File:19940703diaoyutai.jpg

English: The Diaoyutai Islands are located 200 km ENE of Taipei, capitol of Taiwan. Diaoyutai means "fishing platform" in Chinese. I happened to take this a photo of Diaoyutai Is. 此釣魚台之空照為我攝。

We see light beaches and dark vegetation. 海灘白色，暗的是植物。 Elevations of highest points of islands 各島最高點:釣魚台 Diaoyutai 383 m, 北小島 Beixiaodao 135 m, Nanxiaodao 南小島 149 m, 沖北岩 Chongbeiyan 28 m。[Statistics from Taiwan Gov't 1:50000 topo maps. 為何北小島長得與經建版圖不一樣？] north is up; scale in km. Please turn this picture upside down for original from-plane viewing feeling; 若要原從飛機看感，相片請倒放 taken 3 July 1994.

weiyun at mac.com said on Sep 11 2000:

It looked like a satellite photo to me.

Thanks for the compliment, I just thought I could save some bits by removing the blue sea color etc. and making it black and white.

So how did you take it? Was it off a regular commercial jet? It looked as if it was taken without any side angle. Did you stick your camera out the window? ;)

Yup, regular (Northwest Airlines) flight Taipei to Tokyo, altitude 11300 m [37000 ft]. I've just turned it upside down from the real way it looks when I took it out the window, apparently in an attempt to make a north=up map... and since I had already scribbled on the photo, I didn't want to turn it back right side up lest the words be upside down. Perhaps the plane was in a slight turn allowing me to take this almost straight down photo.