Taipei, ROC

The Port of Keelung hosted us with panache: music, dancing girls and a witty reminder not to bring fruit ashore.

We are glad to be in a democracy again. The Republic of China, population 23.1 Million, has almost cornered the semiconductor fabrication industry, with a market share of about 69%. Neighboring PRC doesn’t recognize its sovereignty and has thrice tried to conquer it since 1949. Thanks to Taiwan’s brawny defense, including US$50 Billion of weapons bought from the US as well as US military direct support, PRC has not been able to take over the small but rich Republic of China. In a nationalistic snit, PRC has not allowed the ROC flag or anthem to be displayed at the Olympics. PRC says ROC doesn’t exist and tries to invade it, most recently in 1996 when Clinton and the US Navy defended Taiwan.

I perceive a more familiar urban scene. Here are hospitals, preschools, and several public libraries. I see the massive US military base. Street signs are in English and Chinese. The traffic signals are observed.

We were mostly ignored in a Confucian Temple. Unless it’s a festival, worship just happens as the supplicant drops by. The supplicant picks up a smooth bean-shaped piece of wood, or incense, or an offering, and holds it between her hands in palm-to-palm prayer position. She bows and prays to an image of a god or to a sacred scripture. When she has finished praying, she drops the prayer-imbued wooden bean into a slot at the Temple. Here are the prayer beans, the incense, and the offering cakes.

We enjoyed our visit to the National Palace Museum. Beautiful ancient treasures are well-lit and described in English and a Chinese. Dad liked the funerary ceramics and thought of our ceramicist daughters.

I liked the sacred objects and serene Boddhisatvas.

From about 1100 — 1900 CE, fashionable Chinese women bound their daughters’ feet, toes to heel, breaking the foot bones of the arch so the girls would have fashionable lotus-shaped feet. The pain, disfigurement and disability is nightmarishly horrendous. I would not even pierce my baby girls’ ears.

We saw the memorial Martyrs’ Shrine. It featured an Honor Guard whose job it was to stand at attention.

The Martyrs died in fights against the Qing, defeated in 1911, and against the Japanese 1937-1945, and in the Chinese Civil War, 1945-1949.  Mao Tse Tung’s army overthrew Chiang Kai Shek’s. In defeat he then fled the Mainland for Taiwan. We found the Taiwanese retelling of history left out many unpleasant parts to preserve the glory and unity of China. Sometimes funeral services are held here.

I like the emblem of Taipei police: a dove, symbolizing peace.

Finally we dropped by the National Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. The statue of the Great Unifier sits in splendor under a carved coffered ceiling of Incense Cedar. JG says his pose is like the Lincoln Memorial. As if I didn’t already have enough to be embarrassed about as an American, I overheard a countryman ask a guide, “who is that?”

For those of us who appreciate convenient public restrooms, Taipei makes a splash with both standard and squat toilets.

I was bowled over by the Rolls Royce of toilets, courtesy of the Taipei Grand Hotel (1979).  It is self-sanitizing, sporting a heated seat and an adjustable shower spray.

Finally a wildlife sighting! We saw a Malayan Night Heron in the park surrounding Chiang Kai Shek’s Monument.