Time in Taiwan Part 2

Hello Again,

I am about a week removed from a trip to Borneo, which I will get to in due time. Probably longer than I would want, but that's ok, as now it is time to finish up talking about my trip to Taiwan last December.

As I have mentioned previously, I was in Taiwan to visit ALC members from the program at Stanford last summer. I indeed had a great time, and they were perfect guides for me. Nothing is better than having a bunch of locals to show you around as well as to also talk about some of the intricacies of Taiwanese culture. The following picture is with three of the ALC members at Longshan temple, one of the most famous temples in Taipei. As they were trying to explain how to properly act in a Chinese temple, many of them then confessed that it had been a long time since they had been to a temple and did not precisely know the rituals, and hence had to ask some of the elders there are the same time. For me, this stood in stark contrast to my visit in Japan where everyone (including eventually me!) knew how exactly the rituals were to be performed. Definitely a different level of importance, but yet some similarities, as both Taiwanese and Japanese would go to the temples to pray for good exam results.

I also had the opportunity to get out of Taipei for a couple of the days. One of the days I went to Yilan, a city on the east coast (less populated, and has a higher aboriginal population) of Taiwan. Apparently, it used to be about a 90 minute drive without traffic from Taipei, but a new tunnel had recently opened, cutting traveling time to only 40 minutes.  The new tunnel has increased the accessibility of Yilan, making it a much more popular destination, such that it is very busy, especially on weekends (which I didn't see since I went on a Friday.) Driving through the mountains of Taiwan were incredibly beautiful, especially with clouds shrouding the tall green mountains, reminding me of paintings and pictures that I associate with southern China. However, sadly, there wasn't much driving through the mountains that I could see since much of the time was spent in the tunnel that led right to the outskirts of Yilan.

Yilan is perhaps most famous for a turtle island, as can be seen (a bit, through the clouds) in the next photo. I have to admit, the clouds plus cooler temperatures (around 60) definitely reminded me of the beaches in San Francisco during the summer. Always a nice relief from the oppressive humidity and heat of Singapore.

Separately, I also went to the city of Danshui (also spelled Tanshui), which is where the river through Taipei empties into the ocean. The city itself is known to be a particularly romantic destination, especially known for the lovers bridge in the following photo. So, fittingly, I went to the city with 5 of the ALC guys. However, we still had lots of fun, including playing some carnival-like games. I was able to reinforce the stereotype of gun-wielding Americans by successfully shooting all the balloons with an air-gun. And, Danshui provided some of the nicest weather of my time in Taiwan, as I actually managed to see some sunlight! As my hosts told me, Taipei's weather is some of the worst in all of Taiwan, and the weather in the south is significantly better. Oh well, next time I'll keep that in mind.

Taipei itself is quite an interesting city in which its development and progress can easily be seen. The city skyline is dominated by Taipei 101, which was the tallest skyscraper for a short period of time before the Burj Khalifa was completed in Dubai. It is built in a part of town that hasn't been built up as much, so it really does stand out. In fact, while walking nearby, I was shocked to discover an actual farm only about a block away, which is in the following picture, even if hard to see. For me, the farm definitely typified a certain aspect about how development in Taiwan has been recent and is still very much ongoing. In comparison to Japan, Singapore, and even South Korea, Taiwan was distinctly a bit behind from what I saw in terms of building and general standard of living. That said, I still got the impression that if I were to visit in another 10 years, I should be expecting great changes (although not as much as I would see in Singapore.)

Of course, for Taiwan to succeed, stable relations with mainland China would be highly desirable. Despite the friction, trade and tourism has bloomed between the countries in interesting and surprising ways. The following picture is of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, which houses the most expansive collection of objects of imperial China in the world. While retreating to Taiwan, the Nationalists took many important objects with them, and hence most are in Taipei instead of Beijing, much to the communist's government annoyance. I really did enjoy my visit to the museum, and it had everything I really could imagine. The exhibit that most stuck with me was the hall of treaties that displayed many of the treaties that China has been forced to sign by Western powers, later joined by Japan, that subjected the country to much humiliation (which is definitely taught in close detail in Taiwanese schools.)

With the rise in tourism from the mainland, the museum itself was absolutely flooded by the tourists wanting to see some of their most famous artefacts from their own history.  Even the ALC members I went to the museum were surprised by the increase in the number of 'mainlanders' since they had last been to the museum only a couple of years prior.  Indeed, Taiwenese do look down on the mainlanders, as they often find them rude and uncultured (much like native Singaporeans as well.) It will definitely be interesting to see how this dynamic unfolds over the next few years, especially considering how important mainland China has become as a trading partner for Taiwan.

Well, that is it for now, and hopefully you can look forward to new entries soon!
-Andrew