For those who are into bizarre afternoons in Taiwan, I suggest a visit to the Postal Museum, located in the Nanhai Post office, at Chongqing and Nanhai Roads in Taipei. Just a few blocks from the national history museum and CKS memorial hall, this museum is six floors of slightly antiquated exhibits of how the mail gets delivered in Taiwan. Admission is 5NT, and for the weirdness contained within, it’s worth it.
The exhibits are mostly from the 1980s, and don’t entirely make sense, but the story of Taiwan’s early mail system is pretty odd. There are scary mannequins, old machines for transferring money between postal savings accounts and space-age dioramas.
And cute souveniers…
It’s usually deserted, and there are tons of staff just milling about, looking really bored. It’s quite intriguing. How can it stay open? How do they stay awake? (writing letters, apparently)… How did the brave little mailbox surivive the battle of Jinmen?
So, if you’re silly, I’d recommend a visit. Open Tu-Fri 0900-1630. Nanhai & Chongqing S. Rds., Taipei.
I went to both the Lion King museum and the crab museum yesterday. Thank god I didn’t catch anything at the latter.
Actually both are pretty cool. Lion King is the private collection of a hotellier. Thousands of stone lions on display, many hundreds of years old. As for the crabs, they were cool. Do you know there’s a Taiwanese crab that can grow up to 4m across? The ones they had were only 1m across but wow. Also, if you want to know where they got the inspiration for Alien, you’ll see it here. Crab had a shiny coal black shell in the shape of a stingray on its back. On its underside it looked like a freaky black ecoskeleton of a scary, scary monster. :help:
Something tells me they need to open up a few new clubs in Taipei. Something with an 80’s flavour would do nicely.
I’ve been to the postal museum. Another one that’s cool is that puppetry museum. And the one where you can see all the little dolls telling stories like Jack and the Beanstalk, and Alice in Wonderland. Or are they all one and the same place? I’m not so sure anymore.
Horseshoe crab? I’ve found them washed up the beaches here on the odd occasion. I believe they might breed in the Penghu islands or someplace like that.
Horseshoe crab? I’ve found them washed up the beaches here on the odd occasion. I believe they might breed in the Penghu islands or someplace like that. [/quote]
That’s it! And that’s no random wash up let me assure you, Sandman. Or should I say pod-man.
The invasion has begun. Put in a good word for me will ya?
[quote=“Muzha Man”]I went to both the Lion King museum and the crab museum yesterday. Thank god I didn’t catch anything at the latter.
Actually both are pretty cool. Lion King is the private collection of a hotellier. Thousands of stone lions on display, many hundreds of years old.[/quote]
That’s down on the coast just past that popular surfing beach (Tahsi?), right? A nice little boutique hotel as well? If so, stayed there once. It was indeed, very nice. The grounds towards the beach were beautiful at night and of course the collection of stone lions was strangely mind blowing. I say strangely because I simply don’t have the zeal for stuff like this the way our man of Muzha fortunately does.
Well, unsurprisingly, they offer those horseshoe crabs as an exotic delicacy in seafood joints here in HK . . . even as . . .
[quote]Prehistoric horseshoe crab under threat in Hong Kong
Hong Kong - It has swum the waters of the earth for 400 million years, predating mankind and even the dinosaurs, but now the peculiar horseshoe crab is facing its biggest survival challenge.
Pollution and the development of shorelines in Hong Kong is destroying the spawning and nursery grounds of the crab, one of the world’s oldest and strangest-looking creatures, and in turn is drastically affecting its population.
A recent study by the City University in Hong Kong detected one or two crabs on every 1,000 square metres of seabed compared to 10 to 20 per 1,000 square metres in 2002 - a decrease of 90 per cent in four years.
Biologist Paul Shin Kam-shing, who led the study, said that in the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong had been home to three of four known species of the horseshoe crab, but recent studies found only two species remained, with one of these in very low numbers.
. . . [/quote]
Have I mentioned just how much I loathe HK’s local neolithic fuckwits today?
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]
Well, unsurprisingly, they offer those horseshoe crabs as an exotic delicacy in seafood joints here in HK . . .[/quote]They do here too.
[quote=“Muzha Man”][quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]
That’s down on the coast just past that popular surfing beach (Daxi?), right? A nice little boutique hotel as well?
[/quote]
Yes, lovely little place: [/quote]
Oh wow, I like the look of that pool! Can either of you remember the name of the hotel or other details to help me find its website?*
And on the topic of the postal museum, does it offer the chance to dress up in a postman’s uniform and pose for pictures, ideally sitting astraddle one of those spiffy green motorbikes? That’d be a great souvenir!