Yang Ming Shan

Good evening. This is my first post on this blog, and infact my first on any blog. I have been in Taipei for over two weeks and living in the frantic but exciting hub of the urban sprawl. As a naturalist, it made a nice change to get up to yang ming shan national park where the sounds were not of motor vehicles, but of insects and birds. Judging by the sound alone, there must have been more creepy crawlies there than all of the people in the taipei basin below could count on their fingers and toes..combined! I had never seen such diversity of life in one space and took many photos of the beautiful scenery and bizarre wildlife. Taiwan is famous for its buterflies and i could see why... there were so many different species in even just a few metres.

We took a bus up to the visitor centre and had a chat with the wardens. We had wanted to scale mount qi xing, but by the time we got round to setting off, the weather had deteriorated and rain was immminent. The views from the summit would have been pretty bad as morning is the best time, before the cloud builds up around the hills and the haze builds up in the taipei basin, obscuring the citscape from view. So the rangers recomended a woodland walk around the sides of the mountain,. we were still well high up and the summit was in sight at our highest point so the views were actually very good of the city below and the moutain sides. I found the natural characteristics of the nataional park very interesting and very differebt from the temperate climes i am used to. The woodland was almost tropical rainforest and had diversity in its species to match. Instead of reeling of a massive list ill put a few photos of the place on here. In some ways i was kind of glad that it wasnt brillian t sunshine, as i find that mist and grey skies gives a place more atmosphere. The combination of the mist, grey skies and the almost deafening sound of sicadas in the trees gave the whole place an otherworldy feel, making me feel very small and insignificant. The national park trails were very well lokked after by the rangers and i was well impressed by the quality of the path which was paved most of the way and strimmed at the sides. There was a lovely little park at the top of our trail which children and old folk were playing and chilling. It was warming to see kids from a massive polluted concrete jungle enjoying the space of the moutainside. At the visitor centre, there was a guy who was really funny and he was very happy when i said i was considering volunteering in the park.

On the return journey in the bus, the apparent lack of consideration of personal space was made starkly apparent to me as an old man shouted (talked) to a woman a foot away from him. His voice was like a Taiwanese language foghorn, or whatever the hell he was talking. He gave me a headache and we were glad doo disembark from the bus. We walked around shi lin and i bought some blue cat boxers. I saw the worlds biggest zippo and if i had been a richer man would have bought it for the brethren. Another time perhaps.

Today, i bought the tastyest pair of oldskool tortoishell rayban wayfarers at a redicoulously low price, thanks to some severe bargaining. I then went toa record shop on the hubt for some chinese music on lp. I wanted to buty some whilst i am out here as it is hard to gat any in the uk. I got 3 peices, one for free!!!! 2 instrumental of a pipa and classical orchestra and one singer. They are oldskool but will be great i think. Cant wait to listn to them.

Over and out.