Free subject: Road trip

Hello everyone, in this article, I am going to be your own tour guide and share with you the road trip that I have made during my semester in Taiwan. 

Actually Taiwan is not a very big island, it's take maybe 8 hours to cross (North to the South) all the country by bus. Buses are the most convenient and cheaper way to travel in Taiwan. You can also have free wifi in the bus, which is something cool because personally, I don't have buy any SIM card. 

The main cities to visit are Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. 

Taipei is the biggest city of the country, it's composed of historical places, museum, universities, night markets, traditional districts but also fancy and fashion areas. If I had to choose again my exchange destination, I would not hesitate at all to say again: Taipei ! I feel at home in this city. Here is a list of things that I have love to made :

- Taipei 101 world trade center district for it's Malls and dressy nightclubs

- The "Din Tai Fung" restaurent at the bottom of the 101

- Ximen district for the night market, piercing and tattoo shops

- Guting, Gongguan and Taipower building for the students life and good atmosphere 

- Jiantan and Shilin district for night markets and traditional food

- Da'an park to make jogging and walk around 

- Longshan Temple and the snake street: very traditional

- Tamsui and Beitou (out of the center) nice places for hot bath and eat seafood 

Then Kaohsiung is the second biggest city after Taipei (6 hours of bus), located in the south, the weather is wet and warm. Otherwise, the more you go in the south, the more people don't speak English so you must to manage talking with hands and signs !

 Here is what I have really like there:  

- Cijin Beach

- Kaoshiung Arena

- Night market

- Fo Guang Shan (the mountain of the light of Buddha) which is a Buddhist monastery

In a third part, their is Taichung and its surroundings. Taichung is also a city near the sea and in Chinese it's means "center of Taiwan". There are a lot of temples and night markets. This city is very typical and artistic. Close to Taichung, I went to small cities called: Puli, Taomi and Sun moon lake. I have made a lot of camping there, it's perfect because it is very preserved: the nature and mountains are beautiful.   

I also want to talk about Kenting, which is a little city located at the southern tip. It is actually a National Park. I was there 4 days in a youth hostel (7 € per nights), it was really nice.

So all those cities that I have mentioned before are on the West side of Taiwan.

In the other hand, there is the east of the country which is famous for the mountains hiking and ride with a scooter or bicycle. Indeed the middle of the country is only mountains. So on the East, there is the small city of Hualien with the national park of Taroko which is impressive for its trails and views. I was again in a cheap youth hostel ! It is in this kind of place that you meet other people and create interresting relationship.

Thank you !!!

Noémie 

Local News concerning economic :

Hello everybody ! Here is my fourth article and I am going to talk about the nuclear in Taiwan. I have decided to choose this topic because last month : on the 26th of April, workers of a Nuclear Plant located in eastern Taiwan’s Pingtung County reported its number two reactor control rod became deformed. This maintenance incident did not result any radiation leakage but the schedule of the maintenance work of the central had to be delayed. 

 

Indeed, espacially during the summer saison Taiwan need to prevent from the power shortages because the population consumes much more energy. The compagny « Taiwan Power CO. » aimed to complete maintenance work by May 17th, 2017 but with this incident it will take more time. If the maintenance is not finished before May 20th, 2017 this would have a really negative impact as much as this Plant have a really important role to play during the summer season to support all this energy and power demand.

Actually, taiwan has six nuclear power reactors. The demand in the country is very important because of the rapidly industrialising economy. 

Furthermore, the demand have increased of  3,5 % per year during 1992-2012 and in 2012 half of the demand was in electricity (numbers find in an article of the World Nuclear Association). Nuclear power was a significant part of the electricity supply for two decades but now its not provide enough power. So today, the country imports 97,5 % of its energy.

The Democratic Progressive Party want to phasing out nuclear power by 2025 with the development of alternative source of power, espacially hydro and wind power.

Indeed, Nuclear power is considerably cheaper than alternatives… and the closure of operating power plants by 2025 could result in lower economic growth rates.

This energy topic is very important and alarming for the future of Taiwan and we could ask us how the government is going to deal with that …