The Fast Train

We were invited to accompany President & Sister Horner to the southern part of the island to attend a Stake Conference. To get there we took the fast train, or as the signs in the main train station read, the HSR (High Speed Rail).

This is the front car of the train as it pulls into the Tainan station (our destination) as we were leaving to go home.

These are the first seven cars of the train. It is a nice riding train and travels somewhere around 280 kph (about 175 mph).

The HSR travels on the west side of the island in a mostly flat plain. In the center and north you see mountains to the east. In the north you go through some tunnels in the mountains.

This appears to be the end of the mountains.

We passed a lot of rice paddies and plots for other vegetables. Some were flooded, ...

...some were growing, some were covered with tarps.

More of the same. They say that they get three crops off the land per year.

Some places had green house type structures.

These plots were near a busy city.

This was as close as we got to any big city (except for Taipei, where you come in under ground to the Main Train Station). This city is Taichung (or Taizhong) meaning Tai middle or Tai central. We left from Taipei (or Taibei) meaning Tai north, and we went to Tainan meaning Tai south. Spellings are a little confusing, because there are different variations of Romanization of the characters. The train stations for Taichung and Tainan are 30 or 40 minutes from the city by taxi.

This was the Stake Center in Tainan. The main chapel was on the third floor.

Hahns, Horners, Wheatleys. The Wheatleys also attended this conference because they had welfare business to carry on. The Horners spoke, and we observed.