Precious Memories: Exploring Taipei

A Short Trip to Hong Kong and Taiwan April 2018

April 21, 2018 Saturday

We will be spending the day with our dear friends Mr. and Mrs. Lin in Taipei today. Mr. Lin was a school mate of MOR and we have kept in contacts ever since. Both of them are retired now so they will be taking us to some sights that may be of interest to us on this Saturday.

Hallway of Gracehome

Doors to different units

Nice and clean.

Small front yard

Gracehome is hidden in a quiet residential neighborhood in Taipei.

Without any signs of the service apartment we felt that we mixed in pretty well with the locals.

We could see Taipei 101 straight ahead in the far distance from here.

A Mos Burger right at the corner of the alley and the main street, Xinsheng South Road.

The apartment is situated near Xinsheng South Road and Xinyi Road. Walking distance to the Din Tai Fung Xinyi Branch and Yong Kang Street where many excellent eateries are located.

Breakfast

Whenever we are in Taipei, one of the breakfast shop that we always try to get to is the Fuhang Soy Milk on Zhongxiao East Road. Of course, on this Saturday morning there was an enormous line that went all the way around the building downstairs. There was no way that we could wait in that line so we went across the street to another breakfast eatery. Even this one had a line but it didn't look too bad so we waited. This was nothing like Fuhang and the quality of the soy milk and the fried crullers were just very standard. We can easily get similar ones in Los Angeles.

Very busy open-kitchen right at the entrance of the shop.

Savory soy milk

I think this was an egg pancake with meat wrapped inside.

Fried crullers and sesame roll

There were two lines, the one by the wall was for people waiting to get in. The one near the counter was for the to-go orders.

Former Residence of Marshal Zhang Zue Liang

After breakfast, we took a scenic ride around Taipei to the hot springs town of Beitou. Our goal was to visit the Former Residence of Marshal Zhang Zue Liang. Zhang Zue Liang is an important figure in modern Chinese history. My parents had told us the stories of Zhang and Chiang and the Xi'an Incident many times when we were young as they were remembering their own sufferings during the war. I have always been fascinated by these historical figures that shaped the future of China.

Just to give a general background of Marshal Zhang Zue Liang without having to do too much explanation on my part, this is what Wikipedia wrote about him.

After the death of Chiang Kai-Shek in 1975, he was eventually set free officially. In 1993 he and his wife moved to Honolulu where he passed away at the age of 100. Many will say that he lived a tragic life but it sounded like he was contented and became a devout Christian at his later years. I had just finished watching a TV drama series that was based on his life before going on this trip, so I was really curious to find out how he lived when he was under house arrest in Taipei.

This villa is about half way up on the mountains near Beitou with the breathtaking views of Taipei underneath.

There is a restaurant, tea house, hot springs, and museum on this premises nowadays.

Walking down to the villa from the main entrance.

View of Taipei

A little bit of history posted near the statue.

The restaurant that was closed when we visited.

A little store

Hot springs for foot soaking. They also have hot spring bath facilities inside.

A photo of Marshal Zhang and President Chiang Jing-Kuo.

Zhang and his wife Zhao Di.

A really beautiful place!

Foot soaking hot springs

Relaxing!

Sign about the foot soaking hot spring tickets.

Zen Garden of the Marshal

Former Residence of Marshal Zhang Xue Liang

National Palace Museum

After spending an hour or so at the villa, we headed over to the National Palace Museum not too far away. This is the place where many treasures are stored after they were taken out from China when the nationalists moved to Taiwan. It was many years ago that we have visited this place and we only came because Mrs. Lin was able to get us some free tickets as retired government employees.

The whole place looked very different from what I remembered.

The first place we went to was the restaurant there since we haven't had lunch yet.

I have heard that this place is expensive because it's run by a famous hotel chain. We did not go to the main restaurant but to the cafe at the basement.

We just ordered something simple to hold us til dinner.

Then we went inside the museum. It was very crowded and I just can't handle crowds very well so I was not in the mood of going through the rooms looking at the displays. I did get near the two main items--the jade cabbage and the pork belly just to take a couple of pictures. Not great pictures because we were herded through quickly with people all around me. But here they are...

Jade Cabbage

Pork belly Stone

Those were the only two photos I took of the treasures inside the museum.

Exterior of the museum

Huashan 1914 Creative Park

We had a little time left before dinner so we were dropped off at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park for a little sight seeing. This used to be an old winery and now turned into a very busy creative park where many shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants are stationed. I was surprised at how lively this place is with many young innovative designers showcasing their creativity.

Some outdoor vendors

I am not sure what this was. It looked like these young people were getting in line to go in for some photo shoot.

And then there are indoor stalls and vendors.

street performers

A very interesting place indeed.

Kind of reminded me of the red brick warehouses in Japan.

Cute!

Northsea Fishing Village

Right near the Creative Park is one of our favorite restaurants in Taiwan specializing in authentic Taiwanese seafood. Our third time here and once again we enjoyed an absolutely delicious meal.