Following on from my earlier post about the wonderful museums of Taiwan I wanted to point out a new museum trend – extended visiting hours. This is part of an international trend in museums and the culture industry. It also means visiting no longer needs to be limited by the usual nine to five opening hours. There are a few museums in Taipei with extended hours.

When I first came to Taiwan back in 1999 I had a copy of the fourth edition of Lonely Planet Taiwan. I have since bought the fifth and sixth editions. The seventh edition of Lonely Planet Taiwan was published in November 2007 and I recently got a copy.

Beginning today, there'll be a slight change in the Taiwanderful revenue sharing policy .

From now on 100% of Google Adsense earnings from the ads displayed on content will go to the people who contributed the content, if they set revenue sharing on their account . After experimenting with his feature for a few months, we believe this is the right thing to do to reward the members for their hard work contributing to this site.

The 2007 ING Taipei International Marathon was held in the streets of Taipei yesterday, December 16th. A record 110 000 runners took part in the various races, with 22 000 running in the full marathon. Kenya's Hillary Bett won the international mens division in a time of 2:17:01, finishing ahead of Tanzania's Disdery Hombo (2:17:35) and fellow Kenyan Elijah Chemwolo (2:18:03). Zimbabwe's Tabitha Tsatsa took the womens prize with a time of 2:33:01, with Kenya's Anne Chelagat at 2:38:19 and Merima Benboba, also from Zimbabwe, at 2:49:14.

In the last week I have visited a couple of excellent museums in Taiwan. It reminded me that there are many great museums here in Taiwan, big and small. The one in the photo above is the Shihsanhang Museum (十三行博物館) in Bali, Taipei County. The museum seeks to preserve artifacts from the Shihsanhang archaeological site which was Taiwan's first iron smelting site. The museum is also notable for its unique architectural design and surrounding cultural park.

I have just created a new page in David's Guide to Taiwan to highlight the northeast coast . This beautiful stretch of coastline between Keelung and Yilan is packed with interesting attractions. It is easy to get there by car or train from Taipei.

I recently finished a Taiwanese language* course at Shi-Da (NTNU; 師大). At David on Formosa I wrote a post about Taiwanese language learning materials. It contains some information about text books and other resources for learning Taiwanese.

Shieh Jhy-wey

Minister, Government Information Office

Taiwan

We live in a good world, with good people in it. The human race has shown time and again that a spirit of compassion and love can overcome adversity, fear, injustice, and aggression. Natural disasters, famines, disease, conflict, terrorism, and tyranny do their worst, but this indomitable spirit marches on, manifesting itself every day around the globe.

Taiwan's been trying to encourage foreign students to come and study in Taiwan and the number of scholarships offered are increasing. I'm studying in Taiwan with the Nationcal Science Council scholarship and have been contacted a few times with questions regarding the scholarships available for foreigners in Taiwan. Following is a compilation of the information I know of.

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As mentioned in part 2 of Wandering in Lugang, the area around the Tian Ho temple is mainly a street market. Food vendors, tea shops, restaurants and the like abound, all thronged by tourists and day trippers.

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