2010-09 Taipei

While in Taipei in early September, Ray went to a CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League) game at Tianmu baseball stadium.  There are only 4 teams in the league, and they do not have a home field.  They rotate playing each other in about 10 different stadiums around Taiwan.  There are 2 stadiums in Taipei City.

Upon arriving at the stadium, you go to the ticket window and purchase your tickets based on who you will be cheering for. so all the fans for a particular team sit on the same side of the field.  There are seats for about 12,000 fans and a small upper deck between the dugouts behind home plate.  I had the choice between the Elephants and the Bulls, and I chose the Elephants, which on this night had the largest crowd

I sat in the 9th row behind 1st base.  When I got to my seats, I discovered the various impediments to clearly watching the game.  There was a large speaker on top of the dugout that partially blocked my view of the pitchers mound.  This was used by a roving cheer leader with a wireless mic to lead various cheers, chants and songs.  A large fence ran from the dugout to the outfield, and one of the posts blocked my view of first base.  Despite this, I could move my head around enough to catch the action.  If I ever go again, I will try some seats in the upper deck.

Whenever your team is at bat, the cheers are non-stop.  Each player has his own song they play for his at bat, and a couple of them were Popeye the Sailor Man and I've been working on the railroad.  In between hitters, large oversize team flags are waived on top of the dugout.  The elephant mascot also walked up and won the aisle and had his picture taken with all the kids and babies.

It ended up that the family next to me were Taiwanese nationals who were visiting from California (Dodger fans) and it was their first game too.  The boys enjoyed the game and the hot dogs.

After every odd inning, they groomed the field, but then after the fifth inning, the game stopped.  It was a 10 minute intermission and everyone went up and got food and drink.  The players warmed up again and they resumed.  The Elephants won in the bottom of the 9th.  They will play a maximum of 3 extra innings, so some games do end in a tie.

All the singing and chanting made for a fun evening at the ballpark.

The next day Ray went to the Taipei Zoo and took a gondola ride up to the Maokong Tea area.  The tea area is famous for the tea that is grown there and there are many tea houses and cafes.  The gondola ride took many hours off the trip to this area when the only way up was by road.

Ray hiked down to the a small river that was filled with rocks with many small potholes in them caused by the movement of the water.  On the way, he heard a group of people speaking English and it ended up it was 3 Americans and a German who were over here teaching and studying.  He hiked with them for a while and also ate lunch with them at one of the cafe's overlooking Taipei City and the Maokong valley.

The trail was very steep and some of the sections had stairs, but the steps were so narrow, it made it difficult to use them, especially going down.  Most of the trail did not have steps and had some very steep parts.  It was a little cooler since you weren't in the sun, but it also reduced the breeze that could help cool you down.

The second stop on the gondola ride was at Zhinan temple.  This was a large temple built on the side of the hill.  The dragon pot out front was for burning incense.  There was another trail down to some additional benches and meditation areas.

The zoo was similar to the Minnesota zoo in size and format.  Animals were housed both in walk through buildings and also out in open areas that you walked between.  Some of the more exotic animals included koalas and pandas.

Outside the zoo was a small fountain that had a dancing waters and sound show every hour.  I happened to be at the fountain during one of the shows.  They have 9 different songs set up that the randomly group in sets of 3 throughout the day.