As part of our diplomatic balancing act, we felt that if we visited Beijing, we had to visit Taipei. Actually, we are fortunate to have friends serving in both places and our friend Quan joined Liz and me as we went to see my old work colleague Hanscom, from my time in the Economic Section in Bangkok. Hanscom and his partner, Eric, were kind enough to put us up over Hanscom’s last weekend in Taiwan before heading to the U.S. for training for his upcoming tour in Iraq. I imagine he might experience a slight change in quality of life over the next year.
Anyway, I think that Taipei gets rather overlooked when people (read: me) think about Asia. It doesn’t have the pizzazz of Shanghai, the exoticness of Bangkok (although, frankly, after recent events, Bangkok needs a lot more normality and a lot less mystery), or the history of Siem Reap. It’s a working city in an industrialized, island nation. Lots of neon at night gives it color, though by day it doesn’t dazzle. Nevertheless, I think that quality of life is quite high. And for our 60 or so hours on the ground, we really enjoyed ourselves.
Taipei’s skyline (with one notable exception) is unremarkable, though the low mountains that surround the city give it a nice green background, when visible through the haze. With about 2 million people, it’s a big, but not a mega-city, and its modern infrastructure (and blessedly wide and uncluttered sidewalks) made it easy to get around. Like Beijing, English language skills are somewhat lacking, though we saw several English language academies and met several friends of Hanscom and Eric living in Taipei teaching English. Limited linguistic familiarity has not stopped Taiwan from importing almost every U.S. franchise in existence, and we passed by such stalwarts as “Macaroni Grill” as we strolled along the high-rent district.
Taipei 101, also referred to as “the bird’s nest”, due its unique design, truly towers over the rest of Taipei. While Shanghai’s mega-structures cluster together in bunches like karst peaks in a steep sloped mountain chain, Taipei 101 (which gets its name from its 101 stories) has no competition among the scattered 30-40 story hillocks. For about 6 years, until recently displaced by the Burj in Dubai, Taipei 101 ruled as the tallest building in the world. Liz and I took the world’s fastest elevator (or so we were told) to the 88th floor where we gazed out into the . . . mist. Sadly, it was a foggy day and we only had a great view of our fellow tourists. I did, however, buy a giant commemorative Taipei 101 pencil, so not all was lost.
Quan, Liz and I also took a 30 minute taxi-ride to see the National Palace Museum, which contains a huge collection of antiquities the Kuomintang brought with them to Taipei when they fled the mainland in 1949. It was filled to the brim with tour groups of middle-aged Taiwanese and mainland Chinese visitors. I’m not one to get between a people and their heritage, but, apparently, that’s what I was doing, as these groups had no compunction shoving me aside in the rush to view such wonders as the “Jade Cabbage.” In a museum filled with elegant Ming vases, striking Qing calligraphy, and creative Han bronze work, the museum had to set up special lines to see a gemstone carved like a vegetable. To be fair, it was quite well-carved and certainly unique – fist sized, with a green base and white leaves. But, it was a cabbage. Anyway, I was intrigued by what I call the professional “shushers” employed by the museum, suit clad men and women who would walk around and hold up a red sign whenever the pods of retirees, overcome by excitement, would get too loud. I am proud to say that neither Liz nor I were shushed at any time during our stay.
Of course, busy tourists need a break from the hectic pace of temple-hopping and museum-stopping, so we joined Hanscom and Eric for an afternoon at a local hot spring. A good hot soak later we were ready to eat. Taiwan has a great reputation for food, which had absolutely nothing to do with our decision to visit. Though we weren’t there long enough to enjoy many meals, we enjoyed what we ate, including spicy Shaanxi cuisine and tasty dishes from Yunnan. Strangely, we actually didn’t try any local delicacies, though we ate Taiwanese dumplings while in Beijing.
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