DOTS - Hong Kong & Taichung Editions

"Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever" (superchan7) 05/01/2019 at 02:57 • Filed to: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Taichung, DOTS

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Sorry, weather was absolute crap for my entire stay in Hong Kong, but here we go:

Fresh off the plane, an AMG E63s waiting at the airport car park.

One of the many suspension bridges taking people into the city. This one gives a proper introduction to what the place is all about.

Generic government housing blocks under construction. A cantilever bridge is being built to provide pedestrian access to the train station on the other side of this highway. Marvel of urban efficiency or Dystopian hellscape?

My LALD contribution: 20 years of progress in BBurago 1:18 models. The 488 gifted by relatives to the kiddo has stunning improvements in realism and detail compared to my very own 550 from 20 years ago.

Time to roll out. I had a few opportunities to drive during my week in town.

My parents’ 2010 Alphard. The Alphard is the default choice for luxury transport but is awfully large to manoeuvre and park here in Hong Kong.

Huracan Performante spotted in my hometown in the New Territories. Honestly exotics are so commonly sighted in HK that I find more pleasure in capturing the weird JDM Kei cars.

Now this is what I’m talking about: A Daihatsu Midget with dealer plates. Not sure why the driver stepped out at a red light.

Honda StepWgn belonging to Customs & Excise

Train Oppo: My side hustle is train geek. Hong Kong’s original metro trains are finally beginning their gradual retirement starting this year. They were refurbished once (in the late 90s) in their 40+ years of service.

Expensive 1:18 4C model at a hobby store. Being a Spider, I wasn’t too tempted.

My only sighting of the new Toyota Comfort Hybrid taxi, an adaptation of Toyota’s new JPN Taxi and an obvious rip of the London Taxi design. It does, however, have a sliding door which provides a huge advantage to the handicapped.

Buses with staircase windows are now being introduced. I believe this is the new Wright StreetDeck body on a Volvo B8 chassis.

Contrary to common misconception, most of Hong Kong actually looks like this. Hiking is splendid, but we’re on our way to a coastal fishing village for seafood.

Didn’t ride, but visited the new HSR station to check out the striking architecture. The chief architect wanted the traveller to be in a surreal zone and “forget where the ground level was.” I think he succeeded. There’s a lot of controversy surrounding the security/immigration/customs execution, but that should not distract from the amazing engineering and construction achievement.

View from the station.

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Onto Taichung in central Taiwan:

The new Taoyuan Metro connects the international airport with the HSR, but it’s not really that convenient due to the need to take multiple lifts. Transferable baggage carts would be very helpful. While the interior is fine, the exterior styling looks disappointingly dated for a brand new rolling stock.

Taiwan’s HSR is aging very well. The trains are a de-duckbilled variant of Japan’s N700 series Shinkansen rolling stock.

First car sighting upon arrival at Taichung: a new MX-5 RF

Jags aren’t very common in Taiwan, but this style of parking (illegal) is.

A number of interesting buildings have popped up—Taichung’s cityscape is probably the fastest-changing in Taiwan as the metro area matures into something more than a generic flyover city.

Looks like Fujiwara has expanded into Taiwan, but he needs to improve his choice of vehicles—this thing won’t touge or drift at all.

A light-capacity elevated metro network is near completion, expected to alleviate the traffic problems in car-centric (specifically, moped-centric) Taichung.

M2 Competition

Taichung’s new main railway station is an impressive example of infrastructure improvement. The historic old station building is left entirely intact, a brand new station built alongside, and the entire local section of track has been elevated to improve connectivity between previously disjointed districts.

Exige on Taiwan Boulevard, formerly known as Taichung Harbor Boulevard. Not sure why such a dramatic yet unhelpful name change occurred. A former BRT bus stop is visible across the street; the BRT services were discontinued and the hardware re-absorbed into the existing bus routes.

Uhhhhhmmm no.

Cablecar Oppo: On my umpteenth visit to Taiwan I finally got to see the famous  (“Sun Moon Lake” named for its geographical shape). It was disappointingly hazy.

Skoda!

My final opportunity to snap a pic of a new EV number plate was on an occupied moped so I had to sneak it in. This is a Gogoro 2 and it looks quite stylish.

InFierority Complex > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 05/01/2019 at 06:29

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That station wouldn’t be out of place in a sci fi setting. Definitely incredible and surreal

404 - User No Longer Available > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 05/01/2019 at 06:34

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True ballers have China-Hong Kong cross-border  plates on their cars.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > 404 - User No Longer Available 05/01/2019 at 13:19

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I’ve thought about taking off the cross-border plate but didn’t have access to tools there . I’m told that it’s expired as it was attached to my late father.

In fact, I’d prefer  to sell the car as it doesn’t really get used . A couple taxi rides a year are much cheaper than registering and parking a private car. Unfortunately, not my call.