Thursday, 16 August 2007

Back In Taiwan

Well it's been bye bye to Olomouc for Mr Quinky and hello to Taipei for Hello Xu Xu. What a contrast! It's like being teleported to a different galaxy. Taiwan is a most interesting place, evoking strong emotions daily, some pleasant, some not. Here are a few little tidbits regarding the island sometimes known as Formosa, or to the Chinese as "the renagade province that will oneday be returned to the motherland":
It's very crowded, Taiwans population density is second only to Bangladesh.
There are more scooters per capita here than any other country, that is to say there are 23 million people, and more than 10 million registered scooters, so it's something that strikes you at once. There are also alot of cars, the favoured colours being black and silver.
Taiwan has the highest per capita consumption of cement. They like using concrete to make stuff.
The fruit here is fantastic, a trip to a fruitshop yeilds seasonal wonders at a very affordable price.
The vegetables here aren't so many and varied, they consist mostly of green shoots and leaves, oh, and corn (anyone for Taiwanese pizza?)
There are the largest number of 7-Eleven convenience stores per capita in the world. They are everywhere, and are wonderfully convenient, you can buy food, beer, wine, photocopy items, pay your bills, enjoy a bit of air conditioning, and lots of other convenient stuff.....

1 comment:

Captain Oddsocks said...

Yeah, those Czechs don't eat much fruit traditionally--too busy hoarding it to make alcohol out of it in the autumn!!