While this time of year is generally a happy one for people across the nation, for one high-school girl in Taipei, it is an especially thankful time.
The student, known only by her family name of Chang, had a successful liver and kidney transplant on Jan. 6, and yesterday, before being discharged from National Taiwan University Hospital, she threw a thank-you party for nurses and doctors. She offered heartfelt thanks to the organ donors, too.
Chang, who suffered from renal failure and cirrhosis of the liver since she was a child, had to undergo kidney dialysis on a regular basis since last September. Now, she has her whole life ahead of her, and she's looking forward to the Year of the Dragon, she told reporters who attended the hospital party.
A whopper of a tale
In the city that never sleeps, Taipei antique dealer and art collector David Chien has a story to tell. A big story, a real whopper of a tale. To begin with, the object in question, a huge Kauri burl from New Zealand (pictured left) weighs around 8 tonnes. Chien found the huge kauri burl, said to be around 35,000 years old, while living in New Zealand in 1996. He purchased the massive "object d'art" from a Maori chief for an undisclosed sum. Left out to dry for three years, the ancient rainforest tree section was shipped to Taiwan by boat and now rests in a Linkou showroom. After the Liberty Times ran a profile of Chien (and his tree) last year, several wealthy businessmen approached him expressing interest in buying the item. But Chien has his sights on exhibiting the Kauri burl in a world-famous museum in Europe or New York, maybe even the Guiness Museum in Taichung.
In the meantime, the tree burl sits in Linkou, where it is said to give off vital qi (energy) to those who come into close contact with it. Stranger than science? You be the judge.
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