Category: Taiwan

Taipei is a beautiful city. It is green with lots of parks much like Guangzhou. In fact, it feels like a cross between Japan and Vietnam. Japan in how beautiful, clean, and the feel of the roads in getting around by walking.There are many motorcycles that remind me of Vietnam.

Where bikes need to u turn and would otherwise block the crosswalk, there are boxes for them to wait in.On the way to the MoCA, Taipei at museum, we passed great cafes.

There is an art park mostly for children but beautiful.

And like Guangzhou there are great parks where people gather and spend time in a place that is quieter. Here you could see Tai chi and a karaoke group of older people.

The birds here are happy being fed bread crumbs.

Tai chi.

The gardens outside of Chiang Kai Shek.

The MoCA (museum of contemporary art), Taipai

Listening to George Orwell’s story “you and the atomic bomb” while viewing the images.

Multiple acrylic pieces you see through at one time. It changes each different way you look.

Sun Yat Sen.

The MoCA from the outside.

On the way back to the hotel, we took the metro. Pretty swanky metro stop with some cool shops.

National Palace Museum garden

Here are pictures of the Park near the national palace museum.

A dragon fountain.

Another park on the way back to the hotel. Shuangxi park.

The garden maze park

It was beautiful and walking around various parts of the city was a great vacation.

Walking around waiting for the art museum to open, we found the memorial house of Sun Yat Sen.

Sun Yat Sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese politician, physician and philosopher who served as the first president of the Republic of China and the first leader of the Kuomintang, the Nationalist party. He is widely revered in China and Taiwan as being the Father of the Nation and in the overthrowing of the Qing Dynasty.

In Guangzhou there is a Sun Yat Sen hospital and I had not realized the background of this famous person.Chiang Kai ShekWe also went to Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall. It is impressive. The white building is in the shape of an octagon. The number eight is traditionally associated with fortune and wealth in China.

The blue and red accents, are the colours of the Republic of China. The stairs lead up to the main hall where a large bronze statue of Chiang sits.

The characters behind Chiang’s statue read “Ethics”, “Democracy”, and “Science”, and the inscriptions on the side read “The purpose of life is to improve the general life of humanity” and “The meaning of life is to create and sustain subsequent lives in the universe”.

Chiang is regarded as a controversial figure. He brought China and then Taiwan into the modern age. He, along with Sun Yat Sen, had a major part in unifying the nation and leading the Chinese resistance against Japan. He was known as a dictator at the front of an authoritarian regime who suppressed opponents.

When Chiang Kai Shek was fighting the Japanese, they moved many of the Chinese artifacts from the forbidden city to Shanghai and Nanjing. During the civil war that immediately followed they were moved to Taiwan. Here they were protected from destruction, a tactic used to overthrow regimes and rewrite history.

National Palace Museum

The National Palace museum was created to house these artifacts which is the largest collection of Chinese heritage.

Buddhas

A zither, stringed instrument.

A zither made of pottery. It actually can play music.

Pottery.

Pottery from early history during the warring states period.

My favourite. Cloisonne with dragons.

Cloussone zun vessel in the shape of a bird from the Qing dynasty.

This flower basket is actually carved from a peach pit!

Lapis lazuli carved into a mountain.

Furniture.

Bronze metals.

Look at this one. It is a To water vessel with an animal handle and humans as feet. It is from the Zhou Dynasty.

They had a special collection of jade. It showed how jade can be carved in different ways to show tension, movement, etc.

This is a Zhi cup carved with birds and animals from the Han Dynasty.

A jade screen from the 1940’s that was originally not thought to be made of jade but instead a similar looking mineral. However it is all jade.

Jade had irregularities in colour week died to mimicking something in life. This is a carving of a vegetable. The colours are amazing.

The architecture of the museum itself is a piece of art.

Adjacent to the museum is a cute park. The next post will be about parks and the art museum…

We spent a quick almost 3 days and 2 nights in Taiwan. Obviously we could not see everything and that would be true even if we stayed much longer.

We decided to stay in the Shilin area as it is the best night market in all of Taipei. There is no easier way to eat dinner and people watch! We arrived on Wednesday night and stayed at the Shilin Metro Yes. Very cheap and no frills but very nice and clean. No front desk, you enter with a door code, and it is just a room with a bathroom. For those looking to find it, this is what the outside looks like.

We went immediately to the night market as the street food in Taipei is the best. The first thing we found was sweet potato balls with cheese filling. Amazing and not greasy.

Note: not all of these foods were eaten in one night. We went to this night market both nights! Not in the night market but eye catching.

These are different types of said fried together. I did not try this but caught my eye every time. The did is carnival like but not as great or heavy. Regardless, I can’t eat as much of these as I used to.

I wanted to try this but forgot on the second night.

These are candied fruits. Tomatoes, plums, some other fruit, and strawberries. I have had the strawberries before in Laos and here I tried the plums. Yummy!

These are king oyster mushrooms. It always has a long line. The caps are removed and the stalk is roasted, then grilled with a sauce. After bring cut up, it is sprinkled with choices of seasonings. Unbelievably good and meaty.

These are bean and sesame rounds rolled in peanuts. Yummy.

This was just entertaining: watching meat cooked with a flame torch! They are very flamboyant in his they do it.

Lots to see and great fun trying different foods, people watch, and check out what seems to be popular these days.Our favourite: the sweet potato balls. We had them both nights!!!

And of course Taiwan beer!