Air raid drill
To live in a place where the whole country holds an air raid drill is a new thing. I remember as a child doing Fire drills, Tornado drills and even Nuclear blast drills in school. Never before have I experienced anything like today however.
Today Taiwan is holding a country wide drill today to prepare in case of an air raid from China. We go about our business day to day here just like every where else. The fact is we live in a country which does not exist and has been under threat of attack from mainland China.
Well back to the story. At 2:00PM the air raid sirens went off and all citizens are required to get indoors if on foot. If in cars, scooters, or bicycles they are required to pull to the side of the road and stop. To me the really interesting thing is the duration of the drill which is 30 min. For this 1/2 hour the country essentially comes to a stop. Of course those of us who work in offices continue on with our duties but if one looks out the window it is mostly like a ghost town.
Then at 2:30 the siren sounds again and back to the regular hustle and bustle of a city of 5M people.