Day 1
My experience in Shanghai was a real lowball. With that in mind, I probably had an overly positive view of Taiwan off the bat, but the friendliness of many of the Taiwanese I came across, compared to the folks back in Shanghai, really won me over. Also, I walked into 25 centigrade weather (77 degrees for you Fahrenheit folk). I think Taiwan forgot winter is coming.
On the airport bus into the city, I got to mess around with Korean with some other tourists on the bus. They were nice enough to even provide me some recommendations on things to do for my long stay! I took the metro from my stop for the final stretch to my hostel. Comparatively, the Taipei MRT is not nearly as convenient as Seoul’s metro but I would say it’s incredibly clean, simple to use, and quite spacious. Fortunately, my hostel was actual right behind a major station, 中山 (종산, Zhongshan).
Okay, the hostel I booked for seemed maybe a little shady at first, but after a first take, I was pretty pleased with my choice. At around 2500NTD, I got a bed, locker, and place to shower for 9 days. The place had pretty good wifi, the shower facilities were clean, the laundry seemed “meh” but I did not use it, and they had a water filtration system. With all that and the convenience of basically all the stores around a major city district and one stop away from Taipei Main Station, I’d say we had a winner.
I was pretty dead on arrival after a rough night of sleep back in Shanghai. My game plan focused on food and sleep. Luckily, my place in Zhongshan was just a five minute walk away from 寧夏觀光夜巿 (닝샤 야시장, Ningxia Night Market). How Taiwanese could my night get? I indulged in stinky tofu as my first meal, complete with duck blood. None of that sounds appealing, I know, but it was both delicious and filling. For you food conservatives, I call you to liberate yourself and indulge in the foods of the world. You will not be disappointed. Plus, you may be able to have a fun little conversation with folks from Hong Kong like I did!
Day 2
My itinerary for all trips is incredibly flexible. Oftentimes, it is simply because I sometimes don’t have an itinerary. However, I do always try to get the main tourist attractions out of the way so I can make the rest of trip more enjoyable. The other cool thing about structuring an itinerary like this is you may end up making friends with some locals who can show you around.
So I made my first stop 二二八和平公園 (2/28 Peace Park). Again, I didn’t really understand everything about Taiwan going in. I built up my knowledge base from things I learned from Jeremy back at school and more things I learned from Frances while in Korea. I knew 2/28 was a significant date going in but I had little knowledge on the background of said event. Well, after going through the National Taiwan Museum at the base of the park, with its “entire” two stories devoted to aborigines, I indulged in the history of 2/28.
Following the end of Japanese occupation of Taiwan with WW2, General Order No. 1 essentially bequeathed the remains of the occupation government over to the Republic of China (ROC) party, the Kuomintang (KMT or 中國國民黨). What would come to be known as Peace Memorial Day (和平紀念日) actually has roots in a violent clash between the residents of modern Taiwan and the then newly-placed KMT government. Despite the troubles and lack of certain freedoms under the Japanese, the Taiwanese people found conditions under Japanese rule to be quite favorable in comparison to other Japanese-occupied nations and KMT rule. Many ROC migrants took over Taiwanese establishments and funneled commodities and goods to the mainland, resulting in runaway inflation, food shortages, and black markets. No surprise general discontent erupted among the Taiwanese. (Personal note here: A little moment in history highlighting the importance of communication, particularly with language. The Taiwanese had an incredible handle on Taiwanese (a.k.a. Hoklo, derived from Hokkien) and Japanese, but had trouble communicating with their Mandarin-speaking ROC counterparts.)
The tension from politics and culture erupted when Lin Jiang-Mai (林江邁) was attacked by inspecting Tobacco Monopoly Bureau officers at a tea house in present-day Nanjing West Road, where a bystander was shot in the contraband scuffle on February 27, 1947. Protests and demands came flooding in but in response, the government decided to declare martial law to maintain control over the public the next evening. Both peaceful protesting and violent rioting erupted within country and the mainland. A KMT force came into Taiwan from Fujian province in China on March 8 and went on a three day killing spree, as many documents and persons have put it. The ending of the event marked the start of the White Terror (白色恐怖), the period in which the incident was suppressed from Taiwanese history.
Damn. (This issue is pretty complex so I encourage you to learn more on your own!)
Well, all that history made me hungry. I made my way over to 中正纪念堂 (Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall) and grabbed a quick meal at a convenience store. Admittedly, I didn’t learn much at the actual place on Chiang Kai-Shek, but here’s what I learned afterwards: Chiang Kai-Shek was essentially second-in-command to Sun Yet-Sen (founder of the KMT) and the essential leader of the KMT military. Unlike Sun, he had less exposure to Western philosophy and practices and was more socially conservative and believed in authoritarian rule and traditionally Chinese culture. Communists broke away from the KMT following Sun’s death and his essential takeover of the party. Relating him to 2/28, he had a pretty troubling viewpoint. However, while messing around in trying to get some cool shots of the area, I ended up having a student journalist question me on my travel motives. It was cool because of my talkative habits, we ended up getting into this hour long conversation on why Taiwan was fascinating. In turn, I made a local friend! Here’s a low-res photo of us at Chiang Kai-Shek!
All right, final stop of the night: 龍山寺 (롱산사, Longshan Temple). I decided to take the long way on foot. Along the way, I found a mask shop and did a little shopping for Masquerade Ball for senior year. After hearing how much some people spend on those masks, I was like “Oh, hell no!” I found a pretty nice one for 80NTD, right around $2.60. Noice!
Once I made it to the temple, I took a moment to just take it all in. It was beautifully lit and pretty nice for a tourist trap. Incense was burning in every corner and many food offerings were being made in front of me. Then, I heard some Korean. Go time! As per usual, I got compliments like “잘 한다!” and such but they actually conversed with me instead of burying me with flattery.
