After "suffering" and being "stuck" in the airplane for four and a half hour, finally we reach Taiwan. I feel so excited and cannot wait to explore this beautiful island of the Republic of China. One of the lecturer and student of Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU) came and welcoming us in the airport. They bring us to the hotel at Chung Li city by bus. On the way to Chung Li, I have tried to capture some photos on my first impression of Taiwan. What it is so different from Malaysia is their signboard, advertisement board, and the name of the road, they are all written with Traditional Chinese and English translation. However, in Malaysia, they are written mainly with Malay and English.
*Malaysia signboard vs Taiwan signboard
Another reason that makes me feel unusual was I can see only one type of races walking along the streets. They are all in Chinese. Unlike Malaysia, we have different types of races that mainly included Chinese, Malay, and Indian. And when we are walking through the streets of Malaysia, we can even explore more than three races such as Bangladesh, Indonesian, Iranian, Nigerian, and others. In my opinion, living in a country with so many races are more interesting than living in a country with only one type of races.
Hui Hui was sitting at the back of the bus and she look so excited. This can be proved by her huge eye bag causing by staying awake the whole night.
*Hui Hui
When we are heading to Chungli, I saw a building that reminds me of the Bank Negara Malaysia in Penang and the building is also function as a bank. They are both designed with vertical sun shading devices and with glass windows. Both of the masonry with post and beam construction are designed in layering at different floor level to give more shade to the huge opening. These might shows that both of the buildings have the same considerations on sun orientation and shading devices.
*Taiwan (Taiwan Bank 台湾银行) vs Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia at Penang)
It was about 5pm when we reach Park Royal hotel at Chung Li. After settle down everything, we can’t wait to have a short walk nearby to have a look at the city. We found a lot of food and snack (小食) nearby and they are so attractive, especially the red bean pancake. Hui Hui and I can’t get rid of it and decided to try one although we knew that dinner is just a minute later. It was so delicious.
After that, we are having our dinner at the night market nearby CYCU campus. I realised that the night market over here are similar to the night market in Malaysia. The night market is located outside the shop houses and all the hawkers are doing their business along the street. However, we can find more food hawkers along the night market instead of clothes and shoes. The space along the night market is much larger than Malaysia night market. This is because cars, bicycles and scooters are allowed to go into the night market. So, we have to be aware with the vehicles while enjoying the foods and we can’t walk blindly in the middle of the street just like what we always did at Malaysia night market. Some of the shop houses provide tables and chairs to allow customers to enjoy their food which are bought from the hawkers outside with air-conditioning system, but the rules is you have to clean up your table before you leave. We can even get free drinks but everything is self service.
*CYCU campus area night market * Hui Hui and Linxin enjoying their food and free drinks inside an air-cond room
After having our dinner, we have a short walk around CYCU campus with two students from CYCU landscape architecture (阿志 and豆花). They bring us to visit their hostel. There is a courtyard at the hostel to allow natural ventilation and natural lighting. The staircase is facing the courtyard and criminals can be reduced. We also went to visit the department of landscape architecture. We are allowed to have a look at their studio. Each student is provided with their own personnel working spaces and they can design their own working spaces with their creativity. They can even sleep inside there after arguing with their roomates. What make it so fun is they can ruin up their personnel working spaces while model making and the studio can be as messy as possible. If the studio is clean and dirt free, there must be something wrong.
It was about midnight when we reach our hotel. Thanks to阿志 and豆花 for accompany us the whole night and send us back to our hotel safely.
