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I left Taipei and headed to Taichung, center Taiwan. Today has been extremely exhausting. Left Taipei around 4 pm, didn't check in until 11pm. Caught the 5pm train to Taichung, suppose to arrive by 7:15 pm. But after dozing off, I panicked when I saw Taichung on the train display. Ending exited one station too early. Thinking back, the train display was showing NEXT stop is Taichung. Sigh... From the train station, I Google how to get to the hostels. It showed bus 83, and a few others. When bus 83 showed up, without giving it much thought, I just hop on. While the bus is moving, the bus isn't...


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Made it to Xiamen via China's impressive bullet train. It is an equal if not better than the train system in Europe. For how chaotic this country is, how laws can be bend, how people can usually do as they please, it's impressive every time the trains will arrive and leave on time. For the 8 hrs+ journey from Shanghai to Xiamen, $50 is a really great value. I made it onto the train with just minutes to spare,  without much to eat. End up having to buy expensive train meals. Well, at least there is food this time, was worried of Romania train deprivation experience. Was really worried...


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Ever since the trip,  my Samsung Nexus S (or Nexus 2) has been the most essential travel device. GOOGLE MAP IS JUST IMPRESSIVE! I remembered in the old days,  with my Iphone 3G and Iphone 4, I had to jailbreak it so I can pre cache map data for a trip, especially going to countries where you do not want to be roaming. If I recall correctly, the app is call XGPS or something. On Android phones, Google map has the pre cache feature build in. Meaning no more jail breaking, no more brick Iphones. It is just a simple download and done. Now, I usually try getting a local sim card everywhere...


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Made it to Hangzhou today. Had a interesting conversation about the definition of China over special roasted chicken. Over the conversation, I was corrected when I use the words 中国(China ) but excluding Hong Kong as part of it. Ever since from growing up, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan has been like a separate country. I still feel it isn't part of the Great China, even though Hong Kong and Macau are currently are. As for Taiwan, its complicated. The word China means the combination of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and and Taiwan. And if they like to exclude the three...


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Heading to Nanjing for the weekend. Meeting up my long time friend C.C there. I've been in Shanghai for just over a month, I guess it's time to explore a bit more. The bullet train from Shanghai to Nanjing is fast, it comfortable, surprisingly its better than a lot of trains I have been on in Europe. After meeting up with my friend,  we had dinner at a place that's I'm sure we will be return tomorrow night. It's on the 7th floor of a fancy mall, but it's very well decorated to the old Asia street food style. We had so much delicious food, it was well worth the ¥138 rmd. After...


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