Taipei Day 3

Early in the morning at 9.00am, we set off for an hour and half journey to Shan Sian Le Yuan, a preserved national park located at the ends of the busy Taipei city. We took the cable car to the mountains, during the trip in the cable car, we were impressed by the beautiful scenery and the cool breeze. We also observed a waterfall during the cable car ride, amazed by the wonders of Mother Nature.

At the end of the ride, we wandered around the the place and enjoyed the view before starting to hike up the mountain. On our way up, we learnt about the history of the place. We also tried on the traditional costumes and drew the traditional marks on our faces and took pictures. Afterwards, we were taught the traditional dance by the tour guide and tried it out together. Although some of us could not dance very well, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

We continued going up the mountains and we also learnt about the different rare species of plants that they have in the mountains and tried their water, sweet and clean. We also explored the mountains and their rides, such as the pirate's swing. We climbed up the fixed ship and sat at the swing fixed across the pond, and we swung over to the other end. It was a very fun and meaningful trip.

After our lunch, we went to Ren Ai High School to continue our taekwondo training with the local students. We changed on the bus so we started our training immediately when we reached the school. The training was quite tough for us as most of us had muscle aches from the previous training.

We had another taekwondo coach teaching us the basics of kicking and punching. When we were doing our stretching, they had many unique stretching methods, which left many of us confused as we had never see them before. We were quite impressed with the taekwondo’s skills of the Taiwan students and their discipline. By the end of the training, we have made many new friends and learnt new skills and values. We all enjoyed the training greatly and hope to train with them again.

The last stop of the day , we went Taipei 101 . It is the tallest building in this country standing at 508m . It is one of the main tourist attractions in Taipei and the building has many shops and offices . The elevator is the fastest elevator in the world travelling at the speed of 60km/hr . We took a total of 37sec to reach the 89th storey . When we reach the 89th storey, a scene of taipei's beauty appeared before us . We took the audio guide which helped us to understand the building and the surrounding. 

I feel that it takes a lot of hard work in building the tower , after seeing the architectural design of the building  and understanding that this building takes a lot of effort and time to be built successfully. One example is the damper which looks like a golden ball . It ensures that the building won't collapse should there be an earthquake as it can counter the movement of the geographic plates. I really enjoyed having this opportunity to learn more about one of the highest towers in this world .