Adventures in Taipei

Had an awesome day in Taipei yesterday, I wanted to see the panda exhibit before it closed today. It was at the Chang Kai Shek Memorial, so we got to see that and the museum.

Changing of the guard ceremony

The ceiling in the memorial hall.  The 12 stars represent 12 months of the year, and 12 hours in the ancient Chinese day.  The ceiling is a series of squares because Chiang Kai-Shek's birth name meant "square."

Chiang visited Washington DC at one point, and you can definitely tell he liked the design of the Capitol, and the Lincoln Memorial.  And the marble on the walls came from Vermont.

They're not allowed to move.  If it's hot, every once in a while, a volunteer will come and wipe the sweat off their faces.

Changing of the guard

Interesting stuff we learned at the museum:

1.  Chiang Kai Shek was born a Buddhist, but converted to marry his second wife, the famous one.  He was interested in the Bible, and read it every morning.

2.  Madame Chiang Kai Shek spent a good portion of her life on the East Coast, and she graduated from Wellesley College.  According to Wikipedia, she spoke English with a Georgian accent. I can kind of hear it in this video

After the museum, Linda and I found a tea house and had crepes and tea.

 We strolled around for awhile, then took the MRT back to Banqiao.  We had dinner at the station, and then got on our separate trains to go home.