101 reasons I got over my tall building obsession

I've never been able to resist visiting the really tall buildings when there's one nearby. I mean the ones that are or were serious contenders for World's Tallest Building.

I've been up the Empire State Building, the Burj Khalifa, the Petronas Towers, the Canton Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center, Chicago's Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower), and in Melbourne, our very own Eureka Tower. There's usually a modest fee, a bit of a queue, and spectacular views from the top.

So it was inevitable that I'd find my way up to the top of Taipei 101 while I was there. It's admittedly only the 11th tallest in the world right now, at 509m, but from 2004 to 2010 it was in fact number one.

As usual, there's a not-to-scale wall chart that  exaggerates its size, depicting all the others as smaller, whether they are or not.

The entry fee was a bit more than expected, but the 40-minute queuing time was an even more unwelcome imposition.

The view was a problem for me too. Being in the only really big building in town, there's not much else to look at. I found it difficult to get my bearings. It might have worked better in daylight, when it would have been easier to locate the hills I'd been climbing earlier in the day.





So after 20 minutes I was ready to come down again. Except that there was another 40 minute queue to negotiate!


I did rather like the open access to the wind vibration dampening ball mechanism, hanging down through the centre of the building. It's a 660 tonne steel pendulum, and it's been known to move by up to one metre during typhoons.

Yehliu Geopark

It's a very popular tourist destination in northern Taiwan, an easy day trip out from Taipei. Maybe a little too popular, as in it's extremely crowded. But there's some very eye-catching scenery.

I'm sure there's lots here for geologists to wonder at, but mostly we're looking at the various formations, and trying to work out which is the 'Fairy Shoe', which the 'Elephant Rock', the 'Ice Cream Rock', and the 'Kissing Rock'. The most famous rock of all is the 'Queen's Head'. It's said to look like Queen Nefertiti (though one site said Queen Elizabeth 1st). That's only when you view it from the correct position though, and there was an enormous queue to get to that position!

There were several prominent sea anemone fossils,and signs saying not to damage the fossils and things. I'd prefer that they'd actually protected them with fences though.

These were the 'sea candles'. Possibly unique to here?

Taroko's aboriginal-run hotel

Until the late 17th century, Taiwan was predominantly inhabited by its aboriginal population, though there had been strong Spanish, Portugese, and Dutch presences, along with many others. It's a particularly complicated history.

But then along came the Ming Dynasty Han Chinese, and they came to dominate the place, with the aborigines retreating to the mountains. It's a bit analogous with Australia and its European invasion a bit later. And the Japanese ran the place from 1895 until 1945, of course.

 But back to the aborigines. They're in a bad way generally, but the Government runs generous programmes to support them, we were told.

There's also an interesting private programme, in the shape of the Taroko Village Hotel. It's owned by a wealthy non-aboriginal Taiwanese, but the employees are aboriginal, and the hotel is styled on the original village.


They serve traditional foods, notably different from the usual Chinese fare.



It's rather expensive too. We only dined there. Guide Samantha said their last group also stayed there. I asked her what went wrong. "Nothing went wrong", she said. I think it was just our budget that went wrong!

Swallow Grotto and Zhuilu Old Trails

Another winding-down walk was along part of the historic Zhuilu Old Trail, built by the Japanese in 1915, as part of their war effort to defeat the local aboriginal people. Taiwan had been ceded to the Japanese by the Qing dynasty in 1895, but there were still some loose ends to sort out up here in the mountains.

The views are great, and the cliffs are high and steep.

Some photos courtesy of other expedition members or guides

Taroko Gorge

After our big adventure on Taiwan's second highest mountain, we had a few days of winding down walks and things on the east coast.

Here's Taroko Gorge, a spectacular place with some nice little activities on offer.

We did a short walk involving several tunnels dug by gold miners, and with an underground waterfall as its destination.



































And we surveyed the footbridges leading to other walking tracks on the other side.

The porter

You pass a steady stream of hikers as you ascend and descend those Taiwanese mountain tracks. They're almost universally cheerful and friendly.

Except this poor chap. He was a porter, taking supplies up to one of the mountain huts, and doing it the hard way, without a motorcycle as used by some of his fellow porters.

He looked straight ahead, ignored all greetings, and plodded on stoically.

Sunrise mountains

I've climbed lots of mountains in Asia for which I've discovered you're expected to get up at 3am or worse, so you can climb it in the dark and watch the sunrise at the summit. It never seems such a good idea at the time, but there are in fact good reasons. Such as that the sky often clouds over soon after sunrise, so that's the surest way to actually see anything.



So here we are, setting off from Tianchi Villa, in Taiwan's Taroko National Park. We're on our way up to watch the sun rising from atop Mt Nanhua.

When in the Northern Hemisphere I always enjoy the chance to reacquaint myself with the night sky of my youth. Here's the Plough, plus Ursa Minor and Polaris.
































Taiwan's East Coast seems almost permanently lost in the clouds.

Jumping for joy

They appear to be a long way up in the air, these Australian hikers on a Taiwan mountain top. Is it just their amazing level of fitness, or were they assisted by the lower gravity up there?





Photos courtesy of other expeditioners

Taiwan's mountain huts - trials and tribulations for the luxury hiker!

Ours was mainly a hiking trip for softies, with accommodation in very comfortable hotels between our various day walks. But there were  a couple of occasions when we had to spend a night or two up in the mountains, and then you take whatever accommodation is available.

Here's Tianchi Villa, where we spent a couple of nights. Except on the second night there was no room inside, and we were put into tents.


There was only an intermittent water supply there, and the arrangements for feeding the masses were somewhat military in style.

And here's 369 Villa, which houses 150 sleepers in an even more spartan style. In practice it didn't really matter how uncomfortable the sleeping arrangements - you are woken at 1am anyway, when the first shifts rise and are breakfasted, ready for their assault on Xue Mountain.

Someone told me these huts are all run by volunteers. If that's the case, they're doing a rather fine job.

Altitude

Taiwan has 250 peaks above 3000m altitude, and we were due to conquer the second highest, at 3886m. So it paid to build our way up to it over a few days:



Mt Dongmao, 1692m

Mt Malun,  2305m

Mt Nanhua, 3184m

Mt Qilai South, 3358m

Mt Hehuan Main Peak, 3417m

Mt Shimen, 3237m

Mt Hehuan North Peak, 3422m

This chap was receiving oxygen treatment at Songsyue Lodge, probably after climbing one of these peaks without preparation. 

Mt Xue/Syue East Peak, 3200m

Mt Xue / Mt Syue ('Snow Mt'), 3886m

 Some images courtesy other expedition members or guides

Tea ceremony

Taiwan's very proud of its tea. Here we are at a tasting session for someone's special oolong tea.

It was done with panache, but for me it was a bit like many wine tastings I've been to. All panache but a less than outstanding taste experience. So no sale to me.

"You'll be well fed in Taiwan"

And we were!

Some images courtesy other expedition members or guides