My wife,
her sister,
my kids, and my niece dodge the accouterments of construction to pose
in
front of the sign. |
On a gorgeous fall day in late October we ventured to the 9/21
Earthquake
Museum in Wufeng. The museum is built on the ruins of a junior high
school
that had the singular bad luck to sit right across the fault slip. The
vertical displacement at the school was between 2.5 and 3 meters (in
some
parts of the mountains it was over 10 meters). At the moment the
museum is under construction. It is a beautiful museum whose design has
won awards, and is well worth the trip to Wufeng. Back
to Recreation
in Taiwan |
| My wife,
her sister,
my kids, and my niece dodge the accouterments of construction to pose
in
front of the sign. |
 Sebastian
and Sheridan
pose in front of the museum. The old track of the junior high is to the
right, the entrance down the concrete ramp to the left. |
 Studying a
globe showing
the plate boundaries. Taiwan's small museums are often of very high
quality. |
 The museum
is well-lit
and the exhibits are professionally done, with English explanations of
decent quality, though obviously not written by native speakers.
The architecture is particularly striking and attractive. |
 Zeb poses
in front of
the old track. The vertical displacement, about 2.5 meters worth, is
dramatically
depicted by the sudden rise in the track. |
 Some of
the old school
buildings have been retained on the site as part of the exhibit.
Walking
paths take you through them to a second museum building at the other
end
of the school site. |
 The road
outside the
museum is lined with vendors of every type and kind. |
 Dan-dan
and Zeb are
shocked and awed by the destruction. The ground was displaced right
under
the school, this wing rising almost three meters. Luckily the quake
struck
at 2 AM, or the death toll might have been much higher. |
 Mom
comforts Sheridan
on one of the beautiful walkways. |
 Twisted
rail tracks:
no self-respecting quake should be without 'em! |
 The casual
power of
quakes is fearsome to behold. |
 The
walkway takes you
to the second museum building. This is an image and video repository.
While
there is little in English, the pictures are wonderful. |
 Visitors
inspect the
displays. |
 A display
describes
new school construction. Relatively more schools than other buildings
were
destroyed by the quake, but that sad fact did not seem to stimulate any
closer investigation into the state of public construction on the
island. |
 The museum
also hosts
outdoor concerts and other activities on the weekends. |
 Zeb poses
in back of
the museum as we make our way back to the car. |
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in Taiwan
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