Mingjian’s tilting electric tower. An extensive post was written about this 921 Earthquake memorial by MJ Klein last year.

Jiufen Ershan’s nightmarish landscape.  I went a little wild with the Lightroom sliders.  View it in large.

Took this pan while out cycling with Michael and Drew.  Michael has a write up of the route on his blog.  An interactive map can be found on Bikemap.net.

After months of waiting, the time had finally come for another attempt up Jiufen Ershan [九份二山].  My last attempt in May ended in failure when I turned around after it started raining.  This time the weather called for sunny skies.  I also took a different direction up also this time, taking a road from Qingshui Village [清水村] up rather than Hexing [和興].

This stretch of road is one of my favorite views on a couple different routes I frequent.  All these banners must mean there’s an election coming up soon.  Thanks for ruining the view!
I’ve gone through this stretch of town several times.  Teenagers on bikes will occasionally initiate impromptu races with cyclists when they see them coming.

The very colorful Xinfo Temple [心佛寺]:

Now the real climbing begins.  These traffic mirrors will come in handy on the way down.

The way up was mostly farms.  I didn’t see a single cyclist outside of central Qingshui Village.  I was beginning to worry that I may have taken a wrong turn somewhere.  Luckily, after about an hour of cycling in the mountains I saw a sign pointing me in the right direction.  After that the signs became more frequent.

With a vertical climb of 1040 meters, this ride was my most challenging climb yet.  Thankfully, many residents gave me encouraging words on my ascent.

At 1:47 am on September 21, 1999, a powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck central Taiwan.  Jiufen Ershan was just one of many areas that were reshaped by the 921 Earthquake [九二一大地震].

The earthquake caused a massive landslide on Kandou Mountain [(崁斗山) pictured below].  The landslide area was about 102.5 hectares and the volume of the landslide deposit was estimated over 30 million cubic meters.  The landslide blocked the Jiucaihu River [韭菜湖溪] and the Sezaikeng River [澀仔坑溪], forming two landslide lakes.


Here, you can see where the strength of the earthquake absolutely mangled the mountain’s landscape:

A small note to observers:  those posts are vertical.  Walking around in this house is a lot more difficult than it looks!

A 921 Memorial:

Finally, the lakes that were formed as a result of the landslide:

I used Bikemap.net to map out this route.  The site was suggested to me a couple months ago and I finally got around to trying it out.  The site is a lot more useful than Google Maps for mapping out routes because it also makes an elevation chart for you and you can easily search for routes made by other cyclists.  I’ll be putting my favorite routes on there over the next few days.

For more information on the 921 Earthquake be sure to check out Taichung County’s 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan.

Went with my mom and dad to the 921 Earthquake Museum in Taichung on Saturday. Like most museums, it was an eye opener of what happened on 9/21/1999.

At 1:47 a.m. on September 21, 1999, Taiwan experienced a violent 7.3 magnitude earthquake that devastated Nantou and Taichung counties, claiming 2,321 lives and injuring more than 8,000, with financial losses in the billions of NT dollars. This was the largest natural disaster in a century. To commemorate those who were killed and injured in this disaster and to encourage the government and public to develop improved disaster preparedness and disaster relief measures, all sectors of society expressed the need for an earthquake museum or memorial hall.

http://www.nmns.edu.tw/nmns_eng/04exhibit/permanent/921.html

The name is Samson Ellis.

Samson Ellis, Formosa TV editor-in-chief.

The Taipei resident has lends his voice as English commentary to the Formosa TV’s news, and writes a number of documentaries for the ever popular Discovery Channel.  This time, Ellis is proud to assist in Discovery’s program in present stories from Taiwan, to the world.

Stories We Share:

Ellis never takes for granted a good story, the stranger or unique it is, the better.  Taiwan, certainly, holds its share.

“Do you remember the exploding sperm whale?” he says.

The exploding sperm whale that stopped the traffic (photo is taken prior to the incident).

Ellis, when he’s not writing or doing a voice-over, he is known as FTV’s (FTV, 民視) editor-in-chief of English news.  The editor fondly recalls the situation from when the station covered the story: the 17m-long, 50-tonne sperm whale that died after being stranded on a beach.  After loading the gigantic corpse onto a truck to make through the local roads, it seems as if all on a spontaneous moment – its body bursted open while passing through the city of Tainan, bringing the traffic to a screeching halt in witness as the corpse splattered onto cars and passersby with blood and guts.

“Stuff like that — that’s Taiwan,” he says in a laugh.

As he fondly recalls like jaw-dropping stories, he goes on to explain how he has been known to explore on the many hidden tales within Taiwan.  In December 2008, he has documented a series of one-hour documentaries, aired on Discovery.

Discovering Discovery:

Just as so, there are no exploding animals in “Unknown Taiwan,” a program provided by the Discovery Channel (solely based on Taiwan), however the series that makes any lover of Taiwan history and culture proud, offers enough intrigue to engage all viewers, internationally.  In one of many episodes, it speaks of Tamsui: two historians are out on a mission to discover what was behind the fable of the secret tunnels, which began from the Dutch-built Fort San Domingo (紅毛城), and extends outward to Keelung.

>>>Interesting fact:  Fort San Domingo is the birthplace of the first Chinese-English Dictionary.<<<

Map of the Izu Islands, of which is the centre of The Devil's Sea (aka The Formosa Triangle).

One other episode looks into the picturesque coastline of the Penghu islands: the site of many a maritime disasters and plane crashes, however entertains the existence of what is oddly too familiar to the dumbfounded unique phenomen, that is the Bermuda Triangle, within the island’s ocean water territories.   (Please refer to: The Devil’s Sea, aka, The Formosa Triangle, located off Japan’s coastline, in a region of the Pacific.)

Beyond the TV:

As a scriptwriter, Ellis’ dedication lays in the honour of hilighting the events from Taiwan, with an Universal appeal.

“When you’re writing for the Discovery Channel especially, you’ve always got to be thinking, okay, why should some guy in Mexico be watching this?”  Ellis continues in his enthusiasm, “You’re really writing for a global international audience, so that’s always on your mind.”

The series unfolds the captivating story of one Japanese pilot, born and raised in Hualien, served as the Imperial Japanese army’s airforce squadron, secretly stationed in Taiwan as a mission during the World War II.  Before the pilot could deploy on his mission, a kamikaze raid, the war had justly come to an end.  This episode documents the pilot’s return to his childhood home and school in Hualien.

>>>A read on [another] pilot’s kamikaze mission.<<<

In addition to gaining further respect and deep appreciation in Taiwan’s recent colonial history and Aboriginal roots, Ellis has to says that he enjoyed most the “craft” aspect of making the documentaries: it creates narratives that could “really sustain people, and people from anywhere, for an hour.”

The idea of being able to hold the attention of the media masses brought him back to basics as he worked with the Taiwanese production companies, commissioned by the Discovery Channel program and the Government Information Office to produce the shows.

>>>Other more recent Discovery documentaries on Taiwan include Prisoners-Of-War (POW), and Kaohsiung.  <<<

In Ellis’ words, ‘Unknown Taiwan’ marks the first that Discovery had a writer involved in the primary stages of its programs, produced by local production houses.  He further continues and states of one presented challenge in assisting the production companies ‘think‘ in terms of a global audience.

“I was very adamant — okay, you need a lot of maps [in the shows].  First of all, you need to tell people where the hell Taiwan is — a lot of people aren’t going to know where Taiwan is,” he explains.

“You’re trying to reach out to people who aren’t interested in Taiwan with an interesting story about Taiwan. So you’ve got to give lots of basic information, stuff like what were the Japanese doing [here]?” he says.

The Development:

Having taken one year abroad in the National Taiwan Normal University, it has since encouraged Ellis to return to Taiwan toward the end of 2001.  With the intention to hold residency for one year, he ended up working at the ‘English daily Taiwan News’ before finally settleing at FTV.

What had took his heart at FTV, was the fast-paced and intense environment that he needed, found refuge in the television newsroom.

“It’s never boring, every day’s different — there’s just so many possibilities, especially when you’ve got to condense everything into a small show,” he said. “You’ve got to be so succinct, there’s no room, there’s no time and there’s no space for any extraneous information and so writing for TV is a real skill…it’s one I didn’t appreciate when I went there [FTV].”

Though the shows they provide may not be as appealing as an international news program, the local organizations, however have taken notice.  In recent years, the program has been nominated for a number of awards.

"Fun Taiwan" host,Janet Hsieh makes a speech and presentation in Taiwan.

Today, Ellis continues in his work with Discovery, he writes for the channel’s Fun Taiwan (瘋台灣), in collaboration with friend and the Fun Taiwan’s host, Janet Hsieh (謝怡芬).  Of most recent projects, he is working on a documentary to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/21 earthquake (Chi-Chi was rebuilt two years later).

>>>For disection of the 9/21 event, please refer through this link.  <<<

At the end of the interview, he comments on his love in the passion of his work and the busy life, “I know myself … if I didn’t do it, I’d be sitting at home watching TV.”

>>>Related stories:
Taiwanese people in Discovery’s documentaries;
Discover releases another program, “Portrait: Taiwan“…  <<<

Taiwanese and international newscasts reporting the deadly quake

At 1:47 in the early morning of September 21, 1999, Taiwan was struck by its most devastating earthquake in over a century. The massive 7.3 magnitude earthquake killed 2,415 persons, left 29 still missing, injured 11,305, completely destroyed 44,338 houses while severely damaging another 41,336, and caused NT$300 billion in property damages.

The 921 Earthquake occurred along the Chelungpu Fault [車籠埔斷層]. Taiwan’s western plains form the western edge of this fault, the western foothills mark the eastern edge of the fault. Some sections of the fault raised the land 7 meters [23 feet] as a result of the earthquake.

The 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan [921地震教育園區] is located at the site of the destroyed Guangfu Junior High School [光復國中] in Wufong Township [霧峰鄉]. The museum is an excellent visit for anyone interested in seismology or Taiwan’s history. There are plenty of interactive displays and most are in Chinese, English, and Japanese.

The Chelongpu Fault Preservation Hall contains models of tectonic plates and the earth’s internal structure. Below is a photograph from the hall showing damage from the earthquake to an area bridge:

Guangfu Junior High was selected as the site of this memorial museum because its track capture the fault movement:

Aerial photograph shortly after the earthquake

The track was elevated 2.5 meters [8.2 feet] as a result

The Earthquake Engineering Hall contains several interactive displays concerning earthquake resistance technology and public safety:

The model below shows how different vibration resistance technologies respond to earthquakes. The building with the ball hanging in it models an active mass damper, which is the system used in Taipei 101:

The preserved buildings at the museum use steal beams or acrylic walls like those pictured below to prevent further collapse:

Below are two pictures of the collapsed North Classroom Building. Had this earthquake occurred at a time when students were at school, several times more children would have perished because of the many schools that either completely or partially collapsed during the earthquake.

The museum also contains information on reconstruction efforts and revival of local communities. There is also a room which simulates the intensity of the 921 Earthquake.