thedeadparrot (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thedeadparrot) wrote2008-01-06 04:45 pm
thedeadparrot) wrote2008-01-06 04:45 pm
My winter vacation: Taiwan
I've been meaning to write this up for a while, but haven't, since I'm lazy, which means I'm just going to post some pictures with some explanations.
These are from this sort of arts park. On the left was the national concert hall, and on the right was the national opera house. Needless to say, I didn't get pictures of either of those things. I have no idea what this building is, but it was cool-looking.
Taipei 101, the current tallest building in the world, and the view from the top on a cloudy day. Exciting, I know.
Man, this was one of my favorite places. It's the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Garden, and you see those statues? They're pretty much all of him. But, parrot, you're saying, where did they get that many statues?
Let me give you a quick political history of Taiwan. Chiang Kai-Shek was the head of the KMT party when it popped over from China and started a one-party government, so a lot of the infrastructure was named after him, and pretty much every school on the island had a statue of him. It's only been fairly recently (last fifteen years or so) that it's opened up into a multi-party system. The DPP, the current party in power, has recently trying to separate Taiwan's history from the KMT's, and so they've been taking down statues of Chiang Kai-Shek and tossing them here.
Which I find hilarious.
This the resivior that holds the water for Taipei. It's pretty.
This is my Parents' alma matter, Tunghai University. It's a Christian school, and the chapel is kind of crazy looking. A lot of other buildings are built in the Tang Dynasty style, but I don't have pictures of that.
The National Palace Museum. A really cool place, with a lot of great pieces of art, the most famous of which is a cabbage. Seriously, it's mobbed like the Mona Lisa.
So that's it for me. I've got more pictures here if you're interested.
These are from this sort of arts park. On the left was the national concert hall, and on the right was the national opera house. Needless to say, I didn't get pictures of either of those things. I have no idea what this building is, but it was cool-looking.
Taipei 101, the current tallest building in the world, and the view from the top on a cloudy day. Exciting, I know.
Man, this was one of my favorite places. It's the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Garden, and you see those statues? They're pretty much all of him. But, parrot, you're saying, where did they get that many statues?
Let me give you a quick political history of Taiwan. Chiang Kai-Shek was the head of the KMT party when it popped over from China and started a one-party government, so a lot of the infrastructure was named after him, and pretty much every school on the island had a statue of him. It's only been fairly recently (last fifteen years or so) that it's opened up into a multi-party system. The DPP, the current party in power, has recently trying to separate Taiwan's history from the KMT's, and so they've been taking down statues of Chiang Kai-Shek and tossing them here.
Which I find hilarious.
This the resivior that holds the water for Taipei. It's pretty.
This is my Parents' alma matter, Tunghai University. It's a Christian school, and the chapel is kind of crazy looking. A lot of other buildings are built in the Tang Dynasty style, but I don't have pictures of that.
The National Palace Museum. A really cool place, with a lot of great pieces of art, the most famous of which is a cabbage. Seriously, it's mobbed like the Mona Lisa.
So that's it for me. I've got more pictures here if you're interested.