Featuring a memorial, but also a botanical garden, crafts and fabric shops, and a whole lotta food.

Splendid!

I didn’t really travel by myself much until I started my job in London in 2019. Before then, I’d mostly gone with family, friends or a partner. During my phd and post doc, I started travelling a bit for conferences, but even then, I often ended up travelling with someone I knew, or having someone meet me in the place to frolic together afterwards.

I still think this is an excellent way to travel- adding a bit of holiday on the end of a work trip and exploring new places (or new phases of life) with people you love. Last year I bounced from a work team meetup in Berlin down to Mannheim with a friend, and then from there to Zurich and ultimately Lichtenstein with my ex. In Feb of this year, I went to a conference in Passau, Germany, via some of my favourite people in Gent, and then swung up to Berlin via Warsaw (a sleeper train was involved, as was the country of Austria, momentarily) before returning home. Total (adult) friends visited = 4 in Gent, 1 in Warsaw, and 6 or 7 in Germany. Plus some kids.

No matter what, there will be a whole lot of travel with or to my people in the future. But in the past 6 or so years of work travel, I’ve also found out just how much I really really enjoy just faffing around a city all by myself.

A lot of this enjoyment is really helped by modern technology. I have no sense of direction, and effectively speak only English. But I also have no food allergies, and am not too afraid to look silly or to ask for help. So as long as my phone has a battery, basically anything is possible.

Speaking of food.

On the morning of my second full day in Taipei, I stepped out of my hotel, turned a corner, and ran into a small queue of people waiting to have breakfast.

The place had good reviews, there was nowhere I urgently needed to be, so I joined the queue.

(And also immediately fell in love with (and pledged to eventually source for my forever home) the little metal waiting stools.)

When I had looked up ‘food to eat in Taiwan’, one of the breakfast options included a kind of bao (I think once they are stuffed with something they maybe become Gua Bao). ‘Fluffy buns’ are one of the most accessible-to-children foods that we probably started eating when we were 3 or younger, although in Australia we tend to mostly have premade pork stuffed Bao. In recent years, my favourite Joram has also gotten really good at steaming some sort of folded half-moon bao, so I now often get treated with them- generally with delicious vegan fillings- when I stop by Berlin.

This one came with some egg and bacon, which definitely put it closer to the ‘breakfast muffin’ territory than any I’d had before.

The other more novel-to-me food, was something I think is called Xian Dou Jiang (鹹豆漿). It’s a warm soy milk, which came with some herbs and little shrimps (as well as some sort of sweetened cubes that I couldn’t fully identify), as well as some soy sauce and vinegar.

I honestly don’t think I did this right. I shoved everything in, but was worried about overdoing the sauces. In the end, I think I should have added more- using the vinegar to curdle the soy milk a bit, and adding more salty flavour. The end product of what I had was warm and soothing- and I could definitely see it going down well if sick. But it was also a bit bland.

Once I had stuffed myself stupid, I headed back into the streets

By the way, for those of you playing at home, the unique drink of the day was ‘white gourd lemon’. Which was nice and texturally interesting, but a bit too candy flavoured.

My aim of the morning was to visit the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, which looks a bit like this:

But first I had to get there. Which overall was a fairly short, but also very hot 30 minute walk from my neighbourhood.

I went through the 228 Peace Memorial Park, which is contains a memorial to the (thousands of) victims killed following suppression of an anti-government uprising on February 28, 1947.

It’s worth keeping that history in mind as we move toward the Memorial Hall.

..But first, I also went past the very beautiful National Theatre.

I suspect this is a plum blossom, which is the national flower (and appears on the ‘Chinese Taipei’ flag they use at the Olympics and other international events).

Also, quick shoutout to all the AG Bock kids- IYKYK:

I arrived at the memorial hall just in time to see a kind of changing of the guard.

Which was pretty much as expected. Very synchronised stomping!

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall was approved immediately after Chiang passed away, in 1975, and completed – with the attached park- by 1980.

The hall is pretty huge, clearly designed to give a sense of awe. The colouring (blue and white) is supposed to represent the national emblem of the country, while also representing Chiang’s party (Kuomintang), and there are little details scattered throughout- such as the 89 steps leading to the hall that represent his age at death.

To me, it felt like a mix of some of the palaces I’d seen in China- particularly this front section, and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

After the appropriate amount of awe-ful staring, I stumbled into the centre of the building.

My first comment is that this building was confusing. There seemed to be a few different sections with different themed exhibitions, but they were not very connected to eachother, and it was bit unclear to me how to make my way through.

Which, I suspect is a somewhat deliberate choice.

First up, I looked into the actual Chiang Kai-shek part, which included recreations of his office (complete with wax figure), and various memorabilia, awards and so on.

(I quite like those lions!)

One thing I found particularly interesting is that he was smiling quite broadly in almost all of the photos. Not just the more candid ones, but also some where he clearly was posing for the camera. A different flavour from what we normally see.

After this section, I somehow ended up looking at some art, before finding my way back into a section that was focused on different events of oppression from around the world.

This part was quite separated from the Chiang section- to the point where I (as a fairly ignorant person, but also one who had been shortly briefed by a friend and wiki on some of the history) really struggled to match the timelines to the smiling man.

From there, I moved into a section focused back in on Taiwan….

.. which included first a tunnel with some details on things that were gradually banned in Taiwan…

This then gradually entered into a section that was more specifically focused on the White Terror, with a strong focus on individual stories of people punished, or disappeared, and the impacts on their families.

At this point I did find myself a bit lost again, and wandered the halls a bit, stumbling on some art and somehow coming back to the statue hall…

Before eventually making my way into a section called ‘The Awakening Tide: the call for freedom on the long road to democracy’

Oh! and also there were some crabs:

Given what the hall was built for, and what it’s trying to do, it’s not very surprising that there’s a strong feeling of disconnect as you move through the space.

If you’re an ignorant person like me, it’s probably worth scrubbing up a bit on your ‘History of Taiwan’ before visiting.

You should also be ready for a lot of reading. I’m not the most attentive museum goer- even on my better days I lean more towards ‘look’ than ‘read’, and I would argue that this one needs a bit more attention to really engage in the stories of the individuals and the country.

Anyway.

Back in the outside and very warm world, I stumbled past a bear, a building,

(I think this is by the artist Hung Yi)

I was heading towards the Botanical Gardens (pretty much my standard ‘foreign city’ activity), but stopped first at the “National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute Taipei Branch”.

Mostly because I was hot, and saw this beautiful lion.

What I ended up stumbling into was something perfectly sculptured for my likings- a whole room filled to the brim with different plant specimens and the different colours made from dying with them.

Apparently, the collection is from long term project by Chen and Ma, who were ‘searching for Taiwan’s colours- ultimately defining 126 dye plants that could produce 1512 colour samples.

I think it goes without saying that I covet both of these:

From there, I stumbled into the National Taiwan Arts Education Center- mostly due to getting lost. There was a very lovely lady who wanted to show me around, and show what they do for kids, and also some very excellent embroidery.

A few steps back and a few more forward, and I arrived at the Botanical Gardens.

Obviously, I covet also this Frog Phone.

Again, I had a really lovely time with people pointing out things to me, and me reciprocating to some others by locating a type of chipmunk that was screaming its little face off while perched in a tree (pretending to be bird?).

But I didn’t stay super long in the Gardens, in part because I was getting quite hungry.

Luckily, food that is both delicious and cheap seems to never be far away in Taipei:

This one (far left) is Tian bu la, a sort of fish cake made from a paste of white fish, and served with a chewy rice and pig’s blood cake and all dressed with a sweet intense sauce. The broth on the right is radish (daikon) with more fish cakes. A bit flavourless, but I think the aim is to mix it in with the leftover sauce from the first one.

Afterwards I was still a bit peckish, so got chocolate-lava-filled oreo wheel cake.

And then, because I am a massive hipster, I stopped at a coffee shop that was mostly a bike shop.

At this point in the day, I was making my way back to Dihua street to have a proper look at Yongle Fabric market before it closed.

I did buy a couple of small scraps of fabric, but mostly spent my money on a whole lot of trimmings. Overall, I think my willingness to pay money on fabric is massively impacted by shopping at cheap markets in Amsterdam and Berlin and particularly India, and buying fabrics second hand from Vinted or similar. In China, I similarly came out of the country with 1 metre only of very beautiful green silk (one of the loveliest fabrics I have every owned), but also with half a suitcase full of buttons.

When I was done fondling fabric, I wandered around Dihua street a bit, before metro-ing my way back home.

I also got myself a couple of little filled bao in a plastic bag, because I was getting too tired to really stop for proper food.

My journey home took me back through the (slightly-less-creepy section of the) underground mall, and into my neighbourhood, which was operating at a much busier frequency than in the morning.

I’m not sure the photos can really capture the movement of the whole thing- lots of tourists and locals shopping, but also lots of food carts being rapidly moved from place to place (I guess they are not supposed to sit in any one location?).

Also, I’ll just leave this here:

Isn’t it sad that men are no longer really wearing hats?

The next morning, I said goodbye to the Tiger Hotel, scoffed some pot-sticking soup dumplings (which to be honest were too oily for me), and some of the famous pancake (which was probably a bit too sour-kraut-y for me), and then headed out of the big city…..

More on that later.

Also, to the person who asked me ‘will you finish all of Taiwan in the next post?’: Lol.

17th April, 2026