David on Formosa

Paris, Taipei: Bicycles Forever (巴黎.台北 單車萬歲) is a documentary directed by Jean-Robert Thomann (尚若白). It looks at the experience of bicycle commuters in Paris and Taipei. I went to the premiere screening at Eslite Dunnan Bookstore today and it will screen on PTS (公視) tomorrow.
The documentary explores the attitudes of those who have chosen to [...]

The 2009 Taipei Deaflympics began with the opening ceremony held at the new Taipei Stadium last night. Today the sporting events began and I went to see the cycling held at Taipei City Hall. The men’s 1,000 metre sprint cycling race began with heats in the morning and then finals in the afternoon. This event [...]

On Friday I took a bus down to Chiayi along with my friend Ian who was visiting from Australia. I took my own bike down on the bus, while Ian hired a touring bike from the Giant store. The hire service offered by Giant is very good with quality bikes at a reasonable price (more [...]

Lonely Planet author Robert Kelly has written a great article about Taiwan’s tourism potential in the latest Taiwan Journal. He notes the increasing number of tourists to Taiwan, mainly from Asia. He also points out that niche tourism such as hiking and bird watching is attracting more visitors.
Another interesting article, from Reuters correspondent Ralph Jennings, [...]

Taipei Cycle 2009 is now on at the Nangang Exhibition Centre. In the middle of the exhibition hall on the fourth floor were all the big names in cycling: Giant, Merida, Dahon, Campagnolo, Shimano and SRAM. Elsewhere there were all sorts of bicycles, accessories and activities. I visited the show yesterday and my report and [...]

The Tour de Taiwan finished with a criterium around the Taipei City Hall today. The race was ridden in chilly conditions with the mercury hovering around 11°C. Polish rider Jezowski Krzysztof of the Merida Europe Team was the overall winner  after snatching the lead on the final stage.

Australian Peter McDonald of Drapac Porsche held the [...]

Today I went to check out Taipei City’s new public bike rental system which is marketed under the name U-bike. The system is currently operating at five stations in the Xinyi Special District (信義特區). Six more stations will open on 11 April and there are plans to extend the system further after that.
Taipei is not [...]

The weekend of cycling began on Saturday when I rode down from Taipei to Hukou for the Blogtoberfest. The next morning I got up early to ride down to Miaoli where I planned to meet a group from the Thousand Mile Island Trail (千里步道). I was familiar with the roads in this area after a [...]