Earthquake

The room started to shake as I lay in bed, half asleep. In my groggy state I thought it was some type of gag, like when someone starts shaking you and jokingly says “earthquake!” But, the mat where I lay and the room continued trembling. Thirty seconds went by before the rapid swaying of the building finally ceased. I just experienced my first Taiwanese earthquake and it was a pretty good size. After it happened we checked the internet and read that the quake registered 6.6 on the Richter scale. But then I drifted back to sleep …

The next morning I read a news article saying that since the opening in 2003 of Taipei 101, the world’s largest skyscraper, earthquakes in Taipei have become more frequent and more intense. There are fears by some that the creation might have reopened a fault line. I guess we’ll see.