Taipei 101

It was hard leaving the hotel in Tainan (pronounced tie-non with emphasized syllable being "tie"). Hard because I had only gotten my luggage at 2:06 this morning and at 9:30 I was leaving it behind to go to Taipei with only my carry on bag. I had some serious separation anxiety.

Once arriving in Taipei and checking in, it was back on the streets again. We took a cab further into town near the main train terminal station. Upon exiting we went to visit the YWCA. And for a good reason. Currently there are no established English/Chinese works in Taipei. A Filipino group is meeting regularly at the YWCA. This location was chosen because of its proximity to the intersection of where all the major train lines and bus lines meet. But as one would expect, to be located near such is very costly. They rent a meeting room there for three hours every Sunday in the afternoon. It costs about a typical full months rent for housing in the midwest for the 12 hours.

After a nice lunch we headed to the subway station where I experienced my first subway ride in Taiwan. Clean but congested. There are ample signs in both Chinese and English so if you can read a map you'd be OK. Taipei as I learned today, is much more prepared for international visitors than the cities in the south half of the island. We took the train to the City Hall Station and paid NT $20...which translates into about 30 cents. So far this has been about the only bargain I have seen here....

Our destination was Taipei 101. You have to see it to really understand it. Wikipedia does OK with it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_101). It is the tallest building in the world or thereabouts depending on what is measured. We made our way (for a fee of course) to the Observation Deck on the 89th floor. In Taiwan the floors are taller than in the US so it is higher than the Sears Tower. I took pictures but I am not sure they will do it justice.

On the spiritual side, there are not words to describe the impact of praying over a city from the 89th floor. To the east, west, north and south there are literally millions of people that need the gospel. And thank God there is freedom here to preach it.

After about an hour prayer meeting, we headed back to the ground level and over to the Grand Hyatt to meet the Votaws for dinner. There is an incredible story there I will share upon coming home. It was the Votaws that first instilled a burden for the Chinese in me. Later I can divulge the signifcance of meeting them here in Taipei.

Brother Bracken is doing nothing to help my diet. Cold Stone Creamery has come to Taipei as a smashing success. It is his weakness too and we fell to the temptation.

It is Friday night here and already I am being well schooled with what I will need to know next week in Xian. The risk is greater than I thought and I will not risk posting while there. We head back tomorrow to Tainan with a stop at a Filipino church on our way. It is then time to get focused on the Sunday services in Tainan and Kaohsiung. That will be Saturday night and early Sunday morning in the US.