Taipei

11/8/2010

On Saturday Mark gave us breakfast in a traditional Taiwanese shop. We had warm soy milk and dumplings and a fried bread. It was a very busy shop. Mark said they used to have a picture of G. Bush 41 eating there. Afterwards we went to the National Palace Museum. Last time we were in Taipei the main building was closed for repairs. It is a beautiful building and includes treasures Chiang Kai Shek brought from the mainland in 194. The PRC would still like to have them back.
Ticket for National Palace Museum

Garrrett and Mark at the museum

We saw some amazing things. There is a cauldron with writing inside and a bronze bell. Mark said they both are very old. In that room there was a power-point type presentation of the development of writing. I really liked that. We saw paintings and calligraphy and poems, statues and carvings and things made of bamboo, a huge statue of Buda, the belongings of an emperor who loved tiny things. There was a box of jade and ivory treasures that were 1/2 to 1 inch tall. The amazing thing is that they were intricately carved. We saw a couple of things that had magnifying glasses with them so you could see them: a tiny boat, a bug made of an olive pit, a basket made from a walnut shell. There were several items of one piece of ivory carved so that one was inside another with no seams or way they could have been separately carved and then assembled. One of the prizes of the collection is a Chinese cabbage (think bok choy) carved out of a piece jade that ranges from white to green. It has a couple of grasshoppers on it (http://online.wsj.com.article/SB118549131061379569.htmlwsj.com.article/SB118549131061379569.html).

There were absolute herds of mainland Chinese who had come in buses.

Afterwards Mark took us to a nearby town which has a pottery and porcellan street. There was one vase that stood about 8' high. One shopping area looked like a kiln--that was the entrance. I bought a celedon green vase.

We had been invited to a party in a restaurant that specialized in Taiwan-style food. Some of the things we ate were squid, fried rice, conge (rice and yam pudding), hot and sour soup, fried oysters, pig's feet. sweet & sour shrimp, I can't remember everything. There were about 1.5 dozen of us there: Gian Carlo and Michelle, Grace, Chen (we didn't know her), Joyce, Aileen, Ivy and Tim with Max and Luke, Ian and Vicky with Ethan, Lan Li, Ally, maybe others. Ian, Vicky, Ethan

Michelle and 2 others

Ally and Lan Li

Ivy and Max

Michelle and Gian Carlo

Michelle, Aileen, and Joyce

Tim and his son

There is an international floral exhibitien,n here for six months, and a lot of preparation has gone into getting ready for the opening this weekend. The center islands and medians have been planted with colorful flowers and coleus. There are 6 venues all over Taipei. We plan to see the bonsai and some other exhibits on Wed. One of the venues is set up in a funny yellow tent that reminds me of a children's TV character on Chinese TV.

Elections will be held in about a month, so there are lots of flags and billboards.