Day-to-day life in Taipei

I thought I'd talk about a "normal" weekend here in Taipei. The one thing that has impressed me is the sheer number of bikes all over the city. Here are a couple bike areas. You can only park your bikes within the designated lines or they will be removed.

There are so many bikes that we even have double--decker parking.
 

 Speaking of bikes, I recently went for a ride along the river and found a new-looking bridge.

It turns out it was so new that it was actually a construction site. Someone forgot to close the gates...I ended up getting locked in for a bit and then, after a while, yelled at in Chinese. But...I managed to get an amazing view of the city

After escaping from the construction site, I found a group of photographers waiting to capture the sunset in Taipei. This seems to be a popular endeavor because I have witnessed this around all of Taipei's more scenic areas.

And here is my last picture before coming across a really nasty bike accident.

 Even though bikes are popular here, scooters are king. I stood on a corner, at night, and managed to shoot 30 seconds worth of nothing but scooters - you can see the video here: http://youtu.be/IxtO1n9zgN4

Unfortunately, this means scooters are everywhere. Even if you are on a sidewalk, you have to be aware of them...here I am being passed by one...on a sidewalk.

 

 Here are one of the many traffic cops. Despite their visibility, I rarely see people follow driving laws.

And on a totally different subject, here are a couple neat pictures. The fruits below are on a tree outside of a school by my apartment. I was surprised to see the care they take with them while they are still on the plant.

Here is a "garden" grown into the side of a construction project's fence. This appears to be fairly typical too.