journey26.com

Apr 28 2010

Taipei Day 1, Taiwan

Got to the DongDu harbour

at 7.40am for the 8.30am boat

to Kinmen. I almost missed the boat because I am supposed to get there 50 minutes before to confirm my seat.

Taiwan has been populated by some aboriginal local tribes since few thousands years ago. It was colonialized by the Dutch and Spaniards in the 1600s. During the Ming dynasty, Admiral Cheng Cheng-Kung, also known as Koxinga was based in Kinmen Island. He decided to attack the Dutch and defeated them. Many Han Chinese moved to the island during Ming and Qing dynasty and Taiwan was integrated as part of Fujian province. Taiwan was granted a provincial status in 1985 but was ceded to Japan during the Qing dynasty and Japan ruled the island for 50 years from 1895 to 1945.

During the civil war in China, the Chinese nationalist government lost the war to the communist and escaped to Taiwan.

Got to Kinmen at 9.30am (1 hour boat ride).

The shuttle then took me to the airport for the 11am flight

and landed at Taipei airport

at 12pm.

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People here are pretty friendly. An older Taiwanese man who was on the similar trip was pretty generous and offering me to stay at his place.

Took bus 262 to Taipei hostel. Since I only withdrew larger notes from the ATM, I don’t have change and a lady even offered to pay for my bus ride. Taipei Hostel is located around the crossroad of LinShenLu and ZhongXiaoXiLu. (300 Taiwan Dollar~USD$10, USD$1~31 NT Dollar)

Taipei has a population of around 2.5 million people and is located at the northern tip of Taiwan. During the Japanese rule, Tapei became the administrative capital of headquarter and there are still some Japanese style buildings remain in the city.

Chiang Kai Shek memorial

Flag lowering ceremony

Hip hop culture is quite popular in Taiwan and school kids practicing their moves on the street.

White Terror memorial

The White Terror is also known as 228 incident. Taiwan was handed by UNRRA to Kuomintang in 1945 after end of Japanese rule. 1.5 year after the handover, there were accusation of nepotism and corruption in the party. In Feb 27, 1947 there were a protest by the locals and on Feb 28th, ten to thirty thousands people were killed. Following the unrest, the Taiwanese government enacted martial law until 1987 and imprisoned and killed many elites and people suspicious of anti government activities. This remains a taboo subject for many years and is a source of hostility among the 2 groups of Taiwanese, the former are Chinese who inhabited Taiwan before 1945 and the later are Chinese who came along with ChiangKaiShek after the communist took over China.

Presidential Building.

This building was built in 1919 as the headquarter of the Japanese occupying force. Since 1949 it has been the office of the president.