The first Maker Faire in Taipei (well, in Taiwan really) happened at Huashan park this past weekend, May 18-19. Entry was free for all-comers and it was awesome. As one would expect, there were plenty of robots wandering around and there were even robot boxing events. There were also plenty of demonstrations of Rasberry Pi and Arduino-based projects (along with a number of Arduino clones, my favorite being Motoduino which was apparently created by a maker fan of those Hello Moto mobile phone commercials).
After a (too long) hiatus, Im back with some new street photography from Taipei, Taiwan.
One of the benefits of living in the capitol city of any country are the memorials. Taipei is no exception, with the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial being my favorite due to the amazing amount of space dedicated to grass, trees, and a small lake.
Ximen Market (a.k.a. Hsimen Market, Ximending, ???, Hsimenting, etc…) has been a shopping center in Taipei since before Taiwan was a country. It was first designated as a shopping district by the Japanese during their rule of the island prior to World War II. For Chinese or Japanese-language linguaphiles this explains the ding character, which doesnt make a ton of sense in a Chinese context because it is a direct transfer of the same character in Japanese (cho), which does make sense. There have been shopping or entertainment venues in Ximen for over a century including the Red House Theater, which has been standing since 1908 and still stands.
I meant to post these earlier this week, but I have had some Reality things that have kept me busy until now. While the other photos were taken the first day of typhoon Saola as the tropical storm was heading in, these were taken on day 2 when the bad weather was on its way out. Because the typhoon had crossed the protective mountain buffer, the rain was a bit more steady. Fortunately Saola had lost much of its power by then, so going out was just a matter of having an umbrella handy.
This is the final set of photos of typhoon Saola (2012) from the perspective of Taipei.
Taiwan is the constant target of typhoons, especially from mid-July through mid-September (a.k.a. Typhoon Season). Thankfully, the city of Taipei is protected on the weather-ward side by a mountain chain that transects the island north-to-south like a scoliotic spine. It takes quite a powerful storm to cause Taipei any significant property damage. Typhoon Saola didnt pass muster.
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