New Year’s Eve! @ Taipei 101

Few days late… but let us post about the New Year’s Eve at Taipei.

After a quick dinner (a kind of thick noodles soup with some topping), we headed to Taipei 101 area (still the tallest buliding in the world until Burj Dubai is opened later this year). For the last 6 years this is the place where a large amount of Taipei inhabitants gather to welcome the New Year. The size of the crowd is impressive and various “locals” (Albert workmates mainly) suggested not to go there for the chaos that we would face… but being brand new inhabitants it was a must for us to attend.

The city organizes a concert with the most trendy and famous music groups from Taiwan scene. You can read about it here.

At 12:00 the world famous fireworks start. This year the show lasted for 188 seconds (3 minutes and 8 seconds). 22,000 rounds of fireworks went off for a price tag of NT$30 million (less than US$ 1 million).

We recorded our own video, but YouTube provides with better videos. After the fireworks we ate 12 grapes as the tradition mandates in our country.

At YouTube you can find a lot of additional videos. You can also admire a large collection of photos in this group from Flickr

The slogan for 2010 is “Taiwan UP!”

When the fireworks ended, the chaos organized by the people and the vehicles was memorable. The MRT (metro) run all night long and carried around 2 million people. The avenues close to Taipei 101 became pedestrian domain for couple of hours. Drivers had to wait.

So, as we say in catalan … “any nou, vida nova!!” [new year, new life!!]

Happy 2010 to everybody!

And last but not least … TAIWAN UP! :)

Anna & Albert