I was afraid of my stay for one-day stopover without prebooking 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, which should close at night, is 50 km 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 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 was starting with the half-day sightseeing tour. Taipei is a western stile modern city despite of the Chinese characters and the many motorbikes. At first we were visiting the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall (picture above).
Chiang Kai Shek was a Chinese General, who was elected president of China. In 1945 he fled the Chinese mainland from the Communists with another 1, 5 Mio devotees to the isle of Taiwan. There he reigned for more than 25 years as a dictator. Thereby Taiwan remained capitalistic, but the unification with the Chinese mainland never was give up and each tendency to separism is accompanied with threats of war from Peoples Republic of China. Despite the conflict between the two China, it is possible for Taiwanese to travel to the communist part of China.
In the monument there is a big statue of Chiang Kai Check, two of his Cadillac, some paintings and a wax figure of him in his office. In front of the big monument is a spacious square, where are two concerting halls in traditional Chinese architecture with typical curved roofs.
“Ihla Formosa" At first Taiwan was populated by Malayan immigrants, today still 0,5 Mio descendants of them live in the south. In 1590 a. D. Portuguese 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 present in the 17th century and for a while also French and Japanese 18995 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.
My free sightseeing tour was ending in the National Museum of Taipei. 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: Sung dynasty: China was still white or green sometimes with black background and white decoration or just the opposite.
Yuan dynasty: China was getting thicker and heavier, but cobalt blue or copper red was added.
Ming dynasty: China was getting again finer 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 timetable 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 a 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. China is following suit, there should arise an even higher skyscraper in some years.
Afterwards I was visiting a big department store. Prices were like in U.K.; 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. Chinese Language and Characters 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 its article). Words never change their form, there is no plural or 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 complicated European grammar and they connive and smile, if you say "ni haò" =you rat instead of" ni háò" = hello (you good) or if you ask "May I ask you" and you say "May I kiss you". Taiwanese usually admire people from abroad that dare visiting their country without knowledge of any Chinese.
Back to the stroll through the town! Each quarter had its own temple (or pagoda); the most important and nicest in Taiwan is the „Lung Shan Temple“ not far from the city centre 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.
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 loyalty to parents, friends but also to ruler and leader, that on their part have to earn the leadership by good service
Ancestor worship 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 sacrificial 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 people were doing there. I was astonished, but he told me that he was a tourist like me but from Korea.
Night Markets
Neighboured 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 night markets for example "Kungkuan" at Taipei 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 blanch and sauced with Teriyaki and filled in a plastic bag for eating at home. This is an idea that should work in Europe or US, too. If you found a Mongolian Chain like Mc Donald’s 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 Lung Shan 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 attempts a young Taiwanese girl helped me, she hold my hand and guided me through the thick traffic of the main streets to the bus stop. Xié Xie!
At the airport I slept on a couch at terminal 2 and I woke up by the clattering of the stewardesses shoes early in the morning. I was a great day in Taipei that I remember always with pleasure.
„Xiè Xie“ and „Zsài Jiàn“
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