March 1, 2020
I had finished my work on the thesis, and had a couple of days ahead before semester resumed. So I took a train to Tainan. Taiwan’s population (equivalent to Australia’s) is concentrated in a narrow band on the west coast, ideal for putting in a High Speed Rail. It’s based in Japan’s Shinkansen railway – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_High_Speed_Rail .
I found a video of the whole Taipei – Kaohsiung run at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytAKrltE5iE .
HSR trains run every 20 minutes. I booked a train at 11am but went to Taipei Main Station two hours early – so the booking officer changed the train to one leaving in a couple of minutes, no charge.
The interior of the train – sorry it’s blurry. I almost had the car to myself.
Out the window. Near Taipei the paddy fields had just been planted, but in the south the rice was well along.
The HSR train made a brief stop at Taichung Station
I arrived in Tainan – except the HSR station was miles away from the city in open fields. I did photograph the exterior of the train:
I changed to a local train at the TRA station next to the HSR station. Here’s a shot of the interior of the local train:
Then I arrived at the real Tainan station. I’d just disembarked from that train.
I tried to capture the exterior of the station but it didn’t come out. My hotel was not far from the train station so I walked.
I passed a temple – I found out later that this was the Temple of Avalokitesvara.
There is an interesting overview of gods and goddesses here.
Wandering Richard 