Geometry according to Taiwan

There is Euclidian geometry where the shortest path between any two given points is a straight line.

There is the geometry of the sphere where the shortest path between any two given points is a "geodesic", i.e. the smallest part of the "great" circle which passes through this point.

Then there is the geometry according to Eva Air. It assimilates the Earth to a sphere with a big hole, that some people call Mainland China (others call it PRC). As a result, the route between Taipei and Paris is a straight line from Taipei to the Korean Peninsula and then the geodesic.

I realized that, when we took off towards East and then, instead of turning around, headed North. In the Eva Air in-flight magazine, Paris is stated as 6,096 miles (9,810 km) and 13:30 hours away from Taipei compared to San Francisco which is 6,450 miles (10,380 km) and only 11:30 hours away from Taipei. Notice that flying 350 miles more takes two hours less.

In other words, hostility between Taiwan and China induces the plane into a 1,500 mile detour!

Anyway, I landed safely in Paris just in time to meet at the airport a friend who had taken off with Thai Airways 5 hours after me...

Paris is as beautiful as always, the Parisians almost as disagreeable as usual, more soon.