Formosan Rock Macaque (Kaohsiung Monkeys) | 台灣高雄獼猴

Formosan Rock Macaque are the only native primates living in Taiwan. This species of monkey is only found in Taiwan. They are often found in Kaohsiung, Taiwan at Chai Mountain (柴山), which is commonly refereed to as "Monkey Mountain by local forefingers who don't speak Chinese).

台灣獼猴是外台灣唯一的靈長類動物，這隻動物只在台灣找到的，高雄市鼓山區柴山上是常常看到的地點，不會說國語的外國人常常叫這個地方猴子山。

This is definitely one of the coolest places to visit in Kaohsiung. I will be enjoying myself taking pictures of the monkeys in one area, take my eye away from my camera and notice two or three sitting at my feet.

對我來說這是高雄一定要去的地方，我正在拍照的時候往往有一些猴子來坐在我的腳旁邊，讓我嚇一跳。

Often you will see many infant monkeys nursing or playing wildly with the other young monkeys in the trees.

也常常看到小猴子跟著媽媽在一起，母乳喂養的孩子，或是在樹上玩。

This is one of my favorite places to go because you're in the city one moment and the next your on a mountain full of monkeys looking at the ocean.

這是很特別的地方，有一刻你在城裡然後在山上一邊看猴子一邊看海邊的那一刻。





How to Get There? 怎麼去?



If you plan on visiting, I would suggest going to the park next to the Kaohsiung City Zoo, laid out in the map above. You can enter at the first location marked, then start hiking up the trail where the red marker on the map is located. Within a couple minutes into this trail you will often see many monkeys.

怎麼去呢? 我推薦你去高雄市壽山動物園旁邊的公園，看上面的地圖，第一個標記是公園的入口，第二個標記是小道入口，那裏常常看到很多猴子。

Things to Look Out For. 注意!

The monkeys in general will not bother you unless they think you have a tasty treat, then they will fight you for it. I suggest if you go to visit them not to bring any drinks, food or plastic bags.

去的話要小心，不要帶飲食或塑料袋，牠們無疑偷你的東西。

There is a zoo near this location, and you can often see the monkeys sneaking into the cages of the other animals and stealing their food.

猴子常常進去附近的動物園偷動物的食物。

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosan_rock_macaque
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoushan_%28Kaohsiung%29

來源:
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A3%BD%E5%B1%B1_(%E9%AB%98%E9%9B%84%E5%B8%82)#%E5%8B%95%E7%89%A9%E5%88%86%E4%BD%88
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E7%8D%BC%E7%8C%B4

Largest Typhoon of 2016 hits Taiwan - 颱風莫蘭蒂

Its been a year since we moved to Taiwan. A Typhoon greeted us last year just as we were settling in and this year, another one arrived the first week of school to welcome us back to Kaohsiung. 

Typhoon Meranti was the most powerful storm we've seen since living here.

Because its located on the coast, there was a lot of damage near our school, National Sun Yat-Sen University. This afternoon, one day after Meranti hit, we drove there to take some pictures of the ships that washed up. When we got there, we could smell the fumes coming from the wreckage. The photo above is of a boat trying to manage the oil leaking from the boats.

Below is an aerial shot we found online of the wreckage.

We also found this video of the typhoon destroying  Kaohsiung Harbor's shipping yard.

Taiwan Collared Scops-Owl

Click on the Photo to Enlarge the Image

While walking home from our University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I heard a bird making lots of noise in the bush like trees alone the sidewalk. I was curious to what was making all the noise. So I looked in and I spotted a tiny bird chirping like crazy. I soon realized that he was making a fuss because of the Owl that decided to take a nap in his low tree.

Lucky I bring my camera almost everywhere with me just in case there is something interesting going on.

His eyes were closed and he was clearly resting however with all the chirping that tiny bird was doing and with my trying to move in closer to get a clearer shot without brush blocking my view his eyes began to open really wide like in the photo above.

I am no bird expert but I believe this is a Collared Scops-Owl.
www.birdingintaiwan.com/collaredscops-owl.htm

Anne Marie Sings at Taiwanese Concert

At the end of November, our school held a concert to commemorate a new sculpture on campus. Anne Marie was asked to perform the Taiwanese song she learned for the Foreigner Chinese/Taiwanese Singing Contest, as well as two other English songs. This became an awesome opportunity for her because she sang two praise and worship songs. Before she performed, she was asked on the spot to explain the songs and she was able to share about our Faith. The whole thing was translated in Chinese so the whole crowd could understand.

Lotus Pond Dragon Boat Race - 蓮池潭的龍舟

One of our Chines language school classmates was competing in a dragon boat (龍舟) race at Lotus Pond (蓮池潭). We decided to go out to support him and the rest of our school. Watching the race today got us excited for the Dragon Boat Festival which will take place next May.

Dragon boats are long narrow boats that hold twenty paddlers, one person steering in the back, and one person drumming in the front to keep everyone's rowing in sync.

It is believed that the use of dragon boats for racing originated in southern China during the same era of the Greek Olympic games. Originally, dragon boat racing was to celebrate the summer's rice planting and to celebrate the Chinese's dragon water deity. For some more info, check out Wikipedia.

Dengue Fever Outbreak in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

This past week has been pretty exciting. We've been studying so much for our midterms, and in the middle of life we had to take a break for Dengue Fever.

All Saturday morning we studied. In the afternoon, we decided to take a break for an hour a two to get some fresh air. When we got home, we found a pink paper with an official notice on our door, which was written entirely in Chinese. The only recognizable thing on it (besides the few characters we've learned) was a picture of a mosquito in a circle with a line through it.

We've seen many posters around talking about mosquito prevention because of the problem that Taiwan has been having with Dengue fever this year. It's a disease spread by mosquitos biting infected people and then in turn biting others. Over 25,000 people in Taiwan have become infected since May! We thought maybe this notice was just some good information about prevention. After checking with a Taiwanese friend the following morning, we found out that someone either in our apartment building or in our neighborhood has been diagnosed with Dengue fever. The government had issued a warning to us and our neighbors that they would be sending people to inspect and to spray everyone's homes the following day. If the inspectors found any larvae in anyone's home, they would be subject to fines. If anyone was not at home when they arrived the next morning, they would call the police to break in.

Sunday night we had the privilege to be Skyped into a church's mission conference. We were planning to prepare for that and to study most of the afternoon. However, it turned into us buying plastic tarps and tape. We spent the rest of the day cleaning our house and covering furniture and all our belongings with plastic to protect them from insecticide fumes. We were worried that the toxins from the spray would make us sick. Monday morning we also had to miss the first hour of classes to let the inspector and bug killers in.

Other than how time consuming this endeavor was, it is a somewhat scary thing for us. We are in a foreign country, we don't know their regulations on bug chemicals, and also Anne Marie has the gift of attracting mosquitos to bite her legs. There is also a frustrating side to this; our home is clearly not the problem as it has always been mosquito larvae free from how clean it is, however they sprayed everything in our home anyway. Also, in our courtyard there is standing water in the floor drains constantly which is the most likely place mosquitoes would breed, but they didn't even bring up that issue as far as we could tell and left the standing water there to continue as a breading ground.

After school we opened all our windows in an attempt to air out our apartment. We then spent all of Monday afternoon cleaning the walls, floor, and other various places. So far neither of us have shown any symptoms from this disease and we pray that we never do!

Taiwan Focus - Dengue Fever Article

Explore Kaohsiung: Formosa Boulevard

Formosa Boulevard

Formosa Boulevard (美麗島站) is Kaohsiung's main MRT station. It is named after the Formosa Boulevard Project, which aimed at remodeling Jhongshan Road (中山路) to prepare for the 2009 World Games (which was for sports not contested in the Olympics).



There are two MRT lines that meet here. The Orange line which runs West-East and the Red line which runs North-South. You can transfer to the next line in a matter of a couple of minutes. At this station you can exit on any street corner on the intersection of Jhongshan (中山路) and Jhongjheng (中正路).

Dome of Light

Within the Formosa Boulevard Station is a massive beautiful art piece called the Dome of Light. The Dome of Light was created by Narcissus Quigliata. It is the largest public art display made out of individual pieces of colored glass (Source).



The pieces were shipped from Germany and took about 4 years to complete. It has a 30 meter diameter and covers a area of 660 square meters (2165ft). The art is symbolic of the 4 stages of life. Water representing The Womb of Life; Earth representing prosperity and growth; Light for the creative spirit; and Fire to illustrate destruction and rebirth.

April 2015 Newsletter