Unexpected Taiwan

Taipei 101

Taiwan was not on our radar.  It wasn’t until we tried to book our visit to Japan that we learned it was “Golden Week,” a week-long national vacation period where there was little to no availability for hotels and train tickets.  We were advised to postpone our Japan visit until Golden Week was over.  So, where to go?  We added on a few days to extend our Shanghai visit, but an additional week was unnecessary.  We had met a couple back in Hanoi who mentioned how much they enjoyed their Taiwan visit, so we decided to give it a try. 

We chose to split our time between Taipei and Hualien, a city on the east coast of Taiwan near the famous Taroko Gorge, which we heard was a must-visit sight.  

Amazing, modern, convenient Metro System!!!

Taipei is interesting.  Not as modern as we expected, but we were staying near the Central Railway Station, which is usually located in the oldest part of any city.  But the Taipei metro has a hub below the railway station, making it convenient for getting around.  The metro is very modern, inexpensive, and easy to use.  Its concourses are interconnected to many shopping malls, which suited me just fine and provided good eye exercise (window shopping).  We also experienced a minor earthquake while in Taipei, which we later learned is a fairly common occurrence, as Taiwan is located on an active fault line.  Did not know this when we decided to visit.  Logically, we are on the Pacific Ring Of Fire, so should have realized this from the get-go..........

We set off to visit the Confucius Temple, where every design detail had a specific meaning.  The temple is build upon the original Confucius residence.

His teaching principle was simple: "Education for All."  Through Confucius, "knowledge becomes an upward force that has helped to move the world for thousands of years, and will continue to do so in the future."  While there, we met a retired high school teacher who wanted to practice her English and showed us around part of the temple while waiting for her student group to arrive.  Noteworthy is the ceiling above the main hall, which is an ornately decorated octagonal ceiling with 24 brackets concentrated in the center.  After four layers of eaves brackets, there are 16 left to the top.  Really amazing!  In the four corners are carvings of four bats, which in Chinese is a homonym for "giving fortune."




Nearby was the Bao-An Temple, dedicated to an ancient doctor (Baosheng Dadi) who cured many, including an emperor's wife.  As a result, he was made a deity and this temple is now a destination for people to come and pray for healing.  





That evening, we headed over to a Taipei institution for dinner at Din Tai Fung (they even have a few branches in the US) to enjoy their amazing dumplings, homemade on the premises.  Yes, we waited 45 minutes to get in, but so worth it!  Went back three more times (different branches, less waiting) during our time in Taipei.....

all dumplings made on the premises in open kitchens

dumplings!

Shu Mai

Next morning we headed to visit the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, which was most impressive. 

The memorial was flanked on either side by the National Concert Hall and National Theater- both beautiful buildings!  We met a young couple there who

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Statue

told us to walk over to the National Concert Hall and within, buy a bubble tea from the original shop that created the drink.  Yum!  Why didn’t we try this earlier?  They also told us to visit the museum underneath the memorial which we didn’t know about.  The museum, about the life of Chiang Kai-shek of course, really helped us understand more about Taiwanese history.  We got the impression he was greatly loved by the people of Taiwan.  Not so.  When we ask locals about this president, they believe everything he did was to benefit himself and that he did not really help the people of Taiwan (sound familiar????).  While at the museum, we met a lovely volunteer who took the time to show us around the main floor, then directed us to a restaurant not far away to enjoy a local noodle specialty, which we did!

National Theater

"The Archway"

National Concert Hall

We spent the following day in the National Palace Museum, which held much of the Chinese Treasures taken by Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan and which China would very much like to have returned to them.  We viewed ancient ceramics, bronze sculptures, calligraphy and ink paintings, clothing, furniture, and jewelry.  One of their most guarded treasurers was an ancient jade cabbage (personally I don't really "feel it" but hey, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder).  There was also a contemporary exhibition on interactive art which we very much enjoyed!

The Jade Cabbage!

Next day we set off by train for the two hour trip to Hualien.  It was a rugged route with many long tunnels, as there is a mountain range running down the middle of Taiwan from north to south, with many of the mountains reaching over to the east coast having steep cliffs dropping off into the Pacific Ocean.  Hualien is also located directly on a fault line, with the Philippine C and Eurasian Techtonic Plates running through the middle of the downtown.  They had a major earthquake as recent as two months ago, where several older buildings collapsed. 

Pacific Coast in Hualien

We had booked a private tour through our bed and breakfast to Taroko National Park and Gorge.  Our guide, Jason, was fantastic.  He brought us to several lookout points to view the Pacific Ocean, then we headed into the gorge itself.  We learned about the aboriginal people of the gorge, listened to their music and tried their local wild boar sausage and hibiscus tea.  We hiked the Shakadang Trail up the Liwu River (you can see the layering of the marble walking through the river gorge).  We then walked through Swallow Grotto (with hard hats due to falling rock debris) and Tunnel of Nine Turns, finishing up with a visit to the Changchun Pagoda, honoring the men who lost their lives constructing the roadways, bridges, and tunnels through the gorge.  The rivers were low and many of the waterfalls were dry as we were visiting at the very end of the dry season, but that did not detract from the beauty of the gorge. 

Pacific View	Along the Shakadang Trail	Along the Trail...
Liwu River along Shakadang Trail	Layers of Marble in Rock	Suspension Bridge over River

The entire roadway system in the park is a series of one-way tunnels and bridges creating a network of crisscrossing roads through the mountains, back and forth over steep gorges and directly into the middle of a cliff into another mountain.  It was an engineering marvel.

Roadway Tunnels

Part of the road/trail system was built by the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese War, when Japan invaded Taiwan.  The Japanese were trying to reach the aboriginal people deep within the gorge, and during this time, they raped and killed a young aboriginal girl.  Her tribe managed to kill a large number of Japanese soldiers in retaliation before running for safety within the gorge.  Embarrassed by this loss and looking to save face, the Japanese set out within the gorge, constructing the roads in order to more easily find and kill these aboriginal groups.  They never found them and to this day, the aborigines continue living in the gorge.  Only a few elderly remain, with the younger members having moved out to the city and assimilated with the locals over time.

Changchun Pagoda

Many areas of gorge required hard hats due to falling rocks

Jason and Nathan in one of the tunnels

Returning back to Taipei, our final day in Taiwan was spent visiting the Longshan Temple and riding the

Longshan Temple

Maokong Gondola up to the top of the Maokong Mountain (just south of Taipei).  It was a high, long ride up and the wind was blowing our gondola car around...not going to lie, that ride could not have ended any sooner!. We hiked around the forests and tea plantations (we got lost in the forest for over an hour, but stumbled upon a temple) then  enjoyed a tea tasting at a plantation run by a local tea farming family for many generations.  We tried four different teas: a Pouchong, Organic Green, Oolong, and Black.  Down the mountain (took a local bus for the trip down) and headed for Taipei 101 (once known as the Taipei World Financial Center).  This infamous skyscraper was once the tallest in the world until it was superseded by Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010.  Would like to say we went up to the 101st Floor Observatory, but with my fear of tall buildings and the earthquake we experienced a few days earlier, we choose instead to stay close to the ground and had dinner at yet another branch of Din Tai Fung.  After dinner, we then browsed the six-floor, high-end shopping mall within the building.  Didn't feel too bad given the overcast sky and limited visibility that evening. 

Interior of Longshan Temple

Longshan Temple Gardens

riding gondola up the mountain	view of Taipei from gondola	tea plantation below
view of Taipei 101 from Maokong Mountain	tea tasting	looking up at Taipei 101

Temple on top of mountain

Happy Buddha inside temple!

As I stated earlier, Taiwan was an unplanned stop, so we had no expectations, and were therefore pleasantly surprised.  Most of all, the people were exceptionally nice....from the schoolteacher at the Confucius Temple, to the waitress at our favorite Taipei breakfast restaurant, to the hospitality of our Hualien bed and breakfast hosts, Neil and Cheryl.  As it was low season, we were their only guests and they took such good care of us!  We parted as friends and will miss them.

Our hosts in Hualein, Neil and Cheryl, with Nathan

Daily breakfast in Hualein.....interesting but good!