The water bill came today. I know it's the water bill because it says so in English on the envelope. I don't remember the Aquarion Water Company bills looking so cheerful. This is also a lot cheaper - NT $118 or about $4 US for a month.
Something I learned the other day, the Taiwanese have a different year than "the year of our Lord, 2014." If you look closely at the bill there's the date 103/9/21. That's the year 103 on September 21. The first year of the Taiwanese calendar is 1912, the year that the Republic of China was founded. It ties into the traditional numbering of years based on how long an emperor ruled. Beginning in 1912 there was no longer an emperor ruling the republic so that was the beginning of the new era, hence, year number one. And that concludes our history lesson for the day.
Does that mean China never had to enjoy the Y2K computer code panic?
ReplyDeleteGood question. I don't know. I imagine anything that's done worldwide uses the Gregorian calendar so they probably faced the same issues. But China's gone through a few millennials and probably doesn't panic about such trivial things like computers crashing.
ReplyDeleteit's a very happy bill - loving the rainbow and grazing deer
ReplyDeleteA happy bill is a happy customer!
ReplyDelete