Taipei, Taiwan - Random Sites

During our trip to Taiwan we actually didn't get the chance to see that much. Since we went there during Chinese New Year, a national holiday, most of the tourist sites were closed. We were able to see a few landmarks - at least from the outside.

This is the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. It is a memorial to the Republic of China's National Father, Dr.Sun Yat-sen, and was completed on May 16, 1972. As the hall was opened in the very beginning, its main displays were revolutionary events of the national father at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Recently it became a multi-purpose social, educational and cultural center for the Taiwanese public.

I was impressed by the bright red colours only to discover it doesn't always look like this. Most of the time it's a basic concrete grey colour. The red was added due to Chinese New Year.

Although the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall was closed due to Chinese New Year, I was able to take this photo of the Dr. Sun Yat-sen statue through the window. It's a huge statue and deserves your respect! If you doubt this, look at the sign at the base. It reads, "Salute, Please." How many statues deserve this kind of respect?

Behind us in this photo is the 101 building. The 101 was the world's tallest building. It was overtaken in height on July 21, 2007 by the Burj Dubai building in Dubai. The 101 has a 360 degree observation floor at the top. Due to the lousy cloudy weather during our stay in Taipei we decided not to take advantage of the 360 viewpoint. There's nothing exciting about being on top of the world's second tallest building and seeing only grey clouds.

Behind us here is the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. It is a monument erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of Taiwan. A new name for the structure, National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall was announced by President Chen Shui-bian on May 19, 2007. In subsequent legal wrangling, the legislature repealed the regulations supporting the new name. In effect this annulled the change, though legislators generally declined to declare the old name preserved. Legislators belonging to the President's own Democratic Progressive Party attacked the annulment move as infringing upon the power of the central government. The new name remains, as you can tell by the photo below:

The monument, surrounded by a park, stands at the east end of a large square framed on the north and south by Taiwan's National Theater and National Concert Hall. The entire plaza is located within sight of Taiwan's Presidential Office Building in the Zhongzhen District of Taipei.

As you leave the plaza (or enter the plaza depending on your point of view) you're greeted by this huge amazing arch. As we walked out of the plaza and passed the arch I noticed a friendly kind old man feeding the pigeons. What a nice old man, I thought, taking time out of his busy day to feed the poor hungry pigeons. My group and I stood there for a while watching the nice old man. This kind gesture made me feel at peace with the world. As I stood there thinking happy thoughts and started daydreaming I got dragged back to reality when someone in the group yelled, "that man just stole a pigeon!" I looked over to the 'kindly' old man and saw nothing out of the ordinary. He was still standing in the same spot feeding the pigeons. I said, "I don't see him stealing pigeons." After some debate I grew bored of the topic and looked away. Once again, a member of our group said, "look, he took another one. He grabbed it, put it into a paper bag and threw it into his car." I looked over again. I didn't see the evil pigeon stealing old man that everyone else saw. I just saw the kind old man feeding the poor defenceless starving pigeons. Was I blind or is the rest of the group insane? Sadly, for the sake of pigeon, I soon discovered I was blind. I finally saw what everyone else did. I saw him quickly (very quickly considering his age) grab a pigeon, throw it into a paper bag, and then toss that bag into his car. A friend of ours who lives in Taiwan said the old man is probably stealing the pigeons to train them to race. I hope that's the case. I hope these pigeons are given a better life training for the pigeon Olympics and not becoming this evil old man's next dinner.

The National Palace Museum is an art gallery and museum in Taipei. It holds one of the largest collections of Chinese artifacts and artwork in the world. Thankfully it was open so we were able to go inside and see the awesome collection.

Here's Aimee, with her usual photo standing pose, standing in front of the National Palace Museum.

Rain. It was wet and it was miserable. Thankfully the happy baby blue umbrellas we were given made the weather experience slightly more tolerable.

Here's the clan walking around and seeing the sites.

Everywhere we went I saw arcades/shops filled with these prize machines. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hooked on putting money inside and attempting my skill (or is it luck?) with the magical grappling claw. With the amount of money I wasted on these machines I could have just went to a store and bought my own stupid cheaply made toy.

Look into our eyes. Play the machine, play the machine, play the machine...

On the Taipei subway I was amazed by the amount of safety signs plastered all over. The sign above is only slightly funny but the sign below really made me laugh.

OH NO! The baby might get blown over during a freak subway wind storm!

Yeah yeah, I know there can be harsh wind in the tunnels as the trains approach, but this warning sign still made me laugh.