Tuesday, July 17th
This morning I decided to wear my dragon necklace for good weather today and it worked! I am happy to report there was no rain today so we were able to pack in a lot.
Jackie #2 and I started our day off with the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. The memorial complex is enormous. It also has a national theater and national concert hall.
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| One of the three entrance gates to the CKS Memorial complex |
We arrived at the memorial a little before 10am, just in time for the changing of the guard. Unfortunately, we couldn’t race up the 89 stairs (which equals the age of Chaing Kai Shek when he died) to the main hall since it is under renovation, but we hustled to a side entrance and made it for most of the changing of the guard.
After the changing of the guard, we headed to the ground level which has a museum dedicated to Chiang Kai Shek’s life. I am very fascinated about his rise to power and his legacy in Taiwan. Many of the people here have conflicting views of Chiang Kai Shek.
Next we headed to Dadaocheng, one of Taipei’s old neighborhoods to see the Confucius and Boa’an Temples. Outside the Confucius Temple were the three wise monkeys demonstrating the famous proverb – see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. I love these pictures!
The Confucius Temple is one of my favorite temples. It was so peaceful and serene there.
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| Wanren Gongqiang - Outer wall of Supreme Knowledge |
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| Inner wall of Supreme Knowledge |
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| Lingxing Gate |
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| Dacheng Hall - aka Hall of Great Achievements |
With such a culture of high stakes testing here in Taiwan for university entrance, one popular expression among Taiwanese students is “All Pass.” One student even left a wish at the Confucius temple for success and the expression.
Across the street was a beautiful park that we originally thought was the Boa’an Temple, but then quickly realized it wasn’t. However, I love the dragon fountain. I am a dragon in the Chinese zodiac and this is the year of the dragon, so there are a ton of dragon souvenirs to be purchased (lucky me!) and of plenty of dragon photo ops.
Across from the park, we entered into the Bao’an Temple which is one of Taipei’s most ornate temples. It also seemed to be much older than some of the ones we have seen. It was originally built in 1742 and redecorated in 1805. It was more similar to Longshan Temple than the Confucius Temple across the street.
After our morning excursions, we met up with Kelly for lunch then went to the Su Ho Paper Museum. The four level boutique museum was a great place to end our day to learn more about the history of paper and to make our own too!
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| My paper and papermaking certificate! |
Before heading back to the hotel we stopped near the Taipei Main Station to have shaved almond milk ice. It looks like a pile of mashed potatoes, but tastes delicious and was a great cool and refreshing snack.
On our walk back to our hotel from the MRT, look what we saw! I guess this way his owner has no need for dog tags.
Jackie #2’s family invited us all to dinner at Shang-hai Story restaurant. Jackie’s mom is Taiwanese, so we got to meet several of Jackie’s aunts, uncles and cousins.
I think we might have had our best meal of the trip there. We had bamboo in a parsley, olive oil, and garlic marinate, spring rolls, dumplings, shrimp lettuce wraps, two kinds of soup, fish, and the best thing I have ever eaten – a Chinese hamburger. I am in love! There was more food, but I just can’t stop thinking about the hamburger.
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| Shrimp lettuce wrap |
The server even let Kelly make two of the Chinese hamburgers, which consist of a sweet white bread, caramelized ham (amazing!) and something that was crunchy and fried. I think Jackie’s family and the servers thought we were funny since we were taking pictures of all the food. They would even place a dish on the table and rotate it around to us so we could take a picture before serving it to everyone!
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| Chinese hamburger |
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| First bite |
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| Done! Seconds, anyone?! |
It was so kind of Jackie’s family to invite us to dinner. We really enjoyed meeting her family and all the delicious food.
I also love that on Confucius’ birthday, September 28th, Taiwan celebrates Teachers’ Day. According to Jackie #2’s host family, that is a big day here and many student bring food to their teachers that day. Maybe we need to adopt something like that! ;)
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