Taiwan: Day 11

After coming back to Beitou we took day 11 a little slower and decided it was time to go back to the city.  

 This is a shot out of Shannon and Mike's apartment window of their street.  Very typical looking, only a little narrower than the more main streets.  So narrow in fact, that all the parked cars folded their side mirrors in as to not loose them to a car driving by.  At the intersection you can see is a veggie stall, a fruit stall, and a meat shop.  There is also a hairdresser, and breakfast spot and a few other stores on the ground level.  

 Our destination for the morning was the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.  This is the main gate to the memorial.  Although it is hard to tell from here, it's huge.

 This building here is the memorial itself.  It is dedicated to General Chiang Kai-shek who is a former President of the Republic of China.  Through the entry way is a large bronze statue of the general, and then the two floors beneath the statue is a gallery telling of his life and a gallery (ironically at this time housing Canadian art). 

 Looking out from the memorial are beautiful gardens, and two orange roofed buildings that mirror one another.  One is the national concert hall, and the other is the national theater.  It was kind of neat that you couldn't really see the garden design until you had climbed the 89 steps up the monument.

 Just inside the monument were two honour guards, and they did not move... at least until the changing of the guards on the hour.  It was crazy, they didn't even blink.

 This is the bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek.  I love that in every statue and picture he's always smiling.  

Our lunch... bought from a really sketchy looking place.  But it was delicious.

After our morning at the memorial we spent the afternoon at the National Museum.  We had to check out bags and camera so I don't have any pictures.  We took a tour and learned a lot about the bronze work we saw, as well as the evolution of pottery and ceramics.  Did you know that only royalty were allowed to have images of dragon and that the number of claws the dragon had indicated their status... only the emperor could have five toes dragons, and three and four toed dragons were for their family members.  Also the white colour of china is unique to true china because the sand its made from can't be found anywhere else.  Seeing the museum with a guide was a brilliant idea.  It really made it a lot more interesting.