Double Ten Day (National Day), Taipei, Taiwan, October 10 2004

Double Ten Day, Taipei
October 10, 2004
journal post

	We went to Taipei for the weekend to take in the celebrations for ROC's birthday. There is a lot of interesting political history behind this holiday. I hope you enjoy the photos!
		Our first stop on Saturday was the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. There was a large gathering of members of the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy preparing for tomorrow's celebrations. We were there just as the sun was setting, the Qigong people were practicing, and the guards were closing the big Memorial Hall. There was so much going on at once that I didn't even see Mark most of the time we were there.


	When it's time to close the Hall, the guards march from the hall to the middle of the huge courtyard to take down the flag. Everyone walks along with them, like idiots, and laughs nervously because it's so serious. I was walking towards the flagpole, not even looking when suddenly they stopped and turned in my direction (see pic to the left). It was the perfect photo op, but I wasn't at all ready for it.


	At night, there was a light show at the Hall, along with music. Mark was approached by some poor university students who have a mean English teacher who gave them an assignment to interview a foreigner.

Our next stop was the Taipei Tourist Night Market. We were lured by promises of freaky things, such as snake charmers, ancient Chinese medicine, and all sorts of food. We did see unusual things, but it wasn't as cool as I thought. Maybe I've been desensitized to freakish things. The market also had tourist souvenirs, which are hard to come by in Taiwan due to lack of touristy places- especially in central Taiwan.

	We came across this 'snake charmer'. Taiwanese like everything loud, so of course he had a microphone. Did you know that often Chinese teachers teach with a microphone? Anyway, behind him was his restaurant, I'm not sure what the purpose of the snake charming is- maybe it's to lure people to come eat there. Below is a picture of another display out front of a restaurant. I'm not sure what this is, maybe testicles of something?

Ok sorry about these two photos. Some people might consider them a little nasty. The guy on the right is a mean snake torturer. Those snakes, clipped together and hanging, are still alive. They are all slit open, but kept alive because many old fart men think that eating this will do them well. He had a sign saying 'no photos', but like I'm going to respect him. And below is some of the crazy medicine they have for sale at the market.

	Close to the night market is the Long Shan temple. This is the first time I've ever been to a temple at night. There were still quite a few people there at this time (way more than what I'm used to at the temples near Yuanlin). One thing I like about Chinese culture is that they don't get offended very easily. This guy praying while talking on his cell phone is no big deal. Neither is me taking a photo of him.

	The next day was the day of the big parade. It was the reason we decided to spend the weekend in Taipei, but to my great annoyance, we found that we couldn't actually see the famous parade- only special people were permitted to enter. We spent over an hour trying to find out if there was any place where it could be viewed, and no one (out of the thousands of police and military guarding the place) could answer our question. It was very frustrating, but one good thing that came out of it was that we were waiting outside the guarded perimeter before the parade, where all the performers were getting ready to go in. I took some photos of this man, and it turns out he's the famous gold medal Olympian, Chu Mu Yen, in Taekwondo for 'Chinese Taipei' (Taiwan). This is the first year that Taiwan has won a gold medal, and they even won 2 this year. The other gold medallist, also in Taekwondo, is Chen Shih Hsin, and she was in another jeep right beside where we were standing, but again, we had no idea who they were!


			Some of the kids were nervous, while some were goofing off. It was nice to see them this way, with no pushy crowds around. I am curious what the show was like- I guess I should have stayed at home like the other millions of people who celebrate Double 10 day by watching the parade on TV.


	Obligatory photo of myself.


		After giving up trying to get in to see the parade, we decided to go to the National Museum- Mark's favorite place on earth. Admission was free that day, either because 3/4 of it was closed because of construction, or because it was National Day. I think I would have preferred to pay though, because the crowd was immense. I don't have much to say about the museum, except I am so impressed with my new Nikon D70 camera. I can change the ISO to 1600 and take photos in very dark situations. Of course they don't turn out to be a photographic work of art, but at least it captures things I might want to remember, especially the precious jade cabbage carving as seen below: woohoo!

		We even had time to visit the world's tallest building, Taipei 101, along with the largest English bookstore in 'China', Page One Bookstore. And inside the mall is also the world's most expensive grocery store with $12 mustard and $9 cereal!

			If you made it this far, thanks for looking!