This has been an eventful trip. While in Taipei the students were introduced to the complexities of Taiwan's democracy. They met people from different sides of the political spectrum and learned about the meaning of "Green" and "Blue" politics. I will post pictures and more discussion of the meetings when I have speedier internet access.

Following the meetings and briefings in Taipei we left for an around island tour. We started by visiting the Jung-Tai Monastery in Puli and then went to Sun Moon Lake in the middle of the island. We spent the night in Puli. We followed this with a visit to the Aboriginal Culture Park and then spent the evening in Taichung. This morning we left Taichung and visited Lukang, an old port city in western Taiwan known for its Mazu Temples. As one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, a visit to Lukang gives a nice introduction to the multiple cultural influences in Taiwan, including Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese.

We are currently at an altitude of about 7500 feet on Alishan, (Ali Mountain) in the western range of mountains in Taiwan. We took a two hour hike through the forest this evening before dinner. Along the way we got to see some beautiful, enormous red cyprus trees indigenous to the area. Many of the trees are over 1000 years old and the largest has a circumference of 23 meters. Unfortunately most of these trees were cut down by the Japanese during the colonial era, and their valued timber shipped back to Japan.

We will get up very early tomorrow morning and ride the alpine train up the mountain to view the sunrise over Taiwan's highest peak, Yushan (Jade Mountain). Jade Mountain is approximately 4000 meters. Following the sunrise we will head down to Tainan and visit the Siraya Indigenous community and the Khau-pi Presbyterian Church. The Siraya people are going to greet us with an introduction to their history and land, and treat us to a traditional lunch. The Minister of the church is a fascinating man who is doing impressive service work in the community. We will travel down to Kaohsiung tomorrow evening. Kaohsiung is Taiwan's second largest city, and the largest port.

A sudden realization:

This post may not seem to be the most insightful revelation pertaining to our time in Taiwan, but I believe it is a very pragmatic application of my experience in the country.

After visiting the hot springs high in the mountains, my head cleared by the healing effects of the sulfur water, I realized that Austin College is missing something.

There is an important element to our university which is horribly lacking, and or at least, from which the attendees would benefit highly from. Austin College does not have hot springs. But we need them. Ask anyone who participated in the ritual of running between steaming pools in the cold rain today and they will agree.

We need hot springs in Sherman. Enough said.

Well, almost enough. Having some of those fish that bite the dead skin off your feet would be nice too. And yes, that sounds a bit disgusting but it is actually very fun. I would warn that they tickle something terrible, however.

I think it is clear we should submit the proposal for the Austin College hot springs to whatever governing board handles geothermal energy at the university immediately.

That is all for now.

PS: I will actually post a serious blog/post/thing later, but for now, the less serious.

We have been so busy that nobody has had time to post anything to the blog! We visited Soochow University and met with professors and students there, we visited a think tank called Taiwan Brain Trust, were guests at a luncheon hosted by the Institute for National Policy Research, received a briefing at the American Institute in Taiwan (the de facto embassy), attended a class and then had dinner with the professor and students at National Taiwan University, and visited National Chengchi University where we were greeted by the University Vice President and then had dinner with Professor Chen and his students. We have also visited both major political party (KMT and DPP) headquarters, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and had an excellent discussion with Michael Cole of the Taipei Times newspaper. We have one more meeting with Robin Winkler of the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Fund, who will brief us on key environmental issues in Taiwan. We have also done some wonderful sightseeing and had amazing food. We will leave for our trip down south on the 16th. There are many pictures that I promise to post to the blog as soon as I get a chance.

Our first meeting is at Soochow University on Friday January 7th. We will have a lunch and social gathering with students and professors. The Soochow University Department of Political Science created a poster to promote the event.