My first Chinese NY in Taiwan

[kage]

Those itty bitty wheels are just wrong. And the tapering legs? No!

No rain right now - whooHoo!!! (knock on wood)

[divea]

Where I am I can bang my head on wood and it won’t top raining. You know the spraying misty rain. :bluemad:

[Dark_Horse]

CraigTPE wrote:

@CraigTPE

I’m a little disappointed.

I was looking forward to the deserted streets and peace and quiet everyone was talking about. The streets of Xindian were still complete cluster-f##ks, especially Zhongzhen Rd. Nothing different. Most of the little shops were closed, but cars everywhere, still double parked and driving dangerously. The parking lot at the Carrefour shopping center was overflowing, as is usual on a weekend. While the traffic on the Shuiyuan Hwy outside my window doesn’t reach weekday rush hour levels, it’s certainly been heavier than usual weekend days.

Ths supports my theory that I wrote about earlier:

@Dark_Horse

This will be my first CNY in Taipei in about 3 years. I’m interested in seeing what things will be like this year. My first CNY eve a dozen years ago I happened to be around central Taipei where all the bushibans are around dusk. (At that time it was more traditional for people to be inside before dark.) I was amazed after living in the crowded city for a few months to experience it absolutely deserted. I mean you could literally bowl in the streets. For the rest of the holiday the town was peaceful and quiet (save for the firecrackers) for the rest of the holiday till the last day when you could literally feel the rumble start again as traffic built up and people returned.

Since then, whenever I am in Taipei during CNY eve I always drive around the city again at dusk just to get the flavor of the city at this time. But the last couple of years I was here I noticed that there was much more traffic and many more people about than in past years. I even passed by TGI Fridays and noticed that there were a significant amount of people eating there (not just westerners). I couldn’t believe that people would have their New Year’s dinner there.

As the holiday continued and it seemed more crowded than in past years I hypothesized that maybe fewer people were leaving Taipei for the holiday because now more generations had grown up here and maybe old family members in the south had died off or were transplanted to live up here with their families as they grew old. I think now more families may be staying in Taipei because the southern exodus started over 35 years ago and now, for many, there is no family to return to in the south. I think now many Taipei residents who do leave the city are doing it for pleasure trips abroad or around the island and less for visiting parents.

It will be interesting to see if this holds true again this year. I used to really love the one time of year Taipei became quiet and hope it feels that way again this holiday.

Well, I’ve been out and about town just about every day and every day has seemed like a kind of busier than average weekend. Crowded streets, shops & restaurants (especially Ximending, Taipei 101, etc.), busy traffic, hustle & bustle, etc.

I really miss the days when CNY meant Taipei was like a week of typhoon days when hardly anyone was around and you felt like you had the place mostly to yourself. I think those days are gone now.

Anybody else notice this phenomenon?

[lostinasia]

@Dark_Horse

I really miss the days when CNY meant Taipei was like a week of typhoon days when hardly anyone was around and you felt like you had the place mostly to yourself. I think those days are gone now.

Anybody else notice this phenomenon?

You mean you’ve gone out?! What with this weather, I think I’ve reached a new personal (and unhappy) record for number of days without leaving my apartment complex. I miss swimming (pool closed for CNY) and bicycling (I’m nowhere near hardcore enough to go in this weather).

Alas, today I’ll break the streak and go out. The wife and I still have food, but the cats have finished all theirs, and one of them in particular won’t leave me alone (the thought has crossed my mind of “just” poaching some chicken for them). It’ll be good karma as well to leave some food for the strays - it must have been an awful week for them.

[asiababy]

And everyone will be thrilled to know, the weather bureau predicts FORTYNINE days of rain.

Just like my first months in Taiwan in 1995, rain, rain, RAIN…

[divea]

tell me you’re kidding.

[Joesox]

Bunch of whingers! Did Caoling old trail Tuesday; Jinguashi gold museum Wednesday. Had a great time and would do it again (with waterproof footwear the next time, though).

[divea]

@Joesox

Bunch of whingers! Did Caoling old trail Tuesday; Jinguashi gold museum Wednesday. Had a great time and would do it again (with waterproof footwear the next time, though).

Big Deal!!

now try entertaining 2 below 5 year olds for 49 days without taking them outdoors

[Joesox]

@divea

@Joesox

Bunch of whingers! Did Caoling old trail Tuesday; Jinguashi gold museum Wednesday. Had a great time and would do it again (with waterproof footwear the next time, though).

Big Deal!!

now try entertaining 2 below 5 year olds for 49 days without taking them outdoors

Well, thanks but no thanks. But my point was really that it’s not that bad to do things outside, even in this weather. If you go somewhere out of the city, that is. Could you take the kids out somewhere and somehow make a fun thing of it? Watch a mountaineering DVD and then hike up a hill or something? Bring the Thermos, bars of chocolate (to help you keep warm), etc? Have a little picnic on top of the hill? Back home to hot baths and a movie on TV? Might sound lame but I enjoyed that kind of thing when I was a kid. Still do, actually .

[divea]

hehehehehehe in the rain??? nah. Not me. A 2 year old on a hill in the rain at 8 and 10 degrees doesn’t seem quite right for me. I am sure there are other adventurers who wouldn’t think twice.
umm and my kids don’t watch TV (yeah lame I know).

BTW I checked the CWB website and they say good weather from Sunday. I want to believe them.

[Joesox]

@divea

hehehehehehe in the rain??? nah. Not me. A 2 year old on a hill in the rain at 8 and 10 degrees doesn’t seem quite right for me. I am sure there are other adventurers who wouldn’t think twice.
umm and my kids don’t watch TV (yeah lame I know).

BTW I checked the CWB website and they say good weather from Sunday. I want to believe them.

We didn’t have a TV till I was about 12. You could swap the mountaineering DVD for a mountaineering book.

But two’s a bit young to walk all the way up a hill unaided, I suppose.

Personally, I really don’t think the temperature thing should be cause for hesitation, though. Kids are OK in snow and all kinds of other weather if wrapped up warm enough. I was. 10 degrees should not be any kind of a problem.

[Dark_Horse]

lostinasia wrote:

You mean you’ve gone out?! What with this weather, I think I’ve reached a new personal (and unhappy) record for number of days without leaving my apartment complex…

Well, I’ve spent a lot of time at home but at times the walls closed in on me and I had to go out. I went back to the states for a visit while my friend took care of my dog. I purposely planned it so I would be back to take care of him while my friend went home for CNY. Unfortunately while I was away I got word that my beloved dog passed away in my absence. Now sometimes I just need to get out to avoid missing him around the apartment so much.

lostinasia wrote:

Alas, today I’ll break the streak and go out. The wife and I still have food, but the cats have finished all theirs, and one of them in particular won’t leave me alone (the thought has crossed my mind of “just” poaching some chicken for them).

Cooked chicken works well for pets. My dog had a heart condition and the last year the vet ordered no more canned food. Instead he said to feed him boiled chicken and baby food (we chose Gerber mixed vegetables and he loved it.) I found a good method: boil cut up chicken pieces for ten minutes on a medium boil then turn off the heat and cover the pot and let it sit for one hour. Turns out nice and tender, my dog loved it fresh from the pot. Try it, it will save you a trip out in this abysmal weather.

It’ll be good karma as well to leave some food for the strays - it must have been an awful week for them.

Good on you LIA, you’re right it must be a miserable time for them.

[kage]

Cats MUST eat everyday - not like dogs, where they can fast a day now and then (not pups, though). Get something in that kitty’s belly, and quick!

[lostinasia]

Oh, don’t worry, they’ve been fed and when I went to bed last night they had quite a big bowl of food. One of them is just a greedy pig - she wasn’t starving, she just whines whenever her bowl is empty. Breakfast was simply three hours later than usual, that’s all.

Dark Horse, my condolences about the loss of your dog. I think our two cats are a big reason we haven’t gone totally crazy this dismal week of gray and rain.

The cats have eaten cooked chicken quite a few times before - often if I’m boiling/ poaching chicken for whatever reason I’ll give them some - but cooking chicken, rather than walking out to get some food, would have seemed extraordinarily lazy given that I hadn’t left the apartment complex since Saturday night.

A new first: never before have I seen a supermarket with no onions. That place has been picked clean. And lots of small shops are still closed here in Danshui, including the nearby pet food store; the cats get Whiskas from Family Mart today, which usually isn’t my first choice for them.

[maoman]

@Duke

Chinese New Year in Taiwan is a special time when families get together and have conversations watch TV. People enjoy giving carefully selected gifts that they know the recipient will love cash in red envelopes. And watching TV.

Food plays an important part, also. The tables are set with grandma’s best lace tablecloth plastic sheeting, and the good silverware, china and crystal plastic cups, pink paper plates and disposable chopsticks are laid out on a candlelit table lit by the unsteady glare of a flickering fluorescent tube.

The roast turkey is taken out of the oven dishes of food are covered in saran wrap, nuked in the microwave, and left to cool on the table hours before dinner. Because this is CNY, while eating, people are on their best behaviour watching TV, grunting and reaching across the table to get desired morsels of food. Children under the age of 12 remember to say please and thank you are hand-fed by their over-indulgent mothers, and people take extra care to remember their table manners spit out chicken bones and shrimp shells into crystal bowls little paper boxes made of folded up junk mailers.

After dinner, the family sits in the living room and talks watches TV some more. At night, people like to go outside and go caroling, sharing the joy and beauty of the season light fireworks on the city streets, the noiser the better.

After that people go back home and watch more TV.

And again.

[Charlie_Phillips]

@Duke

Chinese New Year in Taiwan is a special time when families get together and have conversations watch TV. People enjoy giving carefully selected gifts that they know the recipient will love cash in red envelopes. And watching TV.

Food plays an important part, also. The tables are set with grandma’s best lace tablecloth plastic sheeting, and the good silverware, china and crystal plastic cups, pink paper plates and disposable chopsticks are laid out on a candlelit table lit by the unsteady glare of a flickering fluorescent tube.

The roast turkey is taken out of the oven dishes of food are covered in saran wrap, nuked in the microwave, and left to cool on the table hours before dinner. Because this is CNY, while eating, people are on their best behaviour watching TV, grunting and reaching across the table to get desired morsels of food. Children under the age of 12 remember to say please and thank you are hand-fed by their over-indulgent mothers, and people take extra care to remember their table manners spit out chicken bones and shrimp shells into crystal bowls little paper boxes made of folded up junk mailers.

After dinner, the family sits in the living room and talks watches TV some more. At night, people like to go outside and go caroling, sharing the joy and beauty of the season light fireworks on the city streets, the noiser the better.

After that people go back home and watch more TV.

Bump for CNY 2016: year of the monkey

[ranlee]

You have to substitute TV for phone now.

[antarcticbeech]

@ranlee

You have to substitute TV for phone now.

But you still need the TV on for ambiance.

[mad_masala]

@cestmoi

So, my wife and I are going back to Taipei from Tennessee for Chinese New Year. This is my first time spending Chinese N Y in Taiwan - ever.

What can I expect? Especially in monetary funds flying out the door… do we have to give red bags all over the place???

You can expect rice noodles with shrimps, deep fried scallion heads, sliced mushrooms… and cold chicken and Taiwanese sausage slices to be eaten with garlic, and some deep fried fish… and… let me think… some assorted vegetables, and rice, and some soup, and perhaps “the buda monk jumped over the wall” soup which is good indeed, and some other things.

And if you are like me and like millions of other people here you will escape from Taipei and make your way to somewhere else nicer through endless traffic jams.

[Icon]

Or do what I do every year: stay at home, stock up on essentials and favorite stuff, movies -DVDs, DLs, etc- books/magazines and TV series to binge on while the masses migrate South. Check the bike if you really do get cabin fever.

Note: shopping must be done this weekend the latest. Otherwise… you will regret it. Deeply.