Michael and I were on an all day tour to Taipei (he was the escort). It was pouring rain in Keelung (which gets 200 rainy days per year) and were keeping our finger crossed that it wouldn’t be raining when we got to Taipei, about 20 miles away on the other side of the mountain. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is located on the island of Formosa, but is commonly known as Taiwan. Two thirds of the island is forested mountains with over 200 peaks that are over 10,000 feet tall. Most of the population of 23 million live on the coastal areas, especially the flat western shore.
We passed dreary looking large apartment building on our way to Taipei. Ah, upon arrival in the city we were lucky – NO rain. Sightseeing in the rain is really a big pain and I had enough pain to contend with (the foot – by the way; the back is great). The bus we rode on was quite different than any other I have been on for touring. It was more like a double decker, with a spiral staircase to get to the lace covered seats. My knees got quite a workout climbing up and down them. Our guide, Felix, was great. And no, Felix is not his real name. We could never pronounce his Chinese name so he adopted Felix when he was completing his master’s degree in the US.
Taipei is a mixture of the old and new. The old looks weary, worn, drab, dirty and has air-conditioning units mounted on enclosed wrought iron “decks” that have been added to the brick buildings. It is not attractive. The new area of the city has nice parks, wide streets, and I would assume central air in the newer highrises instead of the A/C units. They have a subway system (one of the main streets was torn up as they were building the second stage of the system), lots of yellow taxis, buses, and probably a bazillion crazies driving motor scooters (actually there are approximately one million plus scooters just in Taipei), which park everywhere including the sidewalk. Taipei also has the distinction of having the world’s second tallest building (it was outdone by the Burj Kalifa in Dubai) and lots of high tech companies are located here. It has a population of 1.6 million, but if you include the suburbs it is actually 6 million. Eighty percent of the population is Taoist or Buddhist. Many people wore surgical masks for protection from the vehicle pollution and from illness. They got used to wearing them during the SARS outbreak in 2003, so they are comfortable wearing them. They even wear them inside when exposed to the public. OK, there are the statistics, now on to the good stuff.
Our first stop was the renowned National Palace Museum, which houses an astounding selection of Chinese Imperial Art, some of which is over 5,000 years old. This extraordinary collection began during the 10th century when Chinese emperors seized art treasures for their own pleasure. Over the many years, it has been moved in crates from city to city to protect the treasures from invading armies. The journey finally ended when Chaing Kai-Shek brought the collection with him when he fled mainland China in 1949. We only had about 90 minutes to tour this museum, so we were pretty much limited to the jade, brass, ivory and porcelain sections. We saw the world famous Jadeite Cabbage, a piece carved out of a solid piece of jade that is green at the top and white toward the bottom. We also saw the Olive Boat, a miniature carving that was so small to the naked eye that we had to view it through a magnifying glass to see the details. Incredible! There was also a magnificent screen with jade carvings inlaid in wood. Mary Lynn, I thought of you.
The Chinese had been making porcelain for centuries before the Europeans first learned to do it in 1709 (Misen was the first European). I was fascinated with the techniques the different dynasties used to distinguish their era. I won’t babble on about the technical stuff and who made what, but I will mention that the blue on white porcelain is exquisite. The blue is so brilliant because cobalt, which is blue, doesn’t fade during the firing process like copper. The Celedons of the South made sky blue porcelain that cannot be replicated to this day. There was the white porcelain of the south that had designs impressed into the clay, black porcelain, and doucai porcelain that combined colors. We saw brass and ivory pieces as well as paintings. The Chinese painting perspective is like that of a bird soaring above and around while the Western perspective is from one angle. I was impressed with this collection and museum and I don’t even like museums.
We passed dreary looking large apartment building on our way to Taipei. Ah, upon arrival in the city we were lucky – NO rain. Sightseeing in the rain is really a big pain and I had enough pain to contend with (the foot – by the way; the back is great). The bus we rode on was quite different than any other I have been on for touring. It was more like a double decker, with a spiral staircase to get to the lace covered seats. My knees got quite a workout climbing up and down them. Our guide, Felix, was great. And no, Felix is not his real name. We could never pronounce his Chinese name so he adopted Felix when he was completing his master’s degree in the US.
Taipei is a mixture of the old and new. The old looks weary, worn, drab, dirty and has air-conditioning units mounted on enclosed wrought iron “decks” that have been added to the brick buildings. It is not attractive. The new area of the city has nice parks, wide streets, and I would assume central air in the newer highrises instead of the A/C units. They have a subway system (one of the main streets was torn up as they were building the second stage of the system), lots of yellow taxis, buses, and probably a bazillion crazies driving motor scooters (actually there are approximately one million plus scooters just in Taipei), which park everywhere including the sidewalk. Taipei also has the distinction of having the world’s second tallest building (it was outdone by the Burj Kalifa in Dubai) and lots of high tech companies are located here. It has a population of 1.6 million, but if you include the suburbs it is actually 6 million. Eighty percent of the population is Taoist or Buddhist. Many people wore surgical masks for protection from the vehicle pollution and from illness. They got used to wearing them during the SARS outbreak in 2003, so they are comfortable wearing them. They even wear them inside when exposed to the public. OK, there are the statistics, now on to the good stuff.
Our first stop was the renowned National Palace Museum, which houses an astounding selection of Chinese Imperial Art, some of which is over 5,000 years old. This extraordinary collection began during the 10th century when Chinese emperors seized art treasures for their own pleasure. Over the many years, it has been moved in crates from city to city to protect the treasures from invading armies. The journey finally ended when Chaing Kai-Shek brought the collection with him when he fled mainland China in 1949. We only had about 90 minutes to tour this museum, so we were pretty much limited to the jade, brass, ivory and porcelain sections. We saw the world famous Jadeite Cabbage, a piece carved out of a solid piece of jade that is green at the top and white toward the bottom. We also saw the Olive Boat, a miniature carving that was so small to the naked eye that we had to view it through a magnifying glass to see the details. Incredible! There was also a magnificent screen with jade carvings inlaid in wood. Mary Lynn, I thought of you.
The Chinese had been making porcelain for centuries before the Europeans first learned to do it in 1709 (Misen was the first European). I was fascinated with the techniques the different dynasties used to distinguish their era. I won’t babble on about the technical stuff and who made what, but I will mention that the blue on white porcelain is exquisite. The blue is so brilliant because cobalt, which is blue, doesn’t fade during the firing process like copper. The Celedons of the South made sky blue porcelain that cannot be replicated to this day. There was the white porcelain of the south that had designs impressed into the clay, black porcelain, and doucai porcelain that combined colors. We saw brass and ivory pieces as well as paintings. The Chinese painting perspective is like that of a bird soaring above and around while the Western perspective is from one angle. I was impressed with this collection and museum and I don’t even like museums.
Our next stop was to the Martyrs Shrine, which is dedicated to people who have sacrificed their lives fighting for the Republic of China. There is a whole lot of history of China and Taiwan and it is complicated and interspersed. These people are Chinese. They are a democracy now and would like a relationship with China, but do not want to be a part of Red China. The Republic started in 1949 when Chiang Kai-Shek fled mainland China when the Communists took over China. Previous to that, Taiwan was a Japanese colony for 50 years. Our timing was perfect at this stop to view the changing of the guard. Just like at Buckingham palace, the ceremonial guards do not move or blink. They did a crisp march from the arch to the palace, then did a very crisp routine with the guns and footwork. I have seen many changing of the guard ceremonies all over the world, but this one was one of the best and I was very impressed.
Lunch was next at the Grand Hotel. Hoo boy, this was something to behold. It was so big that we couldn’t even get a picture of the entire building. It was a bit gaudy in a Chinese way. The buffet lunch was something like you might find in a Las Vegas hotel. There was sushi, Chinese food, dim sum, noodle soups, salad, a few western dishes (even French fries) and some other stuff I was not able to identify. We ate our full and were off for the afternoon adventures. I could have used a nap at this time and Michael did. He cannot ride in a bus for more than a few minutes before he falls asleep. Some escort!
Now this was the best part of the excursion for me. We went to the 270 year old Lungshan Temple, the oldest Buddhist temple in Taiwan. The best way for me to describe this temple is that it is an amusement park for the faithful. It is so hard to describe all that we saw: the colors, the people, the rituals, the smell. To enter the temple, you enter from the right side (the dragon) and exit from the left (the tiger). The entire outer perimeter of the temple site was decorated with yellow Chinese lanterns and colorful animal lanterns. Columns, not walls, hold up the building -- they were decorated with dragons. Most of the activity takes place in the courtyard of the temple. There was an entire animated display of all things bunny rabbit. All of these elaborate displays were made of the same type of material that the Chinese lanterns were made of. You turn around and there was another display, so much to take in that it was overwhelming and we hadn’t even entered the temple itself.
Crossing the threshold, we were overcome with incense burning everywhere causing smoke with a heavy fog in the air. It was fragrant and powerful. Tables were ladened with flowers, cookies and fruit as offerings to the gods. There were huge brass fire burners that people were praying in front of, hands clasped together at the forehead bobbing up and down. Red candles burned on golden candelabras. Everywhere you looked, there was something burning, someone praying and chanting, incense filling the air. Color was brilliant. I know that is a weird sentence, but the colors of the decorations, the offerings, the buildings was so intense.
Our guide described how people come here search for answers to their problems. A person went to a drawer and picked a piece of paper that had a random number; then they lit incense sticks and prayed holding the incense sticks while bowing up and down; after praying for awhile, they throw wooden ying and yang symbols on the ground three times and depending on the way they fall, they would calculate a number based on the way they landed; finally, adding the numbers from the three drops, they compare that number from the number they drew. If it matches, you get your wish; if not, you come back and do it again. There were also gods to specific categories such as medicine and literature. You pray to the god of medicine to heal you or pray to the god of literature so you can pass your exams.
Our final stop was the Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial, an exhibit hall and monument. It is 1/3 the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing, which means this is one huge place. Chaing Kai-Shek was the first constitutional leader of the Republic, elected in 1948 for one year in China and 26 years in Taiwan. He fled mainland China to Formosa (Taiwan) in 1949 when the communists took over. There were ceremonial guards here as well.
We finished the day’s tour tired, but dry. We drove back to Keelung and were greeted with sheets of rain. The bus driver managed to maneuver the bus close to the building so that we never got wet. The evening ended with room service for Michael and a muscle relaxant for me. Just as well we turned in early as the seas turned ugly and sleeping through it was the only way to go.
ready to come home yet? see you in a week! love deb and belle
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