The picture atop the page is from Eiheiji, which I visited in January.
For now, let's get back to Taiwan.
Previously, in Formosa entries I was wandering the hills near the city of Hualien on the East Coast. The Hualien portion of the trip was only a couple days out of a full week, but it was the most unique and exciting part of the journey. The rest of the time I spent in Taipei, Taiwan's political, cultural and economic centre.
Taiwan is not a large island. Next to Bangladesh, it's considered one of the most densely populated places on the planet. In spite of its small size, however, Taiwan has one very sexy, sexy global influence: half the laptops in the world are manufactured here.
A large number of computer chips are manufactured as well. Chances are, if you've owned a computer, you've benefited from the Taiwanese technology industry.
Rowrrr...
(that's an imitation of a seductive cat purr, in case if you couldn't tell)
So, how do you cope with such a dense population in Taipei?Construct the world's tallest building, Taipei 101.*
The entire population of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, could work in this tower and there would still be positions available.
Taipei 101 is not only tall, it also can withstand powerful earthquakes, typhoon-force winds and Japanese tour groups.
It is considered one of the greatest feats of modern engineering.
Here's the view from the cafe on the 89th floor. Notice the mountains in the background. It's possible to take a bus into the mountains to a tea village that I will mention later. Remember that. It'll be important. You may want to have a notebook ready (but not yet - it'll be in a later entry).
Taipei has some great night markets. Meals, souvenirs, clothing, drinks and the ever-important snacks-on-a-stick are all available. Most of my time in Taipei was spent wandering around trying various foods in markets like this one and looking for museums.*construction should finish this year on a tower in Dubai that will become the tallest building in the world.