Liz and more of her Vietnamese style

This picture was taken at Grace Liao's wedding banquet. Grace has been a long-time helper with our Friday Night Live Bible studies. Liz looks great here in another one of her Vietnamese ao dais. My matching tie is courtesy of the National Defense Management College (NDMC). You never know when one of those school gifts may come in handy.

Views of Taipei

View of Taipei from Jinmianshan. This picture was taken on a hike after work around 6:15 pm.


Looking south across Neihu and the Jilong River at Taipei 101.


View west looking back toward Miramar shopping center, ferris wheel and Dazhi. The Grand Hotel is visible in the upper right near the end of the ridge.

Martyr's Shrine

On the last day of my family's visit to Taiwan, I took my brother, Jeff over to the Martyr's Shrine in Taipei. It's located a short distance from Dazhi on the way over to the Grand Hotel.


The view looking out the door of the Military Shrine located off to the side of the central building. On the opposite side of the stone courtyard is the Civilian Shrine. In each building plaques, tablets and pictures remember people who who died in support of the Republic of China. Many of them lost their lives during the war against the Japanese and later against the Communists in China.


Here's Jeff near the front steps of the central building as the guards are moving into place.


And at the side of the building looking down through the front row of columns with the fine woodwork visible on the ceiling.


The guards can't move once they're in place. So what happens when you're standing there in uniform and helmet on a very hot day? Fortunately, there's a nice guy standing around who can come along and wipe off your sweat. Thanks dude!


Nice view from the small garden just outside Martyr's Shrine with Taipei 101 visible in the distance.

Yangming Mountain National Park

Dad, Faith and Jeff at Qingtiangang in Yangming Mountain National Park. It's a beautiful view up there. It seems so far away from the city and yet it's very close to Taipei. On this day we took a nice walk across the mountain grassland and up the hill.


Faith and Jeff appear to be racing to the top and it looks like Faith's winning.


Hey! We finally made it to the top. The grass seems to grow in big clumps up here. Let's not get lost in the bushes.


Here's a closeup of the happy hikers with a view off the side of the mountain. Now it's time to head back down to the parking lot (off to the right) and catch a small bus back to Taipei. It's so nice up here, do we have to go back?

Family Visit in Taiwan

Phil's family came to Taiwan for a one week visit 6/10- 6/17. This time it was Dad, older brother Jeff, and his daughter, Faith. One of the sites they visited early in the trip was the world's tallest building, the Taipei 101.

Here's Dad and the view looking up from the bottom.


And here's Faith (our niece) with some of the view from the top.

In Taipei, they got a glimpse of the modern, especially at places like Taipei 101. But they also wanted to see some of the old. For a view of "old Taiwan", we went to Jiufen.

Some of the many steps through Jiufen, a town built on a steep hillside.


One of the many teahouses with a great view. However, it seems Faith is looking the wrong way.

Faith got two scrolls with her name. One in Chinese and one in English. This man does the writing of the big letters with the sides of his hand (no brush or pen).


Coming down the steps. There they are. Dad shows up nicely in his blue shirt.

Next to one of the nice cafe/restaurants.

Student Birthday Party

With Friday night Bible study student, Harry (left) and friends at his birthday dinner. We ate at a local Pakistani/Indian restaurant. Mmm, good! And Harry paid for the meal. I guess I didn't know that's the way Chinese often do it. In contrast, when we take a Western friend out for birthday dinner, everyone chips in to help pay for that person's meal as well as their own.