Taiwan!

Made it to Taipei, Taiwan!

Bittersweet though.  

I could tell right away that this city is cool.  Clean, people are helpful and friendly, drivers obeying traffic laws, nature mixed with city.....similar to Hong Kong.

All this made me think of this analogy- Shanghai is similar to maybe Cleveland....maybe a dull Sacramento....Detroit?  Whatever- what I mean is When they built Shanghai they pretty much bull dozed everything in their way, poured 12 trillion tons of concrete on the ground, and called it good.

As a result, it lacks character and depth when you consider it's natural surroundings and environment.

Unfortunately what you get is dirty air and cranky people (in my opinion).

Hong Kong and Taipei aren't like that.  There are large swaths of natural forest, hills, clean waters, and on and on....all reminding me of home.

Enough.

I booked a fishing guide to take me out tomorrow.  They'll pick me up at the hotel and take me to the Yeelee River.  $100 gets you a full day fishing, transportation, and lunch.  Don't tell my clients that!

That was the good news.  The bad news is that I told my guide I brought a 3 weight fly rod and he said it was too heavy!

By Oregon standards, a 3 weight is light, and small- stocked fish are usually on the agenda when you're talking 3 weight.....so if a 3 weight is too heavy here- how small are the fish?  Guess we'll see.....

Last, in 3 days Sarah and I have been in Hong  Kong- back to Shanghai (one night), and are now in Taipei.  Funny thing is Taipei and Hong Kong feel similar because we're staying at the same hotel- and both have views of some of the worlds tallest buildings.  Just odd.

I leave you with some photos of the views- first in HK, second in TT....