Spring Break in Taiwan: Day 6

Our day started by saying goodbye to Hong Wen. We lined up outside in front of the entire Hong Wen assembled upper school and gave impromptu speeches about ourselves. We all expressed how excited we were to talk with the local Taiwanese students and thanked the school for hosting. We then promptly boarded a bus for Taipei.

On the way, our amazing guide Daphne, who grew up in Taipei, gave us a crash course in Taipei history, culture, and its significance to Taiwan. This was much needed as the first stop on our whirlwind tour around the city was the memorial building of Chiang Kai-shek, a complicated historical figure, controversial for implementing martial law and shutting down free speech in a period from 1949 to 1992 known as the “White Terror.”. We toured the underbelly of the memorial which housed a plethora of incredibly maintained documents from the Kuomingtang, a major political party initially based in Chinese, from its foundation to establishment in Taiwan. The top floor, much like the Lincoln Memorial, features a large, sitting version of Chiang Kai-shek. We watched the stepping (performance? dance?) military ritual at the changing of the guard, where four guards moved in total sync stepwise and rifle throwing-wise, and replaced the old guards at their posts. It was beautiful, surreal, and hypnotic.

Next up was lunch–a traditional Taiwanese seafood spread. The food wasn’t my favorite, but the meal (and desert) was super enjoyable. We then walked around a shopping district in historic Old Taipei, where a blend of European-inspired buildings from the 1970s have been reworked as smaller shops and apartment buildings. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many dried fruit/mushroom/spice blend sellers, much less on the same street.

Next we visited the temple of Guanyin, the Taoist Goddess of Mercy. Daphne walked us through the history of Taiwanese religion, as well as her own personal beliefs and values. She showed us the traditional and still common practice jiaobei, in which a person throws two crescent shaped pieces of wood to seek answers for any questions. For particularly complicated questions, there was a system of number pulling, crescent throwing, and finally, a conference with the resident master, there to interpret results from 8am to 6:45pm.

After the temple tour we took a brief break/free time in a modern shopping district outside of the temple. I introduced the group to traditional shaved Taiwanese ice and excused myself to have a minute to walk around by myself to take in the sights (and bubble tea and several pastries). I returned to find that the group had devoured both ices I had ordered–but they’d ordered another for me to compensate. So we’ll call it even.

We then completely veered off the track of tours and shopping to hike a local mountain. This, dear reader, I was not expecting, as I had conveniently forgotten to read the agenda. But I persevered making it to the top of the climb to meet the stunning view of Taipei. After heading down the mountains and sharing a bowl of passion fruit juice/tea and jelly, we learned that we had in fact not made it to the top of the mountain but a random observation deck before, but we quietly counted our wins (that we made it back in one piece) and continued to sip the tea.

Our last official adventure for the night was the Taipei night market–which was huge, linear, and by far the most foreign-catering night market I’ve experienced. I’ve never before had a vendor give me a quick once over and ask for my order in English. But the food was excellent (as always) and I have my favorite fruit, bala, ready for tomorrow.

Our real last adventure was short, but a wonderful way to end the night. After saying goodnight to Daphne, the students split off to go to the local Family Mart (a 7-11 equivalent), and we bought pretty much every snack under the sun. We then retired to a hotel room to unwind, chatting about the day, our experiences, and pretty much nothing important. As it is always true at late hours, everything was extremely hilarious.

I’m writing this now near falling asleep while I wait for my turn to shower. I’ll post this in the morning as it needs a coherent re-read and midnight-me is not cut out for that type of work. Goodnight and good morning (and good morning and goodnight).