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Taiwan

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A travel report:

I was afraid of my stay for one-day stopover without pre-booking any hotel in Taiwan to Hanoi. I had been arrived early in the morning at 7.30 a.m. and the flight to Hanoi was departing the next day at 7 a.m. The airport that should close at night is 50 km far away from Taipei city and I was told that people shouldn´t speak hardly English and all is written in Chinese characters.

Taipei was waiting with nice weather. I passed a gate, which checked my temperature by a calorimeter camera, a caveat against SARS.  At the customs clearance I got a Visa for 1 month for free and near the exit was a tourist information. There I was offered a free half-day sight seeing tour and I was supplied with a town map leaflet and information about the airport bus back and the possibility to stay overnight at terminal two. My mood lightened.

I started with the half-day sightseeing tour. Taipeh has 2,5 Mio inhabitants and is a modern city.

We were visiting the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall (picture above) at first.
 
 

Chiang Kai Shek was a Chinese General, who was elected president of China. In 1945 he fled pursuit from the Communists from the Chinese mainland to the isle of Taiwan with another 1, 5 Mio devotees to the isle of Taiwan. There he reigned as a dictator for more than 25 years. Therefore Taiwan remained capitalistic, but the unification with the Chinese mainland never was given up and each tendency to separism is accompanied with threats of war from the Peoples Republic of China. Despite the conflict between the two China, it is possible for Taiwanese to travel to the Communist part of China. The Peoples Republic of China considers Chiang Kai Shek as a war criminal. At the Shanghai Massacre in 1927 several thousand of striking workers were murdered by Chiang Kai Sheks troups and the resistence of the strikers was broken.

In the memorial hall there is a big statue of Chiang Kai Check, two of his Cadillacs, some paintings and a wax figure of him in his office. In front of the big monument is a spacious square, where are two concert halls in traditional Chinese architecture with typical curved roofs.

Chiang Kai Check as wax figure

 

"Ihla Formosa" at first Taiwan was populated by Malayan immigrants. Still 0,5 Mio descendants live in the south today. In 1590 a.D. Portuegese was arriving and named the island „Ilha Formosa“ that means "beautiful isle". The name "Formosa" was used until the 20th century. Dutch and Spaniards were also present in the 17th century and for a while also French and Japanese (1895 to 1945).

Then the Martyr Shrine, a memorial to the fallen soldiers in war, was visited. The memorial building was built in traditional Chinese architecture. You can watch the military ceremony of changing the guards every two hours. Despite the military rites the Martyr Shrine is a very calm place.

Martyr Shrine Memorial  National Museum

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My free sightseeing tour was ending in the National Museum of Taipeh. Even the entrance fee (about 4 Dollar) was sponsored. The National Museum hold the biggest collection of old Chinese art in the world; the old treasure from the Emperors palaces in Peking was packed in 13427 crates at the expulsion of the last Chinese emperor in 1924 and was rescued after an odyssey of 15 years in this museum. Bronze jars, jade figures, carpets, tapestry, calligraphies, paintings and especially antique china (Chinese porcelain) are displayed there.
 

China Porcelain is made of clay mixed with kaolin coated with a glaze and burnt in an oven under high temperature. Old china is divided after dynasties:  Sung  (960-1279),  Yüan (1279-1368),  Ming (1368-1644)  Ch’ing (1644-1911)  Sung dynasty:  china was still white or green sometimes with black background and white decoration or just the opposite.  Yüan dynasty: china was getting thicker and heavier, but cobalt blue or copper red was added.  Ming dynasty: china was getting again more fine and is blue and white.  Ch’ing dynasty: the handicraft of china with brilliant enamels, made by courtly eunuchs, reached its height.

After the visit of the museum I had to go alone. The museum was not on the map and time table at the bus stop nearby was in Chinese characters. So I went back to the museum and a friendly man at the entrance deck, wrote for the Chinese characters on a piece of paper for the bus to the next metro stop.

The metro was modern, and all stops were also pronounced in English. Changing the metro to the financial district was no problem. There I admired the 101, the highest skyscraper in the world.
 

Skyscraper 101  In the „Financial District“ the skyscraper 101 (101 floors), the highest building (508m) in the world is just accomplished. It is a sign of Taiwan's abilities, costs were about two billion dollars. More than 10.000 people are going to work in 101 after its completion in 2005. There was no need to build such a high building in an improper muddy soil; there aren´t any similar buildings nearby. A problem is that Taipei is an area of frequent (40.000 a year) earthquakes (7,6 in 1999) and on average four typhoons (wind speed of more than 200 km/h). During the construction work seven workers died, when an construction crane broke in an earthquake of 6,8 in March 2002. A big levitating golden ball of 660 t steel in the 88th floor, which are attached by thick steel ropes to eight hydraulic cylinders,  should equalize oscillations caused from an earthquake or typhoons. In the building are the fastest elevators of the world that went up 500 m in 30 seconds.  Dubai is just building an even higher skyscraper. Link: skyscrapers.com

 

Afterwards I visited a big department store. Prices were like in Europe, Taiwan isn´t a cheap country any more. But bus, train and metro are still low-charge.

In the basements there were a food corner with many restaurants, there I ordered a meal for 6 Dollars. Delicious but I had to eat with sticks. I looked around, if someone was watching and smiling about my clumsy eating attempts, but no one was looking at me. And then it still worked.

I was getting darker and I went to the main station in the city center.  Big streets and unending pedestrian subways, it was difficult to find my way, I  just appeared at the earth's surface, where I didn't want to. After some time I found an area that was a little like a shopping road with shops and big neon signs in Chinese writing.

Taipeh City

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Chinese  You have to learn about 1500 to 3000 Chinese characters before you can read it in some degree. Each character means a word, but a word could be made of tow or more characters.  There is no complicated grammar, if you neglect tenfold of different articles (learn a word with it's article).  Words never change their form, there is no plural nor sex, Verbs have only one form, regardless of gender, person, past/future/present. You express for example the past with explaining words like "yesterday, last week" and there are classifiers for example "I " ="wo " and "we" = "wo men". Besides the language is very logical, twenty two is "2 ten 2" and Monday is the "first day of the week".  Chinese is a tonal language, different spoken words have different meanings. "Ma" means mother, horse or rice seedling, that depends on the accentuation (there are mainly five possibilities).  The inaccuracy is based on the pinyin system, an adoption of Chinese words in Roman writing.  Normally Chinese people have difficulties with the complicated European grammar and they connive and smile, if you say "ni haò" =you rat in stead of" ni háò" = hello (you good) or with a wrong pronunciation you ask instead of "may I ask you" the question: "may I kiss you". Taiwanese usually admire people from abroad that dare visiting their country without knowledge of any Chinese.  A Link: zhongwen.com

 

 „Lungshan Temple“
Back to the stroll thorugh the town. Each quarter had its own temple (or pagoda), the most important and nicest in Taiwan is the  "Lungshan Temple"  not far from the city center situated at the Tanshui River. This „Temple of the Dragon Mountain“ was built from 1738 to 1740. The arched roof is draped with dragons and phoenixes, you find a lot of statues for example of the red-faced "Kuang Kuang" (a former General died in 219) or the black-faced  "Matsu", who is patron saint of the sailors and the many-armed Buddhist goddess  „Kuanyin“, who helped all people in destitute and difficulties.

Lungshan Tempel  prayer

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Chinese Religion has different aspects :   Taoism: the teaching of "Laotse" of finding the "proper way of life", that is the accord of nature, deities, spirits and human life, the female and male principle "ying and yang"; Buddhism, after what "proper thinking and acting" leads to the redemption of human suffering into the state of Nirvana  Confuziusm,  reference and loyality to parents, friends but also to ruler and leader, that on their part have to earn the leadership by good service  Ancestor worship  and Animism, believe in living among many deities, spirits, the prediction of oracles etc.

The Taiwanese temple is a place to ask the deities and gods for assistance and to consult the oracle. That's  why Lungshan is much frequented. Food and flowers were given as a sacrifical offering on a table. After the donations were taken and blessed by the imaginary gods, food and flowers were taken back for eating at home. People were kneeling and praying,     scented candles were burnt. Some play three times dice with two wooden almond-shaped hemispherical bowls; if one bowl lies on the flat side and the other at the bended side, this means: "good luck",  two times flat or bended means:  nothing or inconvenience. If the dices play favourable circumstances, people shake some long bundled sticks in a vase. A jutting out  stick is removed and on the stick there is an inscription, that could be interpreted. Books for interpretation were lying around.  An Asian man asked me, what all the peole were doing there. I was astonished, but he told me that he was a tourist like me but from Korea.

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Night Markets

Night Market  Snake Alley  Mongolian Snackbar

Neighbored in Huashi Street is situated one of the famous night markets of Taipei.  At night markets there are a lot of snack bars, cook shops, and small shops selling clothes and other items.  "Huashi Street" is famous as "Snake Alley", because snakes should be sold there, too, but I didn´t find more than bottled snakes in alcohol. It is possible this is not more allowed due to protection of species. Drinking schnapps from this snake bottles should be healthy and brings back your potency, but this is nonsense to scientific examination. There are less touristy nightmarkets for example "Kungkuan" at Taipeh University.  There I saw a Mongolian snack bar. You choose from a choice of pork, beef and chicken meat, noodles, vegetables or fish etc. in a basket. That will be blanched and sauced with Teryaki and filled in a plastic bag for eating at home. This is a idea that should work in Europe or US, too. If you found a Mongolian Chain like Mc Donalds and get millionaire because of reading this, all I wish is an invitation to your country and a subscription for eating for free.

I lost myself in the small alleys around Lungshan and  „Huashi“  and was suddenly in the remnants of the previous famous red light zone „Wanhua“.  I didn´t succumb the temptation, but the girls neither were very beautiful.

After that I had to return to the airport. Finding the airport bus was difficult. There weren´t any signs at the metro stations. Taiwanese were very helpful, but English speaking knowledge and reading maps is very scarce.  I was sent to different directions. After some vain attemps a young Taiwanese girl was helping me, she hold my hand and guided me through the thick traffic of the streets of Taipei to the bus stop.  Xié Xie!

At the airport I was sleeping on a couch at terminal 2 and woke up by the clattering of stewardesses shoes early in the morning.  I was a great day in Taipeh that I will remember always with pleasure.

„Xiè Xie“ and „Zsài Jiàn“

Weather:
 

Taiwan	jan	feb	mar	apr	may	june	july	aug	sep	oct	nov	dec
day	19	19	22	25	29	32	34	33	32	28	25	22
night	12	13	14	18	21	23	24	24	23	20	18	15
raindays	17	17	17	15	16	17	15	15	15	15	15	16

Water 20-28 Grad. April to Oktober sultry with thunderstorms. Typhoons are possible from June to October
 

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