20 March 2012
Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall
Chiang was the leader of China when the communists decided to take over. Japan then decided it was a good time to do the same thing. For a period of time Chiang convinced the communists to postpone the civil war until they dealt with the Japanese.
That worked, but once the Japanese left, the civil war started again, and despite Chiang being the worlds greatest ever war hero (based on number of medals), he was sent packing to Taiwan.
From there he declared himself el presidente and generaleissimo and vowed to return to China and take over. He never did that.
His history has many unusual aspects, whilst fighting the Japanese in China, he ordered the destruction by fire of many Chinese cities, killing millions, to prevent Japan from taking over.
He also destroyed Chinese cities by blowing up dams, all whilst he was the leader.
The strangest incident I read about, once the Japanese were defeated, he asked them to delay their surrender until he could get organised enough to take over.
The Americans of course loved him, because he was fighting the Japanese, so they gave him their top military honor, as did England.
Strangely, before World War 2, he was the nationalist president, these days we confuse nationalism with communism (I think?), because of this he has all kinds of top military honors from Central and South American countries too.
From Taiwan he was recognised by places like the UN as the president of all of China until some point in the 1970's. And even up until 1980 (after Chiangs death) Taiwan was funding troops in the North of China and around the Vietnam area in preperation for taking over. He then also became friends with the Japanese again.
Its all very confusing!
The memorial hall is impressive, it was built between 1975 and 1980. Its much bigger than I thought.
Flanking the main hall is the recital hall and national theatre.
I walked back out the gate to take this photo. A mainland Chinese business of some description is rewarding their top sales people with a 5 day trip to Taiwan. They were all super excited and holding up banners to have their photo taken.
Getting closer to the hall.
Looking back, it really bothers me that I can never take a straight photo.
Old Chiang himself. Hes much bigger than I thought.
These guys looks pretty small and puny.
Head around the back and theres no one there at all, just me with the great hall to myself.
This car was smuggled into Taiwan by Chinese citizens via the Phillipines. Despite that the sign says he only used it once cause he didnt like it.
A recreation of his office. I would demand the carpet get re laid if I were el presidente!
Nearby is the Taiwanese parliament, an unusual looking building.
At first I took this photo because there were riot police with shields and fire extinguishers. A few minutes later about 10 protestors came past, it was a weak effort on their behalf.
However upon reviewing the photo I noticed the child on the scooter, which is much more interesting.
Taipei is Hunger Games mad. Theres displays like this everywhere, official countdown timers, preview on repeat with loudspeakers etc.
Apparently this movie is the new twilight franchise, only with a sadder looking girl playing the lead role.
I havent seen any pandas, mainly because I went to the Taipei zoo last time I was here (which is excellent). However they have a panda shop and cafe at one of the subway stations.
Heres my lunch, mystery meat dumplings and hot and sour soup. It was excellent. I have no idea what meat was in the dumplings and the soup had more kinds of fungus and tofu than any other version I have had.