Jim had a company meeting in Taipei, therefore, the Company organized for all the families to come to Taipei – a family boondoggle. The only problem was our girls were still in school. Chinese New Year break began Wednesday at noon. The Chinese students have three or more weeks off for Chinese New Year. Jim left on Sunday for Taipei and the girls and I left on Tuesday afternoon. Emerysn had test in most of her core classes on Tuesday morning. We checked in at the Pudong airport to have our usual Burger King lunch.
Day One: Travel
We did appreciate the sunshine and the warmth of Taipei. We arrived at the airport an hour outside of the City, therefore, car took us to the hotel, the Shangri-la. This first night’s agenda was a dinner with the spouses at the hotel. Jim and I were a bit late since dinner started at 6pm and I arrived at the hotel at 6:15pm. We ordered room service for the girls while Jim and I had a nice dinner at the hotel with his co-workers.
Day Two: Seeing the Sites
We enjoyed a late breakfast for a 11:00am meet time with the group. A large tour bus had been arranged to drive the group around Taipei. Of course, Eleri chose the back of the bus for us. I didn’t think of taking a photo of our large, blue bus until the end of the day…
The first stop was National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine, dedicated to those that died in the war of the Republic of China.
The changing of the guards is done hourly. We arrived just in time to see the change of the guards. The guards are on duty for one hour. During this one hour, they can not move…no nose scratches, no sneezing, no nothing!
Next on the blue tour bus, a visit to the Shilin Official Residence, the former residence of late Republic of China President Chiang Kai-shek. We did not tour the residence, but the gardens. It was a sunny day to enjoy the beautiful gardens.
After the gardens, we drove to the National Palace Museum in the big blue bus. It was about an hour away, therefore, our tour guide gave information about the City as we drove…all in Mandarin!
The National Palace Museum is an antique museum in Taiwan. It is one of the national museums of the Republic of China. The museum has a permanent collection of more than 696, 000 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks, making it one of the largest in the world. The collection encompasses over 8, 000 years of Chinese history from the Neolithic age to the late Qing Dynasty. Most of the collection are high quality pieces collected by China’s ancient emperors. The National Palace Museum and the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing share the same roots. They split in two as a result of the Chinese Civil War.
One of the most popular pieces of jade carvings in the museum is the “Jadeite Cabbage”. It’s a piece of jadeite carved into the shape of a cabbage head with a large and a small grasshopper camouflaged in the leaves. The ruffled semi-translucent leaves attached is due to the masterful combination of various natural color of the jade to recreate the color variations of a real cabbage.
No photos are allowed at the Museum. I had to add the comment about the cabbage. It is very famous and actually very small. Emersyn was wondering why someone didn’t crave something a bit more exciting!
After the museum, we drove to the Grand Palace Hotel for dinner. The Grand Palace Hotel was the first 5 star hotel built in Taipei. We had a Chinese buffet of seafood for dinner. It was a very Chinese meal served Chinese style.
After dinner, the big blue tour bus continued with a quick stop at Taipei 101.
Taipei 101, formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a landmark skyscraper located in Xinyi District. The building ranked officially as the world’s tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010. In July 2011, the building was awarded LEED Platinum certification, the highest award in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system and became the tallest and largest green building in the world.
The height of 101 floors commemorates the renewal of time: the new century that arrived as the tower was built (100+1) and all the new years that follow (1 January = 1-01). It symbolizes high ideals by going one better on 100, a traditional number of perfection. The number also evokes the binary numeral system used in digital technology. The main tower features a series of eight segments of eight floors each. In Chinese-speaking cultures, the number eight is associated with abundance, prosperity and good fortune.
There was a fountain…and it was just so inviting. Jim and Eleri had fun running through the fountain. They began to know the sequence and found the “spot” to stand without getting wet.
The last stop on the big blue bus tour was the night market. Our family walked about half way down the night market and decided to catch a taxi home. The same stuff can be found in Shanghai!
Day Two: Walking the City
We had a late breakfast, again, why not? We were on our own this day for touring. Jim wanted to see one more tourist site, but a couple girls were not so thrilled with the idea. Emersyn asked if she could stay at the hotel…now that she is old enough to stay home alone. Eleri liked that idea, too. So the girls plugged into their electronics and Jim and I set out too see the site. Emersyn could get YouTube at the hotel…oh, the little things in life!
One of my collection items is a Starbucks mug from the various cities we have visited in Asia. The Starbucks near us was closed for the Holiday since today is the official New Year Day. Now, I needed to find another Starbucks on today’s adventure.
We took a cab to Memorial Hall Square to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial – double the taxi fare due to Holiday fees. The Memorial Hall was also closed due to the Holiday so we toured the outside.
The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a famous monument, landmark and tourist attraction erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China. The monument, surrounded by a park, stands at the east end of Memorial Hall Square. The structure is framed on the north and south by the National Theater and National Concert Hall.
The Memorial Hall is white with four sides. The octagonal roof rises 76 metres (249ft) above the ground and is covered with blue glazed tiles. The blue and white colors of the building and the red colour of the flowerbeds echo the colours in the flag of the Republic of China. The octagonal shape picks up the symbolism of the number 8, a number traditionally associated in Asia with abundance and good fortune.
Two sets of white stairs, each with 89 steps to represent Chiang’s age at the time of his death, lead to the main entrance. The main entrance features a pair of double doors, each standing 16 meters high and weighing 75 tons, that open into the main hall. A large bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek dominates the main hall. The figure is shown smiling, seated and wearing traditional Chinese dress. Inscribed on the wall above and behind the seated figure are the Chinese characters for Ethics, Democracy, and Science. Inscriptions on the side walls read The purpose of life is to improve the general life of humanity and The meaning of life is to create and sustain subsequent lives in the universe.
We decided we would walk back to the hotel as we passed three Starbucks Coffee shops! It was a beautiful day for a walk. Jim and I have had no time to discuss life which is very uncertain at this time with so many decisions to be made. He has slept 5 nights in Shanghai this whole month. It took us about an hour to walk home. We stopped at all three Starbucks to come home empty handed as it is a certain mug style of the Cities that I collect. When we left the hotel, the taxi drove up two blocks to turn around…Jim remembers seeing a Starbucks at the corner. We walked the two blocks past our hotel to find my coffee mug. I laugh as they are MY coffee mug collection, but I don’t drink coffee and Jim is the one that uses the mugs everyday!
Upon returning to the hotel, we grabbed a small bite to eat in the lounge. Then, we discovered our flight was delayed so we all hung out in the room on our electronics!
The girls as we left the hotel – looking adorable in their favorite sweatshirts!
Our flight was delayed two hours. We arrived back to Hongqiao Puxi airport in Shanghai at 7pm. We told Mr. Nie we would take a taxi as this is a big family night celebration for Chinese New Year – similar to Christmas Eve. We walked to the taxi stand which was a “mile long with people” in the queue with very few taxis arriving. Eleri was the first to say, “let’s take the subway”. We walked back to the subway as we traveling light! The subway stop is two blocks from our home. We walked home quickly since we had no winter jackets!, only light sweatshirts
Touring on a big blue bus with people I don’t know is not my idea of a holiday, but everyone was very nice…and Jim knew them. We were able to check the box on another Asian city.