very fragrant.  

Lily

We also have cut flowers such as lily to put in a vase.  They are usually white and this year I got the red ones.  They became full-bloom yesterday.

ABC Wednesday: B is for the Year of Bull

Monday, January 26 is the Chinese New Year.  It is the year of ox, cow, bufflo, bull....  I prefer bull, hope it will bring us a bull market and let the misery of the year of mouse/rat (2008) behind us.  Happy Chinese New Year everybody!!

See more entries of ABC Wednesday here.

Daily Flower 3: Moutain Cherry Blossom

This is how a moutain cherry tree in full bloom looks like.  I took this picture during my trip to PinTai.  

This tree was by a moutain road with much less tourists.  There were much more flowers at the lower branch, which allowed me to come closer to the flowers.

This is a closed-up of what the flower looked like.

Northeast Sea Shore

Today is the first day of The Year of Ox in Chinese calendar.  We went out for a drive to to Northeast shore of Taiwan.  We have described the route (Route 2c) in our last October's blog.  We left at noon and by three thirty we were back to Taipei already.  Contrary to our last trip, today's weather was rainy and misty.  Grace got this amazing picutre of the boiling sea.  

Daily Flower 2: Moutain Cherry Blossom

Sunday, January 25th, was Chinese New Year Eve.  We had most preparation done for the New Year Eve dinner and went out for a drive.  This time we went to Blue Mountain Trail, which I have described in my previous blog.  During that trip, we mainly photographed the moutain streams, but noticed that the road was lined with moutain cherry trees.  For this trip, although it was still early for the season, but a few trees already had flower buds.

Daily Flower 1: Moutain Cherry Blossom

We are into the holiday of Chinese New Year.  In Taiwan we have 9 days off from January 24th to February 1st.  It was gray and rainy on Saturday, the first day of the holiday.  We did some preparation for the New Year Eve meal then went out for a drive.  We went up to the host spring mountain area of Wulai.  It was about an hour drive up and an hour back from our home in Taipei.  It is famous for its waterfall and hot spring spa.  As the spring is coming, the cherry blossom season is about to start.  Taiwan's cherry blossom is very different from that of Washington, D.C. or in Japan.  The flowers are much smaller.  We called them Moutain Cherry Blossom.  But the weather was too bad this day for us to take any photos.  This photo was taken last year.

Unknown flowers

I was bored this afternoon and took the D700 and 105 VR micro lens down to the garden and took several pictures of the flowers and tried out the correct focusing method for close-up that I experimenting recently.  For some of you who are Nikon savvy, the setting that I used was Focus  Mode: Continous-servo AF; AF-area Mode: Single-point AF; Custom Setting a1: AF-C Priority Selection at focus.  Put it in plain English, I placed the focusing point on the flower where it needed to be absoutly in focus, the camera continously tried to focus as my body swayed and the wind blew.  When the camera thought it was in focus, it released the shutter.  I used ISO 800, which the D700 gave me no image noise at all;  with the VR lens I could keep most of my pictures sharp hand-held.

I took the pictures all in RAW and keep the Picture Control at Standard, which gave me reasonable images to review on the LCD screen at the back of the camera.  I also checked the RGB histogram on the LCD screen to make sure that none of the Red, Green and Blue is over-exposed.  The Picture Control and exposure were then fine-toned on the computer using Capture NX2, the images were save as JPEG.  I used the Curve in the Photoshop to further adjust the Red, Green and Blue color channels to finally getting the color that I thought matching the real thing.  Flowers are always most difficult for me to get the correct color.  

ABC Wednesday: A is for Tour Eiffel

Eiffel Tower is the symbol of Paris. When it was built in 1889, it was the tallest structure in the world. It is still the tallest building in Paris and the most visited monument in the world. The search light at top of the tower was added in 2000.  The blue light of the tower was installed in 2008, at the start of French Presidency of the European Union. Grace took the picture during her recent trip to Paris.

Interestingly this picture is almost identical to the black & white picture taken by Col. Philip B. Foote of the US military in 1945. You can see his photo here in Wikipedia.    

This shot was taken from the window of Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine. It is a museum mainly housing the replica of the French monuments. A very impressive place to visit.

You can visit more entries of ABC Wednesday here.

Enjoy Motel

"Enjoy Motel" does not mean to ask you to enjoy "Motel 6" during your highway travel in the US.  "Enjoy Motel" is the name of the motel that we went to on Sunday, January 18th.  Taiwan has a very particular motel culture, which is unique in the world.  First, it is very private and secluded, for obvious reason if you are a pair love birds seeking some private moment.  You drive the car into the first level garage, close the door, no one see you at all.  The second, they all claim 5-star interior decoration.  Typically, the bathroom is bigger than the room.  The bath tub often as big as a swimming pool and you do have a private indoor swimming pool.

The highest concentration of motels is in Taichung, which means "Center of Taiwan".  It is geological located in the middle of Taiwan, about 2 hours drive south from Taipei.  Thus it is a good stopping and resting place before traveling further south.  Taichung also famous for good nouveau cuisine.  We went to a restaurant called "Deep Sea Restaurant" that served incredibly fresh fish from Pacific ocean for lunch.  The owner put together a menu contains sward fish sashimi,  sea weed salads and a fish hot-pot.  At my age, after such a satisfying meal, I needed a nice nap.  A 3 hours stop by at "Enjoy Motel" put me back in good form to drive back to Taipei.

Natural History Museum, Taipei

Natural History Museum in Taipei has a special place in me.  When I was very young, my father's office was closed to the Presidential Palace. The New Park, where the Natural History Museum was located, was also near by.   At that time, 50 years ago, that area is the center of activities in Taipei.  I have many memories of going through this park.  Latter on when I was a biology major in the college, I will also pay occasional visits to the Museum.  Now the New Park was renamed as the 228 park.  I have not been to it since I cam back to Taiwan six years ago.  A few day ago, I drove by the park and saw a free road side parking space.  I parked the car and went in to the Museum.  As always, when we have grown up, the thing we remembered as a child looks so small now.  The mounted animals from Africa are no longer there.  They were shot and gifted to the museum by the son of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, who is the father of modern China.  It has one central hall and two levels.  Each level has two exhibition rooms, one each at each wing.  It is a classical monument build by Japanese in 1908. 

I took the pictures with my D700 and 50mm/1.4 lens.  I did not even use the in camera high ISO noise reduction function.  They came out well, all I have to do was readjust the white balance a bit in the Capture NX2.