Parks

I am lucky to have a park very close to my dormitory, I walk past it on the way to school. In the morning when it is still cool there is a lot exercisers, taiqi practicioners, dog walkers, ... At night when it cools down again there might be ballroom dancing, card games, Chinese chess, ..., more dog walking.

The little dog in this sign looks like a Disney offspring from the movie "Lady and the Tramp".  Not too many people clean up after their dogs.

In the park there are the typical exercise equipment for kids. But they usually are busy only on the weekends as the kids get home from school after dark.

One of the strangest exercise equipment is the sole foot massage. This is a very important part of the body to exercise.

It consists of a walkway made up of small round stones set in concrete. You walk on the stones and the pressure of the stone tops presses into your sole. It can be painfull at first but as your foot toughens its suppose to be good. I tried it once and decided it was too painfull.

Because most people are apartment dwellers the parks are as close as they can get to a small piece of nature. So there is usually landscaping around a pond. It has only rained about twice in the past 2 months so recently the pond is drying out.

Often the landscape includes these big metamorphic rocks that are weathered by water. Taiwan being on the convergence of 3 geological plates has these rocks thrusted to the surface. A few million years at the surface and the water smooths their surfaces.