Rain or shine, Taiwan's still worth it
Published on: Sunday, December 05, 2010
By: Stephanie Lee
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Tour guide, Peter who represented the Taipei Tourism Board said among the attractions of the city were its cultural buildings, which have been turned into museums of all sorts, hence dubbed the cultural center of Taiwan.
"We were colonised by the Japanese for 50 years (1895 - 1945) after being under the Qing Dynasty for 212 years, from 1683 - 1895, and if you notice, many of the building structures are similar to Japanese cultures," he said.
Taipei City, he explained is located on the Danshui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean.
The City is home to an estimated 7,156,904 people.
Taipei City, Taipei County, and Keelung City together form the Taipei metropolitan area with a population of 12,387,445.
However, they are administered under different local governing bodies.
"Taipei" sometimes refers to the whole metropolitan area, while "Taipei City" refers to the city itself.
Generally, Taiwan a subtropical country, has been blessed with four seasons, namely spring, summer, autumn and winter (which are however not as extreme as some other four-seasoned countries).
For those who have never been to Taiwan, or know little about the things happening there, they may think that everything that happens affects the whole country, for example typhoons and earthquakes that are a norm for the people there.
However, people should know one thing, that is when a disaster happens, it does not necessarily affect the whole place. For example the recent Megi Typhoon, where the part mostly affected was the Northeast of Taipei, and therefore areas far from it only had non-stop rain for a few days.
Railways, high speed rail, highways, airports, and bus lines connect Taipei with all parts of the island as it is part of a major industrial area.
The city is served by two airports - Taipei Songshan and Taiwan Taoyuan.
Currently, the few museums and cultural buildings that you can look forward to visiting when you come to Taipei include the National Palace Museum, The Taipei Fine Arts Museum, The Taiwan Folk Arts Museum, the Beitou Hot Spring museum, and the Jinguashi Museum of Gold.
The National Palace Museum houses over 600,000 ancient Chinese artifacts and has one of the largest collections of Chinese artifacts and artworks in the world.
According to Chinese legends and history, most of the artifacts in the Palace museum were brought to Taipei and divided in the 1940s as a result of the Chinese Civil War, when the emperor had to find a safer place to live, and thus brought all that he could with him.
Many of the artifacts there are chipped or cracked, but still well preserved, and have their own meanings and values brought from one dynasty to the next.
It should however not be confused with the Palace Museum in Beijing (which it is named after) as both institutions trace their origins to the same institution.
The Taipei Fine Arts Museum on the other hand was the first in Taiwan dedicated to modern art established in 1983. Located in a purpose-built building inspired by Japanese metabolism, the artworks in the museum (more than 3,000 pieces) are mostly done by Taiwanese artists after 1940.
During the Japanese Colonial Period, the building was originally a Japanese elementary school where only a handful of Taiwanese students were allowed to attend.
For those who love looking and learning about the Japanese and their lifestyle when they were out colonising half the region, the Taiwan Folk Arts Museum remains as a must visit place, as it is one of Taiwan's largest surviving Japanese-style wooden structures.
It was used as a Japanese Officers' club in 1945, but was converted into a rest house for the Japanese Kamikaze Squadron.
Everything about the building was built according to Japanese architecture, and there is also a wide room for warriors to have their 'last drink' while watching Geishas perform, before they leave for war the next day.
Another interesting feature of the building is the way the ceilings were constructed, where there are small openings between ceilings for people to hide their jewellery or important documents.
In 1945, after the retrocession of Taiwan, it was taken over by the Ministry of Foreign affairs and named Chia Shan Guest House, hosting various government dignitaries and foreign guests.
Further up, for those who enjoy hot baths and massages, they need to step into the Beitou Hot Springs Museum.
This hotspring was built in 1913, during the Japanese Colonial days as they were obsessed with hot springs during that time.
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