Summer. Typhoons. Let's....
...drink tea with the New Hampshire Bushman, who shows off his new pot. I can vouch -- Michael. can. brew. tea. Not only is his equipment top notch, but he pays close attention to water quality. We always have a glass before heading out to drink too much and sing too loudly. ...visit The Tainan Don's blog so we can read about the media andas punishment in Taiwan....read Jason at Wandering to Tamshui on the government's plan to help rock festivals in Taiwan. Ha. Ha. ...listen as Ryan vents on the topic of garbagemen, who seem to come at a different time every day.
On a personal note, Andrew Leonard over at Salon.com has nice things to say about my story of The Soy Sauce Factory, which juxtaposed with one of Howard French's columns. Andrew is a regular columnist there, and lived on Isla Formosa during the go-go days of the 1980s.
7 comments:
Nice mention on Salon.com. I've been paying more attention to it lately because I like some of their lifestyle articles. French's article was okay, but I've never been to China so I guess my bias leans toward Yonghe.
Yeah, just wait until all those buildings sprouting like mushrooms in China come crashing down in the first quake...you know they have to have cut every corner imaginable throwing those babies up.
Michael
Do you think Taiwan is more advanced in earthquake protection? (Or whatever the industry is called...)
I'm just taking a guess, but I bet Japanese companies are pretty good in this field.
Everytime I plan a trip a typhoon comes and dismantles my plans, this weekend was supposed to be spent in Hualian visiting a classmate who is in Taiwan visiting her family.
So much for that idea.
According to a few articles I read during the 921 quake back in '99, Taiwan has one of the strictest building codes in the world. The buildings that collapsed were mostly in violation of building codes. I remember a BBC article which mentioned that things could have been a lot worse had the codes not been in place (compared to the other major quake at the time in Turkey).
Taiwan has strict codes, but how well are they enforced?
Michael
Probably not as well as they could be, but apparently well enough that 921 didn't turn into a replay of the Turkey quake the same year. The Beeb had an article on it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/453467.stm
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