Days 2 and 3

My second day here, I took a break and did not do as much. The long journey caught up with me and I was exhausted. Also, my shampoo bottle had managed to open and so all my clothes were soapy. I spent the day doing laundry, unpacking, exploring the Academia Sinica and running some small errands to the neighbourhood 7-11. I also took a short hike up the mountain behind the the apartment, and enjoyed the views. After Sonny got out of work we went and ate hot pot at the nearby shop.

Day three I was ready to head out into this strange land by myself. I loosely planned to visit a few parks, and see where the day took me. My first stop was Da'an Park, the largest park in Taipei, comparable to Central Park in New York City. It was quite beautiful, and was full of locals, practicing Tai Chi, ballroom dancing (?!?), running, kids playing, an erhu orchestra, and much more.

After I was finished exploring Da'an, I decided to head to the General Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. I had read about and even seen some pictures online, but I was NOT prepared for the scale of the Hall and the surrounding square. It was astounding!

The octogonal blue and white building is the memorial for Chiang Kai Shek. There are 89 steps to climb, one for each year of his life and inside the large arched doors is a bronze statue of him guarded at all times by soldiers.

The other two buildings are the National Concert Hall and the National Theater. They were also quite imposing and also very beautiful. The square in the middle is known as Liberty Square, named after the tense protests that occurred against the very rule that Chiang Kai Shek founded. (Basically, politics are very complex and touchy in Taiwan) Surrounding the square are some gorgeous formal Chinese and Japanese gardens. I wandered through them for awhile as well.

The entire complex is surrounded by a wall with several big gates which are also - following pattern - imposing.

On my way home, I passed by one of the city's original gates, first built in 1884, but redone in the 1940s. It now stands in the center of a huge traffic circle.

My camera battery died right after this photo, but I wandered back into 2/28 Peace Park to finish exploring it, then caught the MRT back home, to quickly refresh then when Sonny got home from work we headed out for another local beef noodle soup dinner. All in all my first time wandering around a foreign city all alone went pretty well I think :)