Taipei

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Sunday, December 19th and Monday, December 20th

Taipei

We were awakened before 6 am this morning as runners were getting ready to start a marathon outside our hotel. The festivities went on all morning getting us off for an early start to the day.

We’re using public transportation (MRT subway) and our feet these days which means long walks (5 to 10 miles each day). The subway system is terrific in both Taipei and in Kaohsiung. Today we took it to the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

The National Palace Museum houses the most impressive collection of Chinese art and treasures, some if it dating back five thousand years. When Chiang Kai-shek retreated from mainland China in 1949, he had treasures owned by China’s former emperors taken from the Forbidden City in Beijing crated and shipped to Taiwan (then known as Formosa). The move was supposed to be temporary until the Kuomintang (China’s Nationalist party founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1911) could overthrow Mao’s communist forces and return to mainland China. Obviously Chiang was not successful in overthrowing Mao and the treasures housed in Taipei never returned to Beijing. The cultural revolution in China in the 1960’s saw the destruction of artwork, books, and other treasures on the mainland. Supporters of the artworks remaining in Taiwan point to the fact that all of these treasures would have been left had they not been removed in 1949.

This evening we enjoyed the sights, smells, and sounds of a night market in Taipei. Talk about lively! There were so many different kinds of foods, most of which we had no idea what it was or where it came from. Health laws in the US would never allow these food vendors!

Alexa had to go back to work so on Monday morning we left Taipei via high-speed rail for Kaohsiung. The train traveled at 186 miles per hour and made only two stops between the cities. In less than two hours we were in Alexa’s home city. While Alexa worked Mel and I took a walk and a cruise on the Love River. In order for Kaohsiung to win the host city for the World Games in 2009, the former mayor cleaned up and transformed the Love River into a promenade of shops, parks, restaurants, bicycle lanes, and pedestrian zones. It’s quite beautiful.

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Photos

Statue in honor of Sun Yat-sen
Just inside the National Palace Museum. They don't let you take pictures in here.

National Palace Museum, Taipei
Portrait of an Emperor and his wife

Mom and baby
Statue and in real life, Note the babies under the moms' paws.

Alexa says the dark rectangles on the sticks are congealed pigs blood
Oh yummmmm

You can always find Mel in a crowd
At the night market in Taipei

They sell running shoes, but they are always shrink wrapped
I don't know how you try them on, but you know they have never been worn!

High Speed Rail
The train is about to leave Taipei for Kaoshiung

Inside the train
Very clean trains. When the train cars enter the last station, the seats are rotated 180 degrees so passengers always face forward. Why don't we do that in the US?

Alexa looks like a pack mule
She traveled all over Japan and Korea carrying her belongings like this.

Welcome to Kaoshiung
This giant face greets you as you exit the high speed rail station

Marco Lee
Alexa's friend from the US that she lives with now.

Webber Lee
Yu Yen's youngest son - home right now from his studies in New Zealand

Safety briefing in Mandarin
Mel and I were the only non-Mandarin speakers on the Love River cruise. We got a lot out of the narration :D