Anping Beach and EARTHQUAAAAKE!!

Today a bunch of us met at Anping Beach to celebrate Erick's birthday. The day started off nice and sunny, but by 2pm clouds came in and covered up most of the sky.

Anping is on Taiwan's west coast on the Taiwan Strait (the side of Taiwan that faces Mainland China). Because the side of the island doesn't face the open Pacific, the water is relativley calm and nice.

The day was nice... relaxing in the warm sea air, playing in the water, playing some beach football and drinking some cheap Taiwanese beer. About 4:30PM, while I was sitting on a dune with a beer, the ground started to move. THe ground started to fucking MOVE. Everyone on the beach froze, and looked around. A few car alarms in the distance went off and the shocks on the SUV next to us started to creak. Earthquake! The sensation was quite strange, sort of like the loss of equilibrium you get when you are drunk. The ground didn't shake, but it sort of rolled like a rippling pond. When my ass went down and my feet went up, I thought... woah... The large part of the quake lasted about 15-20 seconds, and changed amplitude to a slight rumbling for about five minutes before it stopped totally. It was pretty trippy!!

Apparantly it was a pretty strong quake - according to Reuters, it measured 6.4 on the Richter Scale, and was centered east of Taitung on the east coast. Thoughts of the Boxing Day Tsunami was in our thoughts, as we were sitting about 10 feet from the Pacific Ocean when the quake hit.

Here's a link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/TP207564.htm




Anping Beach, looking south. Over the horizon is Mainland China.



Surfing has become quite popular in Taiwan. A good mix of local and foreigners surf the waves here. Apparantly Taiwan has excellent surfing. With the wind coming off of the ocean, the surfing was pretty good today.



WHoops! Erick's roomate took to the water, and ended up accidentally showing a bunch of kids what's under her bikini bottom. Surf's up!



A local surfer



Anping Beach



Charlie doesn't surf, but the Taiwanese do.



Another surfer



Many newlyweds come to Anping beach to get photos taken. While we there I counted about eight couples getting their photos done. Unlike North American weddings where the entire bridal party gets in on the photo taking, here just the bride and groom get their shots done



Erick and his roomate



As you can see, there isn't much of a tide here. The white leavings are bits of styrofoam from the oyster jetties offshore (which float on Styrofoam billets)



Surfing in the foam



Another wedding



Cute girl surfer, trying to stay upright. She reminds me of my good friend Ann back in Canada.. if Ann surfs...



The clouds never let up as the sun set



More surfing



Heather, Steve and Carolyn



Erick and two girls from South Africa



Ocean freighter off in the distance



The gang



Frolicking in the surf



Heather and Carolyn frolicking more



Awwwwwww... How Touching....



The sun sets on the day

So yes.. I am okay... My first major Earthquake in Taiwan was quite interesting... fun, too.. Other than a collapsed wall south in Kaohsiung, there was no damage.

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