Mountain chain

Together with Tsai, we wanted to go up the mountains for two days, to get a whiff of the coldest air in Taiwan. Her family, and especially grandma, were concerned that we had packed enough clothes and food. Aunts and uncles also took a keen interest in our excursion and freely chipped in! Finally we took the train in a southerly direction and hitched a ride up the mountain. Half way up, we stopped for the night and stayed in a small room with a local farming family. From here we started the next day to reach the 2000m point. Once we’d reached the top, we had a snack in preparation for our short hike through the slightly crowded forest. In the evening we hitched a ride back into the valley, where we took the train back to Tsai’s grandmother. They were all really happy to see us return and served a feast for us the next day. In Taiwan, this means three to four kinds of meat either boiled in soup, fried or served with steamed vegetables and lots of shellfish, along with rice or noodles.

Our last two days in Taiwan, we spent in Taipei. One glass stop was still missing: The Tittot Museum of Glass Art. This is located in the north of the city approximately an hour’s train ride out of town. They have a small glass studio there with a furnace that’s only running when it’s really needed. The amount of liquid glass is so small that it’s not necessary to keep it running for long, or so we were told. This concept of firing up the furnace to 1200°C for just one day, only to turn it off again, was completely new to us. The glass inside would struggle to cope with such differences in temperature. Winnie told us that yesterday it was running just for a couple of hours. We had exchanged lots of emails with her to arrange this visit. The museum was started by the company ‘Tittot’, which mainly produces machine made glass. They have a display briefly explaining the history of glass making and they exhibit pieces from European and American artists.

Since Friday we have been in Hong Kong, where we’re visiting Sunny Wang at the Baptist University. On Saturday and Sunday we went up into the mountains with her. Unfortunately the weather didn’t play along and rather than enjoying a view of the city, we got quite wet.