Used bikes in Kaohsiung

To the question, "請問有人知道在高雄哪裡有二手腳踏車店嗎" ("I'd like to ask--does someone know if in Kaohsiung there is a second-hand bicycle shop?") the answer was "文武街與昇平街交叉口..滿多二手腳踏車的"(At the intersection of ShēngPíng St and WénWǔ 3rd St, Lingya District..there are quite a few bicycles."

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Stupid Google map. It's at the flag below:


We bought a couple of used bikes for about a thousand NT each. There are various repairs, including mismatched wheels, but they're good enough for riding around town.

Another small shop on 中正四路 between the police station and 成功一路 has a smaller selection.

Kaohsiung sites

I'm not in Taiwan, but maybe these will be useful when I return:
Around Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung Nightlife Pages

I sound like Jo

I've left Kaohsiung for several months, but a couple of nights before I left I went for a walk along the Love River 愛河. I saw rats in two different places. One, strangely enough, was at one of the most popular sections on the east bank between the 高雄大喬 at 五福三路 and the 中正大橋. Another was also on the east bank, just north of the bridge that's kitty-corner to the Love River Carrefour (建國橋). Then in the morning, I took the same route, and someone had left some food next to the hole in the ground that the rats disappear into. I kid you not. To me it carries fondness for animals a little too far. I'm starting to wonder if this is a Buddhist thing.

I'm like Jo in Dickens' Bleak House, when he's showing Lady Dedlock where Nemo was buried: "Look at the rat!" cries Jo, excited. "Hi! Look! There he goes! Ho! Into the ground!"

Still, aside from the rats, the river banks, which have been recently refurbished, are one of the nicest places to walk in Kaohsiung, and it'll be even nicer when they get extended farther south. It's a shame people only seem to frequent the section between the 高雄大喬 and the 中正大橋.

臺灣人不守規矩

Are rules just for other people?


There was a brief report on the TV news the other day about how cars parked on the sidewalks at the streets perpendicular to 新光路 made the sidewalk tiles uneven and difficult for people to walk. It's not just there, of course. On 思維路, which was similarly retiled with large tiles last year, there is the same problem, and apparently they're instituting the same system all over Kaohsiung.

In fact, the report neglected other points. First of all, motorcycles cause a lot of the tiles to become uneven, too, but people here often seem loathe to criticize them.

The other thing is whether they are the old smaller, brick-sized tiles or the new ones, when they become uneven and water gets underneath, and pedestrians step on them, sometimes the water splashes up and gets on your feet.

But why use tiles anyway? What's wrong with concrete?

Kaohsiung is also refurbishing many of its city parks, and doing a fairly good job, but many of them inexplicably use cobblestones that make it hard for me to walk on, much less the elderly who are the main users of the parks.

Another disaster is the broadening and retiling of 中山路 (how do you pronounce that? Nakayama?--ha-ha). During the reconstruction there is zero provision for pedestrians, and on the parts that have been refurbished, since they're so nice and broad and flat, motorcycles often use them as their own highways.

In fact, although the vast majority of automobile drivers and a largish majority of motorcycle drivers obey the rules, a substantial number don't. I wonder if the failure to obey traffic regulations has any connection to the failure to obey other regulations, and is a reason both the DPP and KMT are so corrupt. A lot of people here think rules are for other people.

Ha-ha

A study by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) found that...Chichin (旗津) in Kaohsiung City [was] ranked "average." Five beaches failed the test [including] Shiziwan (西子灣) in Kaohsiung County.... Beaches were rated based on the amount of escherichia coli, a bacteria that leads to intestinal diseases, found in the water.

The report is here. So much for members only.

Still plenty of dogshit in Kaohsiung

EPA stepping up its war on dog owners over droppings in streets

As many as 328 dog owners throughout Taiwan were fined NT$1,200 to NT$6,000 in May and June for failing to clean up the droppings left by their pets on the streets. The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) plans tougher action on irresponsible pet owners.

According to the tallies released by the EPA, 241 tickets were issued to dog owners in Taipei City during the two-month period, followed by 62 cases in Taipei County, seven in Keelung, five in Pingtung County, and four in Hsinchu City...

EPA officials conceded that no dog owners were fined in some counties and cities mainly because the offenders must be caught at the scene

Local EP officials' choice of taking a more lenient approach as another major factor that they gave out 1,997 admonitions to pet owners instead of issuing directly the tickets for a fine.

For example, 831 admonitions were given in Tainan City in south Taiwan, compared with only 28 in Taipei. In Puli, 19 dog owners received admonitions but no fines.

In fact, Kaohsiung isn't even mentioned in the article. Nor does it mention stray dogs, which are numerous in Kaohsiung, and responsible for plenty of shit.

Which brings us to a funny story: I used to like to buy xiaolongbao 小籠包 from a little truck that sells them on the corner in the mornings...until early one morning on my way to the swimming pool I saw the guy who makes them by hand drive up in his truck, get out, and proceed to pet the stray dogs that hang around his truck. Mmm...xiaolongbao with dog hair.

It's not just stray dogs. Consider the foolishness of this proposal: Activists urge government to neuter and release cats

Animal rights activists yesterday urged the public to adopt cats instead of buying them and called on the government to neuter feral felines, instead of capturing and killing them.

Su Sheng-chieh (蘇聖傑)...said that the government's method of capturing stray animals had not been effective in cutting back on the number of strays...

[A web site of his] has recently been promoting the Feral Cats Trap-Neuter-Release or Return (TNR) program, a method used overseas to control stray cat populations.

According to the program, stray cats are trapped and then neutered at veterinary clinics, Su said.

The cats are then marked and released where they were found, Su said.

By only capturing and destroying cats, the government is not dealing with the root cause of the problem, because cats that elude catchers continue to breed, Su added...

As to whether the cats that were released would cause further problems, Su said it would not be an issue.

"Ecologically speaking, there's a balance in nature. If no stray cats were around then people would have more mice and cockroach problems," Su said...

Internationally, however, the TNR program is still controversial.

A number of wildlife and bird advocacy organizations reportedly argued that TNR allows feral cats to prey on wildlife, which may threaten endangered species.

"By only capturing and destroying cats, the government is not dealing with the root cause of the problem, because cats that elude catchers continue to breed." Huh? Same thing if they capture them to neuter them! Presumably they'll miss just as many.

But maybe he's right about the cats catching mice, which could include rats (老鼠) in the original. (By the way, I saw another one tonight behind the counter at the restaurant on the Love River.) Too bad about the birds, they'll kill, though. Not that there are many of those in urban Taiwan.

I'm a minority; boo-hoo

Early the other morning (about six a.m.) I wanted to visit 西子灣 beach. (Some clown insists on calling it Xiziwan; according to the detestable Tongyong pinyin, it should be called Sizihwan, but Wade-Giles Hsitzuwan seems to have stuck.) So I wanted to visit it, but the gatekeeper wouldn't let me in. He said I had to be a "member" (會員) even though he was letting every Taiwanese in (virtually all older types) without checking I.D.'s. In fact, I suspect they're not supposed to be open at all early in the morning; one morning I went last year or earlier, another guy warned me I couldn't stay too long. So much for being a visible minority. Maybe he was just trying to protect me? Anyway, I only wanted to wet my toes, and since I always wonder what the water is contaminated with (bacteria? nuclear waste? stuff dumped overboard by the ships?), I just went over to the breakwater, which is also supposed to be closed, although people ignore the warnings there.

I might have gone to Chi Chin (旗津 Qijin, as as that clown cited above calls it), a tiny part of which was open for swimming (free?) a couple of months ago, but instead I walked back home through the Yancheng district 鹽城區, which seems more derelict every time I go through there. Of course there were few people up; it was early. But there are so many abandoned buildings! For the first time I walked down to the port, which used to be closed, and saw "Fisherman's Wharf" (漁人碼頭), which didn't look like much early in the morning. The area looks like a good one for a night market, but of course they're prohibited there.

More rats

I emailed all the member of the city council as well as the mayor and the Kaohsiung Dept. of Health saying there were rats and where they were in the subject line. In the body of the message, I wrote the webpage address: http://kaohsiungpedestrian.blogspot.com/2006/06/blog-post_16.html

Apart from one automated response, zero response to the emails, and as far as I can tell, no one accessed the site.

Meanwhile, I've been seeing rats in front of the 獅甲 Elementary and Middle Schools, including one this morning. On 中山二路 there is a bicycle repair shop that consists of a huge pile of bicycle parts, and I saw one there, too.

Meanwhile, the use of rats in movies to frighten the audience is starting to lose its impact on me. I've seen several of those here. Before this year it was Willard, and Ghost Ship, and this year Ghost Ship again, Graveyard Shift, Daylight, and Penitentiary III (which, by the way, has to be seen to be believed, and not because of the rats). The impact of seeing rats on the Taiwanese audience is certainly different than it is for the American audience. Is that the problem with the city of Kaohsiung? They see so many rats and stray dogs, they think it's normal?

Update
The rats are still there as of this morning. By the way, their nest is next to the water company: 臺灣省自來水股份有限公司南區工程處
Address: 高雄市前鎮區復興三路一三三號
Telephone：07-3367181
Contact person: 鄭正雄
E-Mail：twscse@mszl.hinet.net