Wednesday, November 11
Lungshan Temple
Our first stop today was the National Palace Museum which houses galleries of artifacts of jade, bronze, ceramics, porcelain, calligraphy, and painting. We barely scratched the surface in our 2½ hours there!
Jade items:
Bronze:
Porcelain:
Next we went to the National Revolutionary Martyr’s Shrine where we saw the changing of the guard, which is done every hour on the hour. Built in 1969 it serves as a memorial to those who died in service of their country. In 1998, a legal amendment was enacted to allow non-military to be inducted into the shrine for acts of heroism and bravery in service of others.
We went to lunch at Din Tai Fung, now a world-wide Taiwanese restaurant chain which originated here in Taipei. We ate things we didn’t know the name of, some of which we could figure out (lotus leaves & stalks with tofu?) and some we couldn’t. And then there were copious dumplings: pork, and chicken, and fish… and hot and sour soup, and stir fried rice. And dessert…. dark, bittersweet chocolate dumplings! Divine!
The restaurant was in 101 Tapei, which when it was built was the tallest building in the world. After lunch we took the elevator to the top to view the city, and to see the tuned mass damper.
In January, Alex Honnold of Free Solo fame, free climbed the outside of the building (with no ropes or safety harness). It took him 1½ hours. His palm prints are still on the metal!
The tuned mass damper helps stabilize the building during disturbances such as earthquakes or typhoons, by acting something line a pendulum to dissipate energy from the building shaking or swaying. It is made of 41 layers (each 5” thick) of steel, weighing 660 metric tons, and it reduces the movement of the tower by 40%.
From there we went to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, which houses a library and museum documenting his life and career as well as Taiwan’s history during his lifetime and the martial law period (1947-1987).
We drove by the Presidential Office Building as night was falling.
Our last stop for the day was at the Lungshan Temple where we had been yesterday. It was wonderful being there at night, as there were much fewer people and the temple was lit up beautifully.
It was a long day and we didn’t get back to the hotel until nearly 7:00pm. We opted for snacks in the room rather than look for dinner out.
Tomorrow we take a day trip out of the city into the country to the northern coast of Taiwan.