Taipei 1

At the end of the second conference day we once again boarded a bus and headed north to Taipei. The trip is only about 2 hours, and we soon checked in at the hotel. Next morning we met at the lobby and walked together to the NTU campus for the scheduled Round Table Meeting. On the way we came across a bike repair station on campus, which was pretty cool. In the first photo you can see the orange pipes which are air supply pipes to pump up your tires. The second photo shows a workshop, where all sorts of bike repairs are done. Great idea!



At NTU we met with a pretty large group of people from academia, NGOs, government, etc. We started with the first of four sessions, and quickly realised that the group was too big. Thus, we split up in two groups and were able to be much more focused and productive. I chaired the session on whale watching, and we had a really good working group. I think we made some good progress and came up with pretty good ideas. It is now important to follow these up and move something...




After the two separate sessions we met in the large group again and summarised the results for information, and to get them logged.
In the evening our last dinner was at a private club at the bottom of the Grand Hotel. The restaurant was absolutely beautiful, and the dinner (Mongolian BBQ) was delicious! It certainly was a night to remember...















After dinner we walked up the hill to the Grand Hotel to have a look at it. It was so incredibly beautiful. I felt in awe and could hardly suck it all in. The photos show a little of it, but can't really portrait the atmosphere and overall beauty of it!










And finally, a few of us headed to Taipei 101, which was at 508 meters the tallest building in the world (until the twin towers in Malaysia were built). Unfortunately, the observation deck was already closed. We just had the chance to quickly go into a book shop in the mall at the first few floors of the building, and buy a few things. It was quite nice, but just like any other mall. So yes, we have to come back to get up to the top of the building!