No plans going into New Year’s. Had work, hungry, then got a call from Heather asking where I’d been, they’d all gone to Taipei 101 for the fireworks. From talking to my students earlier, it seemed that’s what they were all planning too. And as I soon found out, it was true.
Ran down to Guting Station at 10:50 and was surprised to confront a queue. The station was almost empty, so it must have been crowd control measures to prevent paralysis at Taipei Main Station. There are few weaknesses in Taipei’s excellent metro system, but the complete dependence on Main Station to handle all transfers between the two huge lines is one of them.
Ten minutes in line, few more to Main Station, then a sea of people filling the station, it was clear I wouldn’t make it to 101 in the next 30 minutes by waiting. I turned around and freed myself from the crowd that had rapidly closed in behind me, then searched for a station map to puzzle out the right exit to take. Main has a particularly convoluted design, as it serves as transportation hub for the city, accommodating the MRT junction, Railway Station, High Speed Rail Station, Intra- and Intercity Buses, and two connected underground malls. Must be convenient if you know your way around though.
After reorienting myself after a spiraling staircase, I set off at a run for Shandao Temple Station. Having bypassed the bottleneck, I entered without any wait and successfully squeezed into an overloaded car headed for 101…and right past it. Crowd control measures were in effect for Taipei City Hall Station too, so I was dumped at the next station, two precious minutes later and with only several minutes left. Scaled the escalators and ran in the direction of the crowds’ walking. Not long before I spotted 101, but the world’s tallest building has the habit of appearing deceptively close. Nevertheless, at ten of twelve I was there.
Sending a text message proved impossible, so I plopped down in the street for the show. I wasn’t sure what to expect. The only things I saw were huge crowds, some sporadic, low fireworks and a big balloon advertising funp.com, my friend’s digg clone. Then the lights of 101 dramatically shut off.
And at the stroke of midnight, an explosion of light as the building erupted from all sides with fireworks. Before the first round could fade, another and another wave of fire washed out from the tower, making it look like the building was exploding again and again. From my vantage, I could look straight up and see the sparks shooting overhead. The lights were accompanied by satisfying booms, matched by clapping and the oohs and wahs of those all around me.
It was really impressive, but also short. After 188 seconds and a number of rounds that seemed impossible dense, it was over. Overall really cool. Glad I wasn’t this guy. Stuck around to see the concert, but the program didn’t get me quite as excited as the teenyboppers beside me.Still unable to contact anyone, and seeing the throngs of people lined up for the MRT (specially open all night), I started running back. Weaving through the people wandering away over streets littered with newspaper seats and other trash, it resembled the refugee scene from some post-apocalyptic catastrophe.By chance I ran into a group of Thai students staying at the hostel, who, by chance, had lost their map. They slowed me down, but we managed to get back in two and a half hours in which I got to know them a lot better. At 4:00 we switched on the TV and saw live coverage of people still queued up , waiting to catch a subway train. Success!