My Travel Adventures

As Taiwan’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic has shown, crisis management is truly one of the government’s strong suits. I am inclined to imagine that perhaps that is the reason why all of Taiwan’s bureaucratic incompetence is concentrated in the immigration sector. I have already written, I think, of how I was given the wrong visa when I first came to Taiwan, and the mess that ensued. Well, the saga continues.

This Saturday, I, along with several friends, made a trip to Yangmingshan National Park and the town of Jiufen. I had originally intended to visit Yangmingshan only to see the calla lilies, which at this time of the year are in full bloom, but it turned out that everyone had their own plans for what they wanted to see, and so the entire trip became much longer, and rather more interesting, than I had anticipated.

On Saturday morning, the city woke up to a beautiful, sunny day, but the mountains in the north began to disappear from view around noon. It was as though a dark, grey film were hanging outside my window. The return of smog could mean only one thing: the mainland’s factories had resumed production.

This week was the week of Tomb-Sweeping Day, the holiday when Chinese people return to their hometowns to clean the tombs of their ancestors and make offerings to them. We got the Thursday and Friday off, which came as a much-needed break, for we returned to school this week, and being physically present turns out to be much more mentally taxing than studying from home.