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July 20, 2008 – After beginning my adventure in Hong Kong (香港) in a very spectacular way, I hated to be leaving the city after only a short time there. But Taiwan (台灣) was next on my list, and I knew it would more than make up for the short visit to Hong Kong. I took a flight direct to Taipei (台北), capitol of Taiwan, which took just about 90 minutes. As a frequent flyer, that wasn’t bad at all! I was very lucky to have Jenny Lam (林素然) come along with me as a media crewmember and interpreter, being very fluent in Chinese Sign Language and ASL.

Arriving at the airport in Taipei, we were greeted by two Deaf Taiwanese, Kang Chen (陳康) and Ting-Jung Hsu , Gates (許庭榮). Cheerful and hard-working fellows, Kang and Ting-Jung both work for the 2009 Summer Deaflympics Organization Committee. Kang, in fact, actually knows ASL pretty well to talk with me one-on-one! He went to Ohlone College, in Fremont, California, and it was nice to talk with him about all sorts of things. In all honesty, I’m sure that you’ll always find at least one person in each country that knows ASL. ASL is pretty similar to worldwide English usage, which is why you’ll always find at least one native speaking your language wherever you go.

Starting my adventure in Taiwan, I stopped by a bowling alley where a Taiwanese Deaf bowling tournament was ongoing. The tournament’s purpose was to help the Chinese Taipei bowling team prepare for the 2009 Summer Deaflympics. While there, I had the chance to meet more of the local Deaf people. It felt like I was at some kind of a Deaf Taiwan Resource Center! I got a lot of interesting tips to help make my adventure more fun, for the next 7 days. It was great fun, socializing with these fascinating people. I was also surprised to see some familiar faces – Mark and Anni Tao, from Virginia. They came over to the island to visit their families here. They stayed here for three weeks, and will be flying back to the United States tomorrow. Looks like I played the tag game with them! Yu-Ping Chao (趙玉平), Secretary General of the Chinese Taipei Sports Association of the Deaf, dropped by to share with different issues and thoughts about Taiwan. It was a very stimulating discussion, and he too gave me some more great tips for my journey around Taiwan!

Sadly enough, I had to leave the fun at the bowling alley at some point to check in at my hotel. The hotel I checked into is called the Grand Hotel (圓山大飯店) ( www.grand-hotel.org ), and it’s a very famous hotel in Taiwan, one of the most unique in the world. You really feel like an emperor living in a palace. It was built during the Ming Dynasty (明朝), and its tradition of having important people staying at the hotel even continues to this day. World leaders always come to the hotel whenever they have an event to attend in Taiwan. For example, when the new President of the Republic of China (the formal name for Taiwan) was elected last May, leaders from all over the world came here to congratulate the new president, and stayed at the hotel while doing so. The best thing about my room was the view of Taipei, and its’ tallest building, Taipei 101 (台北101), from the 7th floor of the hotel. It’s a very gorgeous view!

After checking in, I took a walk outside, and I went a few blocks down to a world-famous night market called the Shinlin Nightmarket (士林夜市). It was incredibly packed inside, with over 150 food stalls. I was stunned to see one of the most strangest games I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t like any amusement park games; the game was to fish for Thailanese prawn, which is almost like shrimp, in a fishing pond. I paid $100 in New Taiwanese Dollars, which equals $3.20 in United States currency, for 7 fishing rods with hooks. I thought I would be able to catch 7 prawns without any doubt, but I was soon proven wrong! I ended up with two prawns after the game, but I considered them as my appetizer, so at least I had something delicious to eat out of the game.

I met more Taiwanese Deaf people at the market, too. They lured me into eating more of the local food, such as oyster egg omelettes, Keelung tempura, deep fried stinky tofu, devilfish and much more unknown plates. They were all delicious! One suggestion whenever you’re abroad, would be to keep your mind open and eat with the people. Don’t argue with them! We walked down the street, and viewed more of the snack stalls. One stall we stopped by had a famed Taiwanese drink, with little tapioca balls that are boiled in black sugar and dropped in milky tea. It was very crowded in the alleys too, not just the stores. It felt like the human traffic was worse than Los Angeles’ rush hour traffic!

It was a great ending to the night, visiting the nightmarket. I couldn’t believe how busy the market was after midnight. After all the fun of my first day in Taiwan, I really needed some beauty rest, especially as seeing that I would have to get up at 5 AM to experience more of what Taiwan had to offer.