Day 01: April 28, 2012
Check-in at Holo Family Hostel (near Taipei Main Station). Free day in Taipei
A popular tagline goes "Once you pop, you can't stop". This is true even when it comes to hiking - Once you started to enjoy hiking, it is hard to stop. Ten days after descending from Gunung Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, I was ready again for another one. I was craving for a hike at that time. I tried to search for an expedition and it was a good timing that there was a scheduled Snow Mountain Expedition in Taiwan.
Based from the data provided, Snow Mountain (or Xueshan in Chinese) is the second highest peak in Taiwan, behind Jade Mountain. The main peak stands at 3886 meters above sea level. There is no particularly technical about the climb to the peak and we will be taking the route from Wuling Farm, the most scenic hiking trail on the island, according to Snow Mountain expedition information.
We traveled from Manila to Taipei on the 28th of April. There were ten of us. It was Pinoy Mountaineer who leads this expedition.
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| Arrival at Taipei International Airport |
We landed at Taipei International Airport around two o'clock in the morning and then traveled to the center of the city near the Taipei Main Station. We stayed at Holo Family Hostel. It was drizzling at that time.
Our first day in Taipei was a free day and we decided to walk around the place and explore the area. At the ground floor of the tower where we stayed is a mall.
We took the underpass and walked along the alley towards the 228 Peace Memorial Park. Taipei alleys, after all, look like the alleys at Divisoria, Binondo and China Town in Manila - only much cleaner and organized in my opinion. There are fruit and varities of Chinese food vendors all over the place.
At the end of the alley, there we found the 228 Peace Memorial Park. It is a hisotrical clean and green park.
According to Wikipedia, The park, designed by Taiwanese architect, Tsu-Chai Cheng, was established in 1908 as Taihoku Park during the Japanese colonial period. It was the first European-style urban park in Taiwan, placed on the grounds of the Colonial Governor's Office (today's Presidential Office Building).
In 1930 Taiwan's Japanese authorities established a radio station at the site. The station initially housed the Taipei Broadcasting Bureau, an arm of the Government-General Propaganda Bureau's Information Office. The following year the Taiwan Broadcast Association was formed and given responsibility to broadcasts island-wide. The Taihoku Park radio station became the center of broadcast activity for the Association.
The park was renamed Taipei New Park in 1945 by the Kuomintang authorities who replaced the Japanese at the end of the second world war in 1945. They renamed the broadcasting agency the Taiwan Broadcasting Company. The station became the primary broadcast organ of the Kuomintang government and military.
In 1947, a group of protesters, angry over a brutal police action against Taiwanese civilians, took over the station and used it to broadcast accusations against the Kuomintang government. The action formed part of a chain of events now referred to as the 228 Incident. A subsequent, more severe crackdown by the Nationalist government restored the station to Kuomintang control and ushered in Taiwan's period of White Terror. Two years later the Kuomintang lost ground in the Chinese Civil War and its leaders retreated to Taiwan. Concerned to establish themselves as China's true national government in exile, they renamed the bureau the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC).
The Taipei City government took over operation of the radio station building when the BCC relocated in 1972. City officials made it the site of the Taipei City Government Parks and Street Lights Office.
As Taiwan entered its modern democracy period in the 1990s, the reforms of President Lee Teng-hui invited free discussion of Taiwan's past. For the first time the 228 Incident of 1947 was officially acknowledged and its significance openly debated. In 1996 the Taipei City Government designated the former radio station building a historical site. The building was made the home of the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum and the park was rededicated as 228 Peace Memorial Park.
From the 228 Peace Memorial Park, we crossed the Jieshou Park towards Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. It is another historical park dedicated to Chiang Kai-shek. We entered through the huge main gate of the park facing Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall with the Concert Hall at the left and the National Theater at the right.
I had fun watching the guards ceremony inside the Memorial Hall as they change intervals.
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| Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Entrance |
The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (traditional Chinese: 中正紀念堂; simplified Chinese: 中正纪念堂) is a famous monument, landmark and tourist attraction erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China. It is located in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Republic of China (ROC).
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| Concert Hall |
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| National Theater |
The monument, surrounded by a park, stands at the east end of Memorial Hall Square. The structure is framed on the north and south by the National Theater and National Concert Hall.
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| Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall |
The Memorial Hall is white with four sides. The roof is blue and octagonal, a shape that picks up the symbolism of the number eight, a number traditionally associated in Asia with abundance and good fortune. Two sets of white stairs, each with 89 steps to represent Chiang's age at the time of his death, lead to the main entrance.
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| Chiang Kai-shek Statue |
The ground level of the memorial houses a library and museum documenting Chiang Kai-shek's life and career and exhibits related to Republic of China-era Chinese history, and Taiwan's history and development.
The upper level contains the main hall, in which a large statue of Chiang Kai-shek is located, and where a guard mounting ceremony takes place in regular intervals (Wikipedia).
Fom Chaing Kai-shek Memorial Park, we took a cab and visited Taipei Heritage and Culture Education Center. It is located in the historic Bopiliao area of Wanhua District near Longshan Temple. This area has preserved much of its Qing period roots, with arched brick arcades, carved pattern window lattices, and other traces of the city’s early elegance.
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| Taipei Heritage and Culture Education Center |
Old-style shop-houses (with stores in front and living areas in back) also remain from that period, opening a window to the early development of the Bangka (Wanhua) area, lending a unique historical and architectural flavor to the area. This place reminded me of Vigan City in Ilocos Sur.
Visitors can learn more about the history of the area at the Heritage and Culture Education Center. The center has different theme displays and hosts special exhibits on Bopiliao as well as educational activities (Taipei Travel).
From the Heritage and Culture Education Center, we took another cab to visit Longshan Temple nearby.
Mengjia Longshan Temple (Chinese: 艋舺龍山寺) is a temple in Wanhua District, Taipei, Taiwan. The temple was built in Taipei in 1738 by settlers from Fujian, China. It served as a place of worship and a gathering place for the Chinese settlers. The temple has been destroyed either in full or in part on numerous earthquakes and fires.
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| Longshan Temple |
During World War II, on 31 May 1945 it was hit by American bombers during the Raid on Taipei, who reported that the Japanese were hiding armaments inside. The main building and the left corridor were damaged and many precious artifacts and artworks were lost.
Taipei residents have consistently rebuilt and renovated it, and did so again after the end of the Second World War a few months later. Longshan is seen as an emblematic example of Taiwanese classical architecture, with southern Chinese influences commonly seen in older buildings.
Like most temples in Taiwan, the temple worships a mixture of Buddhist andTaoist deities, such as Matsu (Wikipedia).
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| Back at Taipei Main Station |
We were back at Hostel six in the evening and prepared for the actual hike the following day.
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