A TOUGH HIKING TRIP - SKY LADDER(天梯)

Hiking is one of may favorite activities. I visited a location in Nantou county(南投縣), Taiwan which is famous of the special ladder suspension bridge(梯子吊橋). This ladder style suspension bridge is very special. It is the first one in Taiwan and the second in the world, with a total length of 136m and 208 steps; the height difference between the 2 sides is a staggering 20m.

To walk across this bridge is not a difficult job, but reaching it and returning to the entrance is defiantly a tough challenge. I consider myself as an experienced hiker, but this time it really gave me a hard time. The distance between entrance and the bridge is about 1Km, and between entrance and the end of this area is about 2Km. Due to the steep trail, I took about 3 hours to complete 4Km hiking.

During the 3 hour hiking, I did not only experience Sky Ladder, but also see the beautiful Green Dragon Waterfall and other scenery. Those wonderful views made the hard works worthy. But be honest, this place is not good for family with kids and senior people. Also, if you are not a person capable handling tough hiking, please do not try it. It is better just enjoy watching my photos.

HOME OF PERSIMMON CAKE - XINPU 新埔

Xinpu(新埔) is a small township of Hsinchu county (新竹縣). During October to December, it is the high season to produce persimmon. The farmers will make the persimmon cake (dry persimmon) with the over produced persimmons.
I am not a fan of persimmon cake, but I am attracted by the beautiful color and atmosphere of making persimmon cakes.

more photos...

MEMORIAL OF 911

Today is the 10th anniversary of 911. I uploaded this photo which I took in 1992 to remember this tragedy and wish no more terrorist attack happened any more.

MODEL GUN COLLECTIONS(8) - BERETTA PX4 BY WEI E

Not a long time ago, there was a movie "Inception" was popular in the world. The story talks about how to get information by entering people's subconscious. In that movie, the actor Leonardo DiCaprio used a compact size pistol, and it was one of the new pistol from Beretta, the PX4.

I bought a PX4 BB pistol about one month ago. It is made by a Taiwanese company named Wei E. The produce a lot inexpensive BB guns and quite popular among BB gun and survival game enthusiasts. This pistol comes with a metal slides, a metal barrel and 3 different sizes of back straps for grip, just like for real pistol.

Though the logo and mark on this BB is not exactly same as real one due to license issue, it is still a nice piece to play with. Not to mention such a good deal at the price of NTD2500(USD83).

CRUISE IN THE PAINTING

Vietnam was always a part of Vietnam War history to me; most people were Charlie (nick name of Viet Con by Americans or Hollywood movies). But the world is changing, so is Vietnam. For a better development of country and a better life of people, now Vietnam is much opener than ever.

Had a chance having a 5 day trip to Vietnam, main purpose was visiting Ha Long Bay(下龍灣). Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It includes almost 2,000 island, and most are limestone. Because the huge area on the sea, the only way is to take a cruise to have a glace of it. If you have time, taking 2 day 1 night cruise is the best arrangement. Now there are 500 regular touring boats and about 60 cruisers which provides accommodation service.

We took Syrena Cruise this time and the boat started operation just in early 2011. The room is not big but cozy. Besides off boat activities for visiting 2 islands, there were also some interesting on boat activities, such as Tai Chi and cooking class. It was really a relaxing tour for us.

And talking about Ha Long Bay, looking at photos is always better than reading thousand words.

ONE GAME FOR TWO DREAMS

In last November, I finally bought a set of Sony PS3 for its blue-ray capability and for the long waiting game, Gran Turismo 5. There are hundreds of cars from daily driving cars to the super sports cars waiting for my driving. I think this game making most boys' (and some girls) dream come true. Though I am already a level 24 driver in the game, but I still expect more driving experiences and challenges in the game. I don't think I will be ever bored with this wonderful game.

Also, there is a photography function allows me to take photo when my driving video replayed. I can choose the timing, location, and angle for photo shooting. The best is to set up the camera just like the real one; shutter speed, aperture, zoom in/out.... So I can take photos of my dream cars under fully controlled conditions.

I think Gran Turismo 5 provides me unusual experiences which there are almost impossible happened in my real life. It really give me a lot of pleasure! Would you like to give it a try and join the race in virtual world?

PRAY FOR JAPAN

It has been a week since the super earthquake followed by tsunami stuck northeast Japan on March 11, 2011. So far over 7,0000 people lost their lives and around 11,000 are still missing.

There are thousands people became homeless and are fighting for their lives. They also need to face the sorrow of losing families and friends.

Japan is one of my favorite countries, I've been there for 24 times for business and personal trips. I am not able to do anything to comfort and help those people who are suffering from this disaster. All I can do is pray for them and provide limited help through money donation.

Hope the bad weather and the nuclear crisis go away soon, also wish all the people be strong and back to their normal life soon, though their life will not be normal any more.

Resources related to the 2011 Japan Crisis

強震重創日本，聯合勸募為日本地震籌募後續重建經費

SPRING IS COMING

There was a long weekend at the end of February and the weather was so pretty; warm and sunny. Most people took this opportunity to have outdoor activities. The most popular activity was visiting the cherry blossom sites.

We did not go to see cherry blossom instead of visiting a private garden named 桃源仙谷 (Tao Yuan Shan Gu) where was full of variety of tulips. We enjoyed those colorful tulips and some cherry blossoms, also enjoyed the walking under the sunshine.

As seeing those beautiful flowers and feeling warm weather, we were pretty sure "spring is coming!".

more photos

FLIGHT OVER MT. ASO

During the Chinese New Year, we spent few days for a North Kyushu trip in Japan. We took a train to Aso from Beppu to visit the famous volcano, the Mount Aso (阿蘇山). Usually visitors will take cable car up to Mt. Aso to experience this live volcano, but on the day we visited, the cable car did not operate due to heavy smoke. Jane also coughed badly....

We were quite disappointed and walked toward Volcano Museum. When we were enjoying the nice view and sunshine, we found a helicopter landing not far away from us. We realized it was for Mt. Aso scenic flight. So we decided to have a different experience about Mt. Aso.

Though it was not the first helicopter flight for us, we still felt exciting about it. When we were flying around Mt. Aso, we really enjoyed the whole picture of Mt. Aso which we could only see from post cards. The image was super stunning.

Before the flight, we though JPY5,000 per person for a 5 min flight was kind expensive. But after seeing the beautiful Mt. Aso, we could say it was worthy to do it.

TAIPEI INTERNATIONAL FLORA EXPOSITION

On the last day of year 2010, I visited 2011 Taipei International Flora Exposition. I am not an expert or enthusiast of flowers, so I did not get in the long line for those fancy exhibition halls. I just enjoyed walking under the beautiful winter sunshine to visit those outdoor exhibition areas one by one.

Some people blame it too costly, and some criticize it not well organized. For me, it is an international event in Taipei and a precious big beautiful green area which I should not miss it. I wish all these beautiful garden will still be well maintained after the expo.

Photos of Flora Expo.