Taipei

I started my day today at the Martyrs' Shrine.  This is where they honor the soldiers that have died during wars fought on behalf of the Republic of China or Taiwan (China as we know it is actually the Peoples Republic of China so there is a difference).  There is an hourly changing of the guard that I was able to see. 

These guys march with some amazing precision.  They also twirl their guns and salute in unison.  It was very neat to see them march up and then perform right in front of me.  The guys in the blue are Air Force and the guy in the white is Navy.  They stand at attention (no movement at all) for an hour before the next changing of the guard.

Here are few pictures from around the Martyrs' Shrine:

The colors were just amazing.  I'm not sure that these pictures actually capture how vibrant they are.  The red looked like it had been polished it was so bright.

 

My next stop was to a traditional Taoist temple. 

Again, the colors were really amazing.  I also learned some interesting bits of information.  For example, in the Taoist religion they only burn white candles for funerals which is why you almost always see red ones at the temples.  They also provide offerings which they burn in a furnace:

I also learned that dragons in Asia have significance based on the number of claws they have.  Only the highest emperors would have dragons with five claws.  Other important people such as presidents will have dragons with four claws and normal people would have dragons with only three claws.

My next stop was to the National Palace Museum.  This museum is apparently the fourth largest in the world and houses the biggest collection of Chinese art.  It also houses the largest collection of people second only to the MRT.  Holy cow was it busy in there!  Again, there was lots of herding instead of moving and it made it really hard to actually enjoy the museum.  I think you could spend an entire day in the museum and if you come I'd definitely not recommend going on a Sunday morning - yikes...too many people!

I did take this picture while relaxing on the front steps of the museum:

I really like this picture.  Partly because it was my quiet escape from the craziness of the museum but also because I like that the writing on the ground is all in Mandarin.

My last stop was to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall:

This is a huge monument that was erected to honor the memory of the former President of Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek.  He was apparently a very controversial leader.  Back in 2007 they changed the name to the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall and last year it was changed back to the CKS Memorial Hall.  The signage was just updated this past summer.  Anyway, here is what is inside of it:

To put the size of the statue into perspective you can see the honor guards on both sides.  These guys are probably about 6' tall.  The size of the statue itself reminds me of Abraham Lincoln inside the Lincoln Memorial in DC.  The building itself is just huge...a little too huge but I don't know anything about this guy so it may be worth the size.  Who knows...

The grounds were pretty amazing too. 

 

I had fun wandering the city this morning.  It is a huge city so I only saw a little bit of it but I could certainly spend more time exploring more of it.