There were some interesting sculptures outside the Computex convention building.
Around noon we took a cab to the Taipei 101. This is the building I have been wanting to see for a while. It is absolutely massive. In the second picture, you see a portion of the enormous mall. I think covered something around seven or eight floors.
The Taipei 101 had a massive food court. Think of the entire floor of a normal mall back home, and that's how big the food court was. I tried some local cuisine, which happened to be very good.
A buddy of mine wasn't so keen about the local food, so instead he had Subway. His aversion to local food became a running joke throughout the entire trip.
I was invited to the Gigabyte Summer Luau on the first night. Funny thing is that Chinese people can't pronounce luau, they kept saying "loo."
Later that evening, our sponsor took us out to the local marketplace.
Here, we experienced some true local food. The line that I was waiting in was for some sort of fried chicken, a local favorite. It was definitely worth the wait, the chicken was amazing!
I also tried some squid soup. It was also very good.
Here is a view of the food section of the local market. Our buddy with an aversion to local food was gagging as we walked through, and had to step out. The rest of us, of course, laughed at him.
There was a bustling market despite it being a Wednesday night. The place was packed end to end. In the first picture below, you can see a bunch of vendors in the middle of the road. A few minutes after this picture was taken, all of them hid with surprising speed. I saw later that a lookout had spotted some cops and he used a walkie-talkie to inform the others, and I could see some of them hiding within the "legit" shops. It was quite impressive to see an entire street cleared out in less than a minute.
As you can see, scooters are the preferred mode of transportation. Every time I stepped outside, there would be a million scooters everywhere, with men and women, young and old, using them.
After my second day at the show, we took a flight to Hong Kong. From the airport, we got on this bus and drove an hour north to the Shenzhen province, the location of several technology factories. Though the drive was merely an hour, it was absolutely excruciating as it required two customs stops despite the fact Hong Kong has been a part of China for a decade now. At these stops we had to drag our luggage out of the bus and through security checkpoints, which absolutely reeked due to the sheer number of people going through them on a daily basis.
This is the hotel I stayed at for two nights while in mainland China.
I was quite surprised by the advanced infrastructure I witnessed throughout my trip. This was a really cool walkway that was right in front of our hotel.
Here is a view of the street in front of our hotel.
We had a guy with us from Canada who stood 6' 5" tall. As you can see in the pictures below, he absolutely towered over the locals. Girls would walk by and giggle, while guys would stare in abject horror. So our friend took advantage of this sentiment and pulled a Godzilla. The girls literally scattered while screaming their lungs out. It was absolutely hilarious!
At the end of the first half of our factory tour, we were served some local cuisine for lunch. It was quite good, though unlike the usual Chinese food we get back home (obviously).
In the evening, we went out to a very nice restaurant that had live music. Unfortunately, we didn't get to experience the live music.
Because we got to enjoy a private room in the back with tables, lounging area, and a private buffet.
The next day for lunch we went to a local restaurant that also served some amazing food.
These are pig knuckles. Only three members of our group dared to eat some.
One of them was Borat.
Yes, there is McDonald's in China. Our buddy, who ate nothing at the previous restaurant, was absolutely salivating when he saw the golden arches across the street.
Fortunately for him, there was a Burger King at the Hong Kong airport.
I spent my last day back in Taiwan. I didn't get a chance to explore the Taipei 101 during the convention itself, so I spent most of my last day at the tower. The interior was absolutely stunning.
We then headed over to the Observatory, located on the 89th floor.
The entire floor was dedicated as an observatory. When we first arrived at the top, the outdoor observatory was closed because of low visibility due to the clouds.
As you can tell, the view was simply astounding.
This is a model of what brought us upstairs. It literally is the fastest, not to mention smoothest, elevator I have ever been on in my life. When I first stepped on, I had prepared myself for a long ride to the top, but within 15 seconds we were already halfway up the building! The ride up took only 30 seconds, and it was so fast that my ears popped! The ride down was a little slower at 40 seconds, but still very impressive.
What luck! The weather had cleared and the outdoor observatory was reopened! While it was hot and humid down below, up here it was absolutely sublime.
The outdoor observatory is located on the 91st floor, so there was still a solid 10 floors above us.
388m = 1,273 feet. I'd say I was a bit high up, huh?
We then walked around the area outside the Taipei 101. It all seemed very Americanized, with malls and great infrastructure all around. I swear, if it weren't for all the Chinese people, I'd swear I was in an American city.
They even had a Costco! This place was absolutely packed and there was a line to get in. It seemed as though all of Taipei City was here.
Finally, as I was taking the elevator down to check out of the hotel, I noticed that there was no fourth floor.
