Taiwan Trip

This Easter Holiday my hostfamily took me on a trip to Taiwan for 4 days. We stayed in a hotel in Taipei and visited many places in and around Taipei.Here are some photos of my trip:

The building in the right picture is called "Taipei 101". It is the tallest building in Taiwan and one of the Top 10 talles buildings in the world.

One of my favourite places I have visited on this trip is a village called "Shifen". It is a remote village about 1.5h away from the center of Taipei by train. To get there we took a very old and slow train wich took us through a deep forest before we arrived.

Every hour the main road of the village needs to be cleard so that the train can pass the village.

These waterfalls can be found just a short walk away from the town.

This village is best known for the lantern-baloons which one can buy and write his wishes on.

Other great places we visited include the "National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine" which was buildt as a memorial for the fallen soldiers of the chinese civil war.

The brown stripes on floor in the first picture are due to the patrolling guards who walk the same route every hour to change shifts.

The suquare in the picture above is called "Freedom Plaza". It was built in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, a former president of Taiwan.

This is a picture of the hall in which a large statue of the before mentioned president is on display.

Me and myhostfamily visited the famous "Grand Hotel" in Taipei.

We also visited the "National Palace Museum" which is where all the valuable items wich used to be in the Forbidden City are displayed. The most important piece in the museum's collection is called "Jade Cabbage with Insect". It is extrordinary because the artist who made this piece used the natural colour of the jade to imitate the look of the typical chinese vegetable "Pak Choi". A poem posted next to this piece read:

"How fortunate we are

To share a commoon memory of beauty

even one originally not so perfect

One half green,  the other half white

the craftsman thought out of the box

He created a fresh and luscious cabbage

where fractures are not imperfections

but veins where moisture flows

and spot no defects

but delectable  dew drops

Planted deep in the palace

it needn't compete with other jewls

only wishing eternal purity and many descendants

to relish and enjoy this life"