May 24, 2009 - Transfered to Yongkang

Yongkang City - 30 miles from Guiren
My new companion Elder Trevor Morgan Heder. He is from Pleasant Grove, Utah and has a twin that is serving in Cambodia.


Ryan's District in Guiren. Sister Angulo on the far left is from Las Vegas, Nevada and went home today.

Yongkang (Chinese: 永康; pinyin: Yǒngkāng) is the largest city in Tainan County and lies in the southern west of Taiwan.

Due to the development of manufacturing and food-processing industries, Yongkang became a migrant city since the 1970s, attracting many people from neighboring cities who now work and live in the city. Its population experienced a large increase during 1970s, and Yongkang became the largest in Tainan county in 1977.

Though the increase in population today is not as rapid as it was before, Yongkang still enjoys the steady growth envied by other cities or towns. Yongkang also serves as a traffic hub, having the Number 1 Freeway and the Western Line railroad running through it. It is home to several colleges, including the Tainan University of Technology, Kunsan Technology, and Nantai Technology.

May 21, 2009 - Sunset

May 20, 2009 - New Plaque at Church

Here is Ryan's new plaque that the Foothill Ward had made for him. They asked him his favorite scripture prior to him leaving on his Mission and for a picture of him. We decided to use his Mission submittal picture that he submitted with his papers. It is being displayed at the Foothill Ward in the glass cabinet.

May 13, 2009 - Taiwan Strait

 

 

 

 

In the back of the Aquarium in front of the Taiwan Strait

Ryan and Elder Read at the Aquarium 3D Fish Adventure

 The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait is a 180-km-wide (111.85-mile-wide) strait between mainland China and Taiwan. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to East China Sea to the northeast. The narrowest part is 131 km (81.4 mi.) wide.

Fujian province in mainland China is to the west of the strait, while important islands like Jinmen, Xiamen, Hainan Island, and the Matsu Islands are nearby. To the east are the west coast of Taiwan and Penghu. The island fishermen use the strait as a fishing resource.

The Strait has been the theatre for several military confrontations between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China since the last days of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 when the Kuomintang (KMT) forces led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek retreated across the Strait and relocated its government on its final stronghold of Taiwan.

As part of Mainland China's National Expressway Plan, a tunnel or possibly a bridge, was proposed in 2005 to link the cities of Fuzhou, Fujian on mainland China, with Taipei on Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait. If such an extreme construction would ever be built, it would by far exceed the length of any man-made tunnel in the world today. Engineers in Beijing state that a tunnel is technically feasible. Taipei had refused to open direct links out of concern for the island's security and in fear that by doing so it would have to recognise Beijing's one-China policy.

The Minjiang and Jiulong Rivers empty into the strait.