Trip to Taiwan, part two of many
Dec. 27th, 2006 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilaiThursday we drove up to Lingde Temple to visit my grandfather's ashes and to pray to our ancestors. The drizzle prevented us from going further up the mountain to visit my grandmother's grave, so we turned back and spent the rest of the evening rather uneventfully.
Friday W and I met up with the esteemed Professor Jao and his fiancee G at Taipei 101, the world's tallest skyscraper (for now). We had lunch at Jiuru (九如), a restaurant serving Shanghaiese cuisine, and headed up to the 89th floor observatory in an elevator traveling 1010 meters per second. It's amazing the amount of city you can see from the 89th floor--we all grabbed our audio guides and toured the perimeter of the floor, taking in the meandering rivers to the northwest and the lush green mountains to the southeast. Further up on the 91st floor was an outdoor observatory with high walls and guard rails. Standing on my toes I could see the entire city, but the strong winds and lower temperature compelled us back inside. We had some ice cream and parted ways, as Prof Jao had much work to do to prepare for the upcoming semester.
My mother's side of the family lives in Hsinchu, so we made our way down south on Saturday. After about two hours on the highway, we made a brief stop at my aunt's house and toured her art collection before going off to lunch together. My aunt treated us to a banquet, and my uncle kept pouring us whiskey until W and I had about five or six shots each. In between the food and the alcohol I managed to sneak in some small talk with my cousin's husband, who doesn't speak Mandarin or Taiwanese and was probably glad someone else was speaking English. Afterwards, we retreated to my grandmother's house and lingered a bit before going home.
Friday W and I met up with the esteemed Professor Jao and his fiancee G at Taipei 101, the world's tallest skyscraper (for now). We had lunch at Jiuru (九如), a restaurant serving Shanghaiese cuisine, and headed up to the 89th floor observatory in an elevator traveling 1010 meters per second. It's amazing the amount of city you can see from the 89th floor--we all grabbed our audio guides and toured the perimeter of the floor, taking in the meandering rivers to the northwest and the lush green mountains to the southeast. Further up on the 91st floor was an outdoor observatory with high walls and guard rails. Standing on my toes I could see the entire city, but the strong winds and lower temperature compelled us back inside. We had some ice cream and parted ways, as Prof Jao had much work to do to prepare for the upcoming semester.
My mother's side of the family lives in Hsinchu, so we made our way down south on Saturday. After about two hours on the highway, we made a brief stop at my aunt's house and toured her art collection before going off to lunch together. My aunt treated us to a banquet, and my uncle kept pouring us whiskey until W and I had about five or six shots each. In between the food and the alcohol I managed to sneak in some small talk with my cousin's husband, who doesn't speak Mandarin or Taiwanese and was probably glad someone else was speaking English. Afterwards, we retreated to my grandmother's house and lingered a bit before going home.
