Tie Non: 烏山頭／Wusantou

先週華語センターの他の学生と先生と一緒に烏山頭に行って来た。烏山頭は台南のまあまあ近くに有る貯水池だ。また、周辺が公園に成っている。

烏山頭は日本時代に作られた。1920年から1930年まで工事が続いて、出来た時は世界最大のダムだったらしい。（その後アメリカのフーバーダムに負けたけど。）日本人の八田（はった）さんという人が計画を建てた。（以上の事は全てウィキペディアで見た。当日はこういう勉強しとらん。）

当日は焼き肉や中国語のゲームなどで忙しかったから、正直言えば、あまり烏山頭の見所見ていない。八田さんの博物館とかが有るけど、全然見ていない。ご免、あまり烏山頭についてのネタはないので、ちょっと写真を載せるだけでポストを終える事にさせて貰う。

The Mandarin Center sponsored a trip to Wusantou last week for all students and teachers at the center. Wusantou is a man-made lake not too far from Tainan. It's about 500 meters above sea level in the mountains. The surrounding area is also a park.

The dam that made the lake was started in 1920 and finished in 1930. According to the omniscient and wonderful Wikipedia, Wusantou was the largest dam in the world from the time when it was finished until the Hoover Dam was built. (Approximately one year. Taipei 101, former tallest building in the world suffered a similar fate, though it at least got a good 6 years as number one.) The architect was a Japanese man, Hatta. (This was, after all, during the time when Taiwan was still a colony of Japan.)

Because I was on this group trip, I was kept pretty busy with the Chinese-language games we played and the BBQing and stuff, so I actually don't have a whole to say about Wusantou. I'll have to go back some time to see more of the history-related stuff there.

Here is our very international group just after arriving. I believe on this day I talked to people from at least 10 different countries. Excluding the obvious one, Taiwan, I talked to people from Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, South Africa, Swaziland, Switzerland, and many others. This is one of the things that makes studying here interesting. It's really a pretty diverse group.
成功大学の華語センターは日本人、ベトナム人、スイス人、南アフリカ人、インドネシア人、スワジランド人、本当に色んな国から来た人が居る。

貯水池。なかなか広い。島とかを見てみると、水深がちょっと浅いと分かると思う。流石、晴れ男の俺様が９月に台南に着いてから、一回も雨降っとらん。台風も寄って来ていない。全ては俺のお陰だから、台南の皆さん、いつでもお礼を言いに来ていいよ。
（でもこんなに雨降らんば、晴れ男と呼ぶより、「旱魃鬼」と呼んだ方がいいかも。ご免なさい、農家の皆さん。週末はちょっと台北に行って来るつまりなので、その時雨を降らせよう。）

This is the lake itself. The water level is pretty low. Apparently there was a lot of rain in the summer, but since I arrived in September, there's been no rain. I guess this is normal. According to Wikipedia, knower of all things, Tainan gets most of its rain in the summer. That actually fits the Monsoon pattern of rainfall they have in Japan too, where dry, cold air comes down from the continent in the winter, and as a result, there's very little precipitation. (One exception is the side of Japan facing the Sea of Japan, where, due to precipitation caused by air rising up when it hits the mountains, there's actually a lot of winter precipitation and very little summer precipitation.)

Synchronized Sand Drawing, soon to be an Olympic sport.

中国語のゲームが終わったら、やっとバーベキューが始まった。無料の焼き肉を目標にして参加した人が多かったと思う。みんなうきうきしていた。

なぜかよく分からないけど、蔣介石の銅像が有った。かれは別にここと何も関係無いと思うけど、まあ、台湾を３０年間も独占した人だから、勝手にどこでも自分の銅像を建てさせることが出来たんだろう。

This statue is of Chiang Kai-Shek. I'm pretty sure he has nothing to do with Wusantou, but because he ruled over Taiwan as a dictator for about 30 years, his statues are all over the place.

蒋介石の別名は「中正」だった。

ヘリで公園に来れるみたい！お金持ちの使うかな？（いや、多分消防署が使うだろう。）
Yes, that is a helipad in the park. I guess it's probably for official use, like maybe firefighters or something?