Taipei Trip: City Tour

In 2007, I have visited some places in Taipei. So, this time I decided to join the city tour program from local travel agency in order to compare and see what do they have and what's missing from my previous trip. The cost is about 1200 NTD and it took 4 hours.

Ready? Let's start!

1. Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

 It is dedicated to Mr. Chiang Kai-Shek, the founding father of Republic of China (Taiwan).

There are 3 main buildings inside the complex with a beautiful garden surround it. There are three gates to enter the complex. The one that I entered is the Gate of Great Piety (大孝門)

 If you enter through the Gate of Great Centrality and Perfect Uprightness (大中至正), you will see the National Theater and National Concert Hall buildings which have red color.

Inside, there is the main building. The structure of the roof is octagonal. The number represents a good fortune in Chinese. The guide told me that the white color means freedom like clouds in the sky and the blue color means equality. The number of the stairs is 89 which symbolized the age of Mr. Chiang Kai Shek when he passed away. ( The original age is 87 years old, but in Chinese traditional culture, it must be added 2 years more for heaven and hell). The wall is mainly decorated by white marble and the roof is made by sapphire blue glass. At the time when I visited this place, there was construction to fixed the marble wall due to the typhoon :(

Inside the building, I could see the big statue of Mr. Chiang Kai Shek sitting looking outside. So many people waiting for the  changing guards performance!

As I can expect from the tight schedule of the city tour program, I cannot look around inside the garden. All I have is the picture of the garden entrance. Maybe, next time...

2. National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine
 

  Here, ROC government put the spirit tablets of 390,000 people killed during the wars. So, the guard will ask you to take off your hat during summer to respect them.

I could also find the statue of the martyrs inside the building with their name and how they contribute during the war written below.

The attraction that visitors could see is the changing of guard, similar with the one in Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.

3. National Palace Museum

This time, I went to three main exhibitions categorized by its collection's material:

 a. Jade

   Here, I could see the history how the jade was processed and the collections, such as vases, ornaments, etc. The most famous ones are jadeite cabbage and the meat-shaped jade. Even sometimes, you could not see them since too many people inside the room. ( We could not take pictures inside the museum. So, I took all pictures from the museum's website: http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/)

 b. Bronzes

    Here, I could see many vessels made from bronzes for offering, cooking, etc. The most interesting thing about this vessel is I could see the Chinese characters carved on the surface inside as long time ago they do not have paper for writing.

Here is the interesting animal statue! It is not a pig, not a dog, not a rabbit, not a turtle, and not a horse. Quiz! Why they make this statue?

Don't forget to see the Buddha's statue too..

c. Ceramic

   So many statues, vases, ornaments, glasses and caddies for tea or alcohols with different shapes, colors, designs.

4. Temple

   It is said to be the fist temple built in Taipei, which has unique combination between Buddha's and Taoism religion. There was another temple on the other side, but it was destroyed during WWII. I could not find many information for this... Inside I could see old Chinese and Indian? writings.

 The four God's and Buddha's statue in the garden.

5. Taipei sightseeing and souvenir shop

   I also could see the presidential office building and Grand Hotel, which is built by Madame Chiang Kai Shek as the first 5 star Hotel in Taipei. (I just pass by) We also went to souvenir shop as a part of the program.

Overall, it was a nice English travel program, recommended especially for the ones who have limited time, tight schedule, want to safe time and only see the 'outline' of Taipei. However, if you have leisure time and want to see everything in detail ( especially for the museum), it is better to go by yourself.

PS: Always check the opening time of the museum! Mostly they will have holiday on the first Monday of the month or national holiday.