Although last night we had planned to visit the second part of the huge temple we had seen the previous day, this morning we changed that into something more interesting. We have seen more than half a dozen temples and they slowly start to turn into "AFTs". Instead, we chose the huge Museum of Science and Technology.

After the second World War, Taiwan went through an Industrial revolution. The Government encouraged people to turn their homes into workshops and start producing goods. In the 70's, the products produced in Taiwan were mostly substandard but that soon changed. Nowadays, Taiwan produces high-quality products and is the world’s leading producer of computer components and LCD screens. They supply about 80% of the world market.

Most of the day we spent inside the 6 storey building. At first, we started with an exhibition about a major typhoon which hit the country some years back. An animated program showed what happened to the country when more than 2 meters of rain fell over a period of three days and caused severe damage and mudslides engulfing entire towns resulting in a high casualty rate.

The section showing the growth in engineering technology was most interesting and we enjoyed a 3D movie about the development of the Russian and US space technology.

We experienced an earthquake simulator which consisted of a mockup living room with some furniture. After an introduction, they would activate the simulator after which you could feel what a 5.0 , 6.0, 7.2, 8.5 etc quake on the Richter scale, felt like. The severe quakes of 7 and higher must be very scary in real life as it felt like they went on for minutes.

In the Aerospace area, there was another item to try out by way of a flight simulator in a military jet including the firing of a missile. Interesting stuff (for us).

At night, (back in Taichung) we had dinner in a large German beer hall/restaurant with Taiwanese lederhosen-wearing girls serving the patrons. They probably are not aware that in Germany it is a man’s outfit they are wearing - but it looked cute anyway.