Keelung: Exploring Taipei

Taipei is about 18 miles from Keelung. One can drive or use a shared ride service, or take the bus, or take the train. While Mui initially thought to take an Uber, once we saw how close the Keelung South Station was to the cruise terminal, we changed our minds.

Ten minute-walk to the train station; a few minutes to purchase tickets … about USD $4 for the two of us. When we asked for directions to the correct platform, a young Taiwanese guy went out of his way to escort us there. Perfect timing … minutes later we were on the train … all the way to Taipei Main Station.

Once we de-trained, the young couple we’d been chatting with on the train insisted on helping us negotiate the station to get to the MRT (metro). They explained how to use the map above the ticket machine to figure out the fare we needed to pay, and once we had our tickets in hand, they escorted us to the platform entrance for the MRT’s Blue Line. Could we have figured it all out on our own. Sure. But by asking a simple question, we got help that took us through the whole process much faster … an important consideration since we had only about 4-5 hours to do our sightseeing before the attractions started shutting down.

The MRT ride from the Main Station to the Lonshan Temple stop was quick. The station was well signed and after a quick glance around, we figured out that we needed to take Exit 1 to go to the temple. But first, a quick stop to get more information at the kiosk. The young attendant pulled out a map and marked it up to show us how to get to each of the places of interest to us using the MRT. Excellent.

Outside the station, we found the sign pointing to the temple and walked the few short blocks to get there. Lonshan was built in 1738 by settlers from Fujian to honor Guanyin … the Buddha associated with compassion. The temple served not just as a place of worship, but also as a gathering place for the Chinese settlers. Over the years, the temple has been destroyed either in full or in part by numerous earthquakes, floods, and fires but the people of Taipei have rebuilt and renovated it each time. Most recently, it was hit by Allied bombers during WWII because the Japanese were reportedly using it to hide armaments there. Once again, the people rebuilt it.

I quite liked this temple because it was different from the many others we’ve visited in Asia thus far. It was in a park-like setting, with waterfalls on one side and a koi pond on the other. We strolled around the grounds, keeping in mind that we had a limited amount of time if we wanted to go to any of the other sites before they closed. We were all set to move on to the next place on our list when a chance encounter with fellow-passengers Ryan & Delonnie caused us to jiggle our plans and go to the National Palace Museum instead … the number one place to visit in Taipei.

We knew we could take the red line to the Shilin Station, but then we’d have to switch to a bus to get to the museum. Doable if we had more time. Which we didn’t. So, we went with the more expensive option and ordered an Uber. By 2:30p, tickets purchased, we were following Ryan’s suggestion to take the elevator to the fourth floor and walk our way down through the exhibits.

The National Palace Museum houses “treasures” — both art and archaeological artifacts — that Chiang Kai-shek brought from China when he came to Taiwan in exile. The collection, which consists of more than 700,000 pieces, spans 8,000 years of Chinese history … from the neolithic age to the modern period.

One look at the map … one step into the first of the many treasure-filled rooms. That’s all it took for us to figure out that we had to forego the rest of the places on our list in lieu of more time at the museum. We still rushed through the exhibits in the 2.5 hours we had before the museum closed at 5:00p, but at least we had time to digest some of what we saw.

We were almost ready to leave the museum when we ran into Younga & David. After discussing their plans and ours, we decided to hook up for what little time we had remaining in Taipei. The plan was to have their driver take us to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, which was scheduled to close at 6:00p. After that … well, we would let that part of our sightseeing play itself out.

The good news is that we got to the Memorial Hall. The bad news is that by this time it was pouring rain … strong and steady The worst news is that the hall was due to close in 10 minutes. The driver dropped us off at a side gate that was closer to the hall and we had just enough time to run inside and have a guard take a photo of us in front of an oversized photo of Chiang Kai-shek speaking to the crowds before the attendants started turning off the lights.

The Memorial Hall is a national monument erected in memory of the man for whom it’s named … the former President of Taiwan. It is surrounded by a park and is flanked on the north and south by the National Theater and National Concert Hall.

The hall has an octagonal roof … a shape that picks up the symbolism of the number eight, which is traditionally associated in China with abundance and good fortune. Two sets of 89-step stairs lead to the main entrance … the number of steps representing Chiang's age at the time of his death. In the chamber at the top of the stairs is a big statue of the man. On the ground level is a library and a museum documenting his life and career. Exhibits cover Taiwan’s history and development.

Although we couldn’t see anything of the interior of the Memorial Hall, the grounds were still open to the public. Despite the pouring rain, we climbed up the steps to the main entrance, took our photos, and descending once again, began the long walk to the main gate where the driver had said he would pick us up. On the way there, however, we had to stop for the flag ceremony. Not fun in the pouring rain … the jackets Oceania gave us proved to be less-than-waterproof.

It sure was good to have a vehicle to transport us back to Keelung instead of having to walk back to the train station and then ride the train practically soaked to the skin.Read more