Golden Night in NTUST

This Goleden night was organized by MBA students on NTUST (my university) on Wednesday DEC 5th. I am not MBA student, I am just a normal, ordinery one. Just for "fun" but better to say for my professional interest I study marketing MBA course in NTUST, and thanks of that I could met another group of fine people.
I have attended also because I promised to play some music instruments with several groups.
The first one, I joined Indonesian group, which played for most of European people pretty interesting instrument called Anklung. Every group needs bass, better if it has double-bass:

After this there was a little break and continued with another band:

And we played very nice songs: I will survive and Heal the World from Michale Jackson. Than there was a nice dinner some contests like:

And on the end ... another little performance. Jazz and Jingle Bells in jazz arrange:

Ximen Bikeway

I decided to test my new bike ... Ximen and Wulai direction. There was not much time.. less then 3 hours, but it was a nice trip mostly in park along the river. Here is just several photos from this trip for your inspiration.

Ximan (boat rental, you can swim in the river also)

And race with all the cars and motorcycles back.... in such road, bike can be faster then cars... :) nice and fast "downhill". Good luck.

New bike, from friend Martin, from Taichung

As I have already mentioned last, mm second day in Taichung I visited Earthquake museum.... and bought a "new" bike from Martin. Martin has bought motorized version of bike and since that time had no necessity to ride a bike any more. But it doesn't mean Martin doesn't like bikes. He does. That's why this bike has so rich history. He could probably write a blog just about his bike trip on this bike - we will see. I just mention he got to the Taiwan by train across the Russia, also known as Siberian Railway, and on every stop he travelled on this bike...

As you can see: Scott, Shimano Deore, 9 gear ... very cool... very nice.
There was only one problem: how to get this nice bike to Taipei? And how to be in the class at 6:30 pm if it was 3:00 pm? No James Bond today ... but MacGyver ... Ubus (green buses, which could be seen very often) go every 20 minutes from Taichung to Taipei. It costs 125 NT$, nice price if you know that you don't pay for your luggage. Such a bike sadly is not a normal luggage, what can you reliased at first sight. You can easily take a foldable bike, just put it into cover .... but for normal bike?
You will need Information stand nearby bus station, very unhesitating staff in information store which can provide you a lot of forgotten posters, and defined level of self-confidence during explaining your belief to Ubus staff. Result?

When you get to the bus, everything is ok. There are only three seat in one row in such a bus, so it reminds airplane. When i realized how much space do these buses (problem is that not all of them) have I was a little bit angry on Taipei station.

Surprisingly, this is not end of my buying story. When I got to Taipei Main Station I wanted to take MRT and get to Conguan to University, to "home" ... Firstly, I couldn't find any entrance to the MRT suitable for bike...Secondly after I decided to take the situation strongly by my hands and solve it, I took escalators and got to the MRT entrance ... Staff was a little bit surprised and explained me, that there were not any entrance intently :).
You cannot enter or get out with bike on this station. For the third time: you cannot take a bike to MRT during week! Only at weekend (and it is quite expensive). Again you don't pay if you have foldable bike.
So I was pedaling to our university. Fortunately it is not so far as I thought.
Somebody can ask why I write about such a stupid problem so many sentences...because it is totally different from Prague :). So this blog can help to next travelers from Prague.

921 Earthquake Museum, Taichung Township

Second day in Taichung I decided to visit Museum of earthquake. This unique museum is built within the ruins of Guangfu﹝光復﹞ Junior High School in the Wufong﹝霧峰﹞ Township of Taichung﹝台中﹞. The school’s demolished buildings not only help visitors observe and contemplate the power of an earthquake, but the broken parts of the building have also been skillfully used as effective teaching aids. Merely The China Post.
All the photoes are available here.
On Tuesdy morning you can be almost sure you will have your quiet, only several school buses were there.

There are five sections of museum, on the imagine above you can see the entrance hall and athletic field which was rised about 2,5 meters during the earthquake and can be better see from the entrance hall.

The most imposant and scary views come after that, when you pass through the area around "main building-original entrance to the school". You can see abounded classrooms with still wrote up blackboards.

Other interesting thins are simulators of earthquake. In the museum, there is a 3D cinema sall, where you can see how it looks like during the earthquake - in 3D reality. Also there are several examples of building construction. One of the most important and interesting thing for me were exactly these models. It reminds me time spent in shool desk - it is about "self frequency of construction" (I am not sure if this term is totally correct). Look first at models of buildings:

1. ordinary low rise building
2. building with diagonal brace damper
3. fondation isolator (this construction has its own "bogie", so during the earthquake it drives on "wheels")
4. ordinary high rise building
5. building with tuned mass damper
   

Doesn't it remind you the famous bowl in T101? :)
And on the very end I will present two videos about what is happening if the frequency is low and high:

Low frequency

High frequency

Trip to Taichung

Last week I decided to go to Taichung. There were several reasons why to go. First there was a Bike Taichung Week a meeting for bike parts manufacturers - suppliers and for their customers; secondly, in Taichung there are other Czech students which I wanted to visit. Everything began very nice, have a steak in our canteen (cause our canteen is very famous) cold tea and hot mice soup:

Walk with walkman to Taipei Main Station and take HSR (High Speed Railway). During the way I finalized my plans for this stay but forget a little bit to prepare how to get from Taichung HSR station:). So my story is beginning:). HSR Station reminds again the airport hall... so i found a table of buses... around 30 buses ... but all the information were in Chinese. Suddenly, good Taiwanese guy had appeared... and he was asking: "hey good man, where are you going? what is your destiny?" :) (kidding) so I replied: "Yo, man, I need to get to Hsing Universtity. Have you ever heard about that place? It's a heaven for people like me.. u know?" And so we were talking like that taking a right bus... go through the night town to the last station. Then this good man, history teacher and computer administrator of one high school took his motorbike and me and took me in front of main gate of Hsing University. I remember his last words: "Don't trust drunken drivers! Good luck". My Czech friends were surprised how I got there, sadly I didn't see how they felt down from their chairs..
We had a nice beer, Taiwanese beer in the green bottle with green label. Simply this one is da best.

Monday...7.12.2009
little survey... where I am? Hsing University. (I have to say... I love our tiny cozy campus:), sorry guys).

took my new shoes, took my new trousers and Polo jacket. Cleaned teeth and ... you know. Than I said "Hello" to my friend's motorbike. That motorbike was silent... so I decided to show him who is the master.

Sit on it and rode for next three hours finding the hotel where the conference had been held. Found. Was nice. Sal in the 13th floor.. so I visited several stands and did several interviews with very important face... Then went to second hotel... and did the same again. Several photos from Taichung Railway Station (not HSR):

After lunch I rent a bike. Giant bike, because you cannot find a different brand in Taiwan. Their "stand" is placed very very near to main gate of the universtity. Also the bikeway leads next to this main university entrance.

 

Think this is enough :). I have a lot of pictures from Taichung so I decided to create a new photo album where you can see all the photos and videos. Click here.
Around Taichung city there is nice bikeway, in such a rentals you can get map bellow, I have enclosed also the map I got on Taichung Bike Week. Green routes are the same:

In these materials you can find almost everything about riding in the town. But what about surroundings? There are a lot of other possibilities and 2 days (I had) aren't enough, so I hope next time. I did more than three hours bike trip,

wanted to get to Houfeng & Dongfeng Bike Path (source of maps: www.taiwanfun.com):

But it is really far from Hsing university for just one afternoon trip (more than 20 km to get there).
During my way I found very important building: Taiwan Tabaco & Liqueur Corporation:

This was almost the last day photo that day.... See next day in next article.