October 17,

We were up and about 0630; did a load of laundry- as we have a washing machine in our place; had our Javas and breakfast of Muesli and yogurt. We had made a game plan last night for places to see in Taipei. So around 0930 we set out.

We walked to Peace Park. It was a nice sized green space. There were some people taking advantage of it along with us. A number of “peace” pieces were here: a Peace Bell; a Peace Sculpture; and a Memorial Monument. There was a nice pond – big enough it had fish, hunting birds, and turtles – called Dragon Pond. A closed up building made of the ancient eastern architecture was situated over a water feature. Overall a very nice park.

Next we walked to one of the top sights in Taipei. As we were walking we noticed something we had not seen in all of Asia that surprised us. It was dealing with scooters… some intersections here have a painted box for scooters to go to in the very front of the lane at traffic lights. All scooters have done this across Asia. But this setup makes it seem orderly and normal, not chaotic and messy. HUH?? Anyway, we arrived at Taiwan Democracy Memorial Park to see the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. Chiang Kai-shek was the general-leader who founded the Republic of China and set it up here in Taiwan in 1949, after he and his forces were defeated in the Chinese Civil War, (taken from Wikipedia). The entry of the park was through a massive gate that opens to the memorial itself in the distance. It is huge, but does not seem that large – at first – because of the distance from the entry to it. The vast park was designed at Chiang Kai-shek’s death in 1975, according to a placard, and completed with its opening in 1980.

We entered the memorial park at 1000 and now reality sets in how grand the monument was because we are flanked by two big buildings at the entrance: the National Theatre and the National Concert Hall. In the area between these two buildings a religious group, Falun Dafa, was putting together a display on the cement walkway, which should be completed tomorrow, one of the ladies told me. Anyway, it took us a full ten minutes to walk the distance to the bottom of the monument as it loomed just getting bigger and bigger!

At the base, we exchanged photo taking ops with another couple (a Welsh couple living in Brunei). Then climbed the 89 steps – the age Chiang lived to be – to get up to the entry of the hall. Inside was a bigger than life, sitting statue of Chiang Kai-shek. It reminded me of Lincoln Memorial in the way they are both sitting and larger than life. Anyway, we did our selfie and then sat waiting for the 1100, Changing Guard Ceremony. It was pretty hot and just sitting in the shade we were sweating. We went down to the base of Chiang memorial and watched the ceremony from a front row position. It was just for show as the guards left, after the display – not anywhere guarding that we could see.

We left the park complex after this in search of lunch. We went to Hao Kung Tao Chin Chi Yuan (Da’an), which, maybe, means Golden Rooster Garden Restaurant. Upon entering, we walked by the chefs making the food and went upstairs to sit. We decided on two kinds of dumplings (X8 each ): Xiao Long Bao, which are Soup Dumplings and Vegetable & Meat Dumplings. We placed our order by putting a quality number on a preprinted sheet, and the staff circled around filling everyone’s paper sheets. It was a hoppin’ shop. Our orders came up on a dumbwaiter! The food was hot and very good. For drinks – I had a Cold Plum Drink and Jeff had a Taiwan Beer. Finished, we went down to pay the bill. It was 420 Taiwanese Dollars (TWD), or $13.71.

We took the subway to a shopping center. There we went to a Decathlon store and a large Carrefour store (it has been a while since we have been in one of these). Anyway, shopping done we walked back to our place and unwound. We had potato onion bacon bread with cheese for supper with a bottle of red wine. Good first whole day in Taipei!