7 oct 2013

A trip around New Taipei City (Taiwan)

One week ago I did a weekend getaway around New Taipei district (known in chinese as 新北市 ).
We could actually define this district as the "suburb" of Taipei City. If we take a look to a map we will see that New Taipei City completely surrounds Taipei City. In the late years this district turned into a special municipality and it population grown rapidly. In consequence of that this district is progressively developing.

Our first stop on was the district of Shuangxi [雙溪區], we got off the train, rent some bicycles and trip around this rural district (probably the most rural place around New Taipei City). Most of the landscape was formed by cultivating fields, many kinds of plants and long roads. That was my 1st time experiencing the rural Taiwan on such a "close" way: eating the typical, dishes, drinking some Oolong tea accompanied by the local, visiting an old temple while we hear some explanaitions about the religions traditions and also make a first contact with the traditional chinese medicine by tasting some of their products.

Village of Shuangxi
Our Guest House in Shuangxi

On the next day our visit took place mostly around the east side of Shuangxi.  Our second stop was the famous and popular Beach of Fulong. A huge big beach placed on the west of Shuangxi, in Gongliao district. This beach is a popular spot for the young people and every summer since 2000 it takes place a music festival called Hohaiyan Rock Festival. Our lodging for the 2 nights we spent was a pleasanr guest house placed in the mountains called 山明水舍民宿. Their owners were so kind with us, gave us a a familiar treat. 


                         
Fulong Beach 
On our second day, the trip was mostly around the eastern and northern districts of Shuangxi. We fisrt visited Houtong [猴硐], a very famous attraction in Taiwan, also known as the "Cat Village". It's actually a very small place with a particular fact. Probably The biggest part of its habitants are cats. It's a perfect place for cat lovers or just the perfect spot if you want to take pictures of cats. Most of them are
quite naive with humans, so you won't have any problem to cuddle them. After having a meal in Houtong (we didn't eat anything related with cats...) we took a train to our next stop: Pingxi.

Pinxi is also a very special village, constructed of both sides of the train tracks. Is also an old style village almost surrounded by mountains. For me, one of the bests landscapes you can find in Taiwan. People will specially come to make their own Sky lantern [天燈], writting their wishes on it and then release it to the sky by burning some paper money placed on the inside. The system is based on the hot air ballon. There are several kinds of lanterns. From the single colour ones to the four coloured ones. Each colour can represent a different kind of wish. So you should write a different kind of wish according to the colour. Obviously we made and releases our own lantern. And fortunately our lantern didn't burn away. That means our wished may be felt by the gods... who knows...


This sky lantern tradition comes from the chinese tradition. Each year takes place a lantern festival, a propicious day chosen to throw all the lanterns where you can see many tourists mostly from Japan and Korea. It's specially beautiful to whatch all the lanterns shining in the black sky of Shifen and Pingxi (both places take the lantern festival). At night we took a walk around Shifen [十份] at have a dinner in there.

Houtong Village


Landscape of Pingxi
 Can you see the lanterns in the sky?

On our third and last day we moved to the coast and border it until we arrive in Jilong [基隆]. We had the chance to enjoy the magnificent view of the taiwanese northeastern coast. On our way to Jilong we made some stops. The first stop was to take a bath on some kind of resort designed for the snorkling practice. The weather was very hot, so after the bath we all felt so relieved. Once in Jilong we ate some local specialty. Jilongs is the second largest port in Taiwán after Gaoxiong [高雄]. It's actually an independent city from Taipei. It's a very recommendable place. Has something different with the rest of small cities around Taiwan and it also has a famous night market. It's common to spent an afternoon in Jilong with friends.  
Our last stop was the "New Taipei City International Kite Festival" placed on a beach at Shimen district [石門] called Baisha Bay. This was my 1st time on a kite festival. I've had never seen that as many kites in the sky as there. We even had the oportinity to fly some weird kinds of kites and also a huge panda kite. Everything was so colourful and lively. Definetely a good ending to our trip. But we still enjoyed our trip back home in the car. Was nice because we pass through a mountain to get back in Taipei and we could enjoy Taipei's view from above.    

18 feb 2011

Región de los osos




What's the point of waiting
For life to come
I could go further
And no one's surprised 
Your plans collapse, run off or fall apart...

2 feb 2011

1.333.430.000 Población de China (332.970.000 familias) 
                  46 Población de las Islas Pitcairn (9 familias)

1 ene 2011

"Al poner en contacto nuestros cuerpos imperfectos no hacemos más que contarnos lo que no podríamos contarnos de otro modo. Y así adquirimos conciencia de nuestras respectivas imperfecciones."

25 nov 2010



De alguna manera, es como si la naturaleza poseyera cierto orden. Los hechos parecen justificados, las cosas son así por una razón. Desde la morfología de los seres vivos, pasando por las plantas y la microbiótica, hasta el entorno que nos rodea.

( El Sol evoca optimismo mientras que la lluvia es capaz de arrastrarnos a la melancolía)


Los caminos se entrecruzan unos con otros dando lugar a una especia de sincronísmo. Sucesos que comienzan y acaban a la vez. Cosas que nunca ocurrieron y podrían ocurrir dando lugar a un futuro que prácticamente podemos palpar y sentir como si hubiese ocurrido realmente por medio de nuestra imaginación, nuestra mente... Pero por alguna razón escogemos un camino y no otro. Por alguna razón nos volvemos atrás y nuestro ser toma otros rumbos. Razones que ya no vale la pena preguntarse. Mi mente sabe lo que sería realmente bueno, sin embargo carece de algo ¿Carece de algo? Tampoco puedo ir en contra del río, el orden natural nos conduce por donde nosotros hemos arado y nosotros nos dejamos llevar por el cauce. ¿No?



19 nov 2010

Sobre el Tao (1-5)

1. TAO. El Tao que puede conocerse no es el Tao. La substancia del mundo es solo un nombre para el Tao. Tao es todo lo que existe y puede existir. El mundo es solo un mapa de lo que existe y puede existir. Las experiencias externas sirven para sentir el mundo. Las internas sirven para comprenderlo. Los 2 tipos de experiencia son lo mismo dentro del Tao. Son diferentes solo entre los hombres. Ninguna experiencia puede contener al Tao, el cual es infinitamente más grande y más sutil que el mundo.   


2. CUALIDADES. Cuando se reconoce la belleza en el mundo, se aprende lo que es la fealdad. Cuando se reconoce la bondad en el mundo, se aprende lo que es la maldad. De este modo vida y muerte son abstracciones del crecimiento. Dificultad y facilidad son abstracciones del progreso. Cerca y lejos son abstracciones del a posición. Fuerza y debilidad son abstracciones del control. Música y habla son abstracciones de la harmonía. Antes y después son abstracciones de la secuencia. 
El sabio controla sin autoridad y enseña sin palabras. El deja que todas las cosas asciendan y caigan. Nutre pero no interfiere. Da sin pedirle, y está satisfecho. 


3. CONTROL. No arrimado al honrado se evita el engaño. No estimando lo raro se evita el robo. No ostentando la belleza se evita la lujuria. Así pues, el sabio controla a la gente. Vaciando sus corazones, llenando sus vientres, debilitando sus ambiciones y fortaleciendo sus cuerpos. Si la gente carece de conocimiento y deseo, el más hábil entre ellos es incapaz  de actuar. Si se evitan las acciones todos viven pacificamente. 


4. PROPIEDADES DEL TAO. Tao es una nave sin fondo. Usado por si mismo no se llena con el mundo. No puede ser limitado, cortado o inmobilizado. Sus profundidades están escondidas. Desconozco de donde proviene, llegó antes que la naturaleza. 


5. NATURALEZA. La naturaleza no es amable. Trata a todas las cosas imparcialmente. El sabio no es amable. Trata a toda la gente imparcialmente. La naturaleza es semejante a un fuelle. Vacía pero satisface todas las necesidades. Cuanto más se mueve más produce. El sabio actúa de acuerdo al Tao y no puede ser agotado.  

8 nov 2010

Micromundos - Escuela Electroclash

  Segunda entrega de Micromundos. Esta vez toca Elesctroclash. Si clicáis en el link de abajo lo podries descargar como siempre.         






           


http://micromundos.podomatic.com/