SEAFOOD BBQ FISH ........... ChiChin Island. (Taiwan)
I went to the same cafe three times. Apparently delighted that the same foreigner made a return, the chef dressed-up the plate with a flower. The fish was cooked to perfection, of course, but the secret herbs and spices would be a recipe to excite seafood cook celebrities in Australia into raptures.The BBQ delight cost about AUS$12 worth every cent. The species is related to the perch family as tasty as a mangrove jack at home. Sea animals seem healthier food than land creatures these days, for a host of reasons. But it won't be this way forever.
JH on 26.08.04 @ 11:27 AM AEST [
link]
TAIPEI 101 Taiwan information
Viewed from the 46th floor of Eastern Plaza Hotel is Taipei 101 showing how it towers above the city.One might question the logic of building the world's tallest building in an earthquake prone zone. Obviously the financiers know something, but how about insurance companies?
It all adds to the cost of things. Some floors of the building are yet to be completed inside, the retail shops section is well represented with international brand names but buyers seemed scarcer than the curious visitors.
UPDATE DEC 17 2004. Recent Guinness Book of Records for Taipei 101
1. Tallest building - highest structural height 508 meters
2. Fastest lifts (elevators) 89 floors in 37 seconds - 60 kmp!
3. Highest rooftop height 448 meters
4. Habitable floor height 438 meters
TAIWAN - the elite of Chinese culture John H. has just completed a third visit to this 'amazing little island'. Taiwan is an exciting country - 'something like your first visit to Luna Park at the age of six' I remarked to a friend when she enquired why I was visiting this almost unknown land (to most colleagues).
A breakaway province of China? There will be lots of news re Taiwan in the media in the coming months. The future of this island will effect every Australian - and possibly the entire Pacific. This I believe!
Bright neon lights, advertising signs (which you can't read) and surprisingly, little English used by the local folk, apart from students.
They work hard at studies and have deep feeling for friends and family. There is no welfare system. Young respect and care for the elders. No nursing home 'death camps' as in the west. (Good point number one)!
THE ISLAND
Being an island culture the Taiwanese and Chinese have a strong sea tradition, as does Japan, and a very advanced attitude to many marine things from ship design to fishing hooks and even dive gear. Half of the total world production of notebook computers come from Taiwan, plus semi-conductors galore.
TUCKER TIME
Whale sharks are caught by net or harpoon for quasi-gourmet food. With the texture of tofu or 'junket'. If you dine at a fisherman's wharf type outlet, there's a 30% chance of eating whale shark sold as 'fish'.
Overall the Taiwanese diet is considerably healthier than the Australian breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Fresh vegetables, rice and almost no cola drinks give it a huge advantage. Coke and Pepsi almost unknown here. Try guarva juice instead.
Refined-sugar creeps in elsewhere, and a shocking over-use of pork products. What's wrong with pork? A living mass of virus' to start with. Eat at your own peril. (Pigs have just four sweat glands, one on each trotter).
SEAFOOD HAZARDS
Taiwan pufferfish are bred via aquaculture, fed only makerel they have (interestingly) not developed the usual poisonous characteristic. (Proof that food has a profound effect on life forms, change the diet and change the creature. It applies to humans too).
But the new safer pufferfish is not as popular with diners. The dare and thrill associated with the risk of death from the toxin, especially found in the fish liver was the near fatal attraction.
Seafood is far cheaper there than anywhere in Australia. I wondered why during a previous visit. Now I know, it's aquaculture.
Countless fish ponds are to be seen during the two hour bus journey to Kenting from Kaohsiung in the south of the island. It's a huge industry which Australia is keen to embrace. Does this mean more antibiotics in our food? Australia should study and try to learn from any mistakes.
THE BEACH
Kenting is the equivalent of Australia's Gold Coast but a day at the beach there may be near nuclear power station number three, and under a rented umbrella on plastic chairs. At night the neon's make the narrow main street attractive and colourful. Taiwan glows by night. Plenty of power to burn. It's a wealthy place where individual buying power is spread over many more levels by more classes than in Australia.
If Australia has five levels of wealth to poverty, Taiwan has fifteen. A better distribution of wealth?
SCUBA
Despite all these advancements with the sea, Taiwanese locals are not into diving or surf, yet. There are dive schools with instructors scattered around the north. Much of the world's diving gear is made here too, but designed in Europe, USA and Japan.
The undersea has been sadly neglected, possibly due to spiritual beliefs in ghosts of ancestors who have drowned being active underwater? August was the start of the ghost month when paper replica money is burned as an offering to the spirits of relatives.
SIZE MATTERS
All this in an island half the size of Tasmania with a population equal to Australian and New Zealand combined. Half the world's lap top computers are made in Taiwan and most of the computer chips originate here.
Add to this an occasional serious earthquake and a few dozen summer typhoons (cyclones) and you have a volatile land mass. A typhoon is always present in their summers, coming in from Guam where they originate, whipping up 10-12 meter waves.
WEATHER
See
www.cwb.gov.tw which has an English version. It's a great and simple design, better we thought than our Australian service. Serves the interests of the Far Seas Fishing Fleet which is said, now catches more tuna than Japan. You'll see ocean temperatures, wind directions and heaps of info.
The climate here is on a latitude between Bundaberg and Mackay, with the Tropic of Cancer passing across the island. A sign near the coastal town of Haulien says: "Position of Tropical Cancer". Lots of this form of entertainment elsewhere.
POLITICS
Australian government recognised a 'one China policy' since 1972. Taiwan needs to take care and avoid any move toward independence. Taiwan also desires to chose her own destiny. Extreme care is needed by both sides to avoid conflict.
JH on 26.08.04 @ 10:54 AM AEST [
link]
TAIPEI CITY
English is not spoken much in Taiwan, but advertising by major corporations does use a mix of some English and mostly Chinese characters text.Western models, feature provokingly on giant billboards (not shown here) with images that would cause debate in the Australian media.
Hamburger menus are different from Australia due to strong competition from small family business cafe's. Coca Cola and Pepsi advertising is almost non-existent, but for how long?
"Taipei is a boisterous and expensive city, and it lets you know it. About 6 million people live in and around Taiwan's capital, lured by the excitement of a bustling city on the move. And for the most part, they're not disappointed.
Real estate is virtually unobtainable - Taipei residents have long dispensed with the dream of home-ownership - and the government is encouraging businesses to set up elsewhere in Taiwan. Despite this, the notion still prevails that to make it big in Taiwan, you have to set up in the heart of the capital - even if the air is perpetually toxic.
Taiwan's capital is packed full of people, cars and smog - a real hotbed of renao, or liveliness. It's not a relaxing stopover, but the Chinese food is excellent, the people are friendly and there are some top-notch sights". (newsletter@TaiwanHo.com">newsletter@TaiwanHo.com)
Politics
The year 2000 marked a turning point for politics and government in Taiwan, as the KMT lost its monopoly over the island it had enjoyed since its arrival in 1949. And of course the KMT's removal to Taiwan in the first place was due to its failure to effectively govern China.
In a series of articles published this summer on Taiwan Ho!, Jerry Keating examines the history of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT). In the first article Keating describes how the KMT had in its first fifty years lost the hearts and minds of the Chinese people.
In the second, we learn how in its next fifty years the KMT would come to lose the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese.
The third article examines more closely the Kaohsiung Incident, the birth of Taiwan's modern democracy movement, and sheds some light on the author's initial experiences in Taiwan.
The story continues to be written, as the KMT, despite its authoritarian roots as an "alien regime" in Taiwan, still manages to draw support from a large segment of the population. Only time will tell if it can reform itself in a multi- or dual-party system. newsletter@tainwanho.com">
newsletter@tainwanho.com Sept 2005
JH on 26.08.04 @ 10:35 AM AEST [
link]
TRAVEL ......grafitti at ChiChin Island (Taiwan)
A message of love from a young man to his lost sweetheart. They once walked the beachfront of Chi Ching Island near the southern city of Kaohsiung, one of the world's busiest ports. This neatly written message apparently asks her to come back to this romantic beach.
There were 19 ships parked outside in mid August. The surf was not happening. But the seafood restaurants were busy as they always are. The sand was near black, heavy with valueable minerals.
Thousands had packed the beach yesterday, but this was Monday and the sands were near empty. They all work harder in Taiwan. No Centrelink cushion. The young care for elderly family members.
JH Collection/fathom 2004
JH on 26.08.04 @ 09:27 AM AEST [
link]
