Category Archives: SPECIAL TOPICS

Church of St. Dominic of Guzman (Sto. Domingo, Albay)

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Church of St. Dominic Guzman

First built in 1785 with wood and basag (bamboo splits), the second church was built with lava blocks in 1789 and completed in 1832.  Built with forced labor, during its construction, a mixture of lime, egg albumin and tangguli (molasses) was used to bind its massive stone walls. Burned in 1882, the present picturesque Church of St. Dominic Guzman was built with piedras ladradas, chiseled balustrades and twin domes.

The church’s Baroque facade

AUTHOR’S NOTES:

The church’s Baroque façade has a semicircular arched main entrance flanked by rectangular windows and two bell towers with dome-shaped roofs, giving it a graceful symmetry.  On the second level is a centrally located statued niche flanked by two occoli while the triangular pediment’s tympanum also has an occoli.

The church’s modern interior

Church of St. Dominic of Guzman: Tel: (052) 258-7111. Feast of St. Dominic of Guzman: August 4.

How to Get There: Sto. Domingo is located 469 kms. (a 9.25-hour drive) from Manila and 11.5 kms. (a 19-min. drive) northeast of Legaspi City.

Hwahsi Tourist Night Market (Taipei City, Taiwan)

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From Longshan Temple, Jandy, Isha and I walked, a few streets away, to a nearby night market to do some souvenir shopping.  A well-lit Chinese-style arch pointed us to an excellent night market divided into two segments. We went to the part of the market with the roof called Snake Alley a.k.a. the Hwahsi Street Tourist Night Market, said to be the oldest night market in Taipei. The surrounding area is the local market. Night markets are listed among Taiwan’s most popular tourist spots.

Gateway to Hwahsi Tourist Night Market

The “Tourist” in the official name is something of a misnomer as the market is a bit overrated and can be a bit creepy, if you are not into snakes or exotic foods.  One store had one of these huge writhing, white and yellow serpents at their shopfront (the snake handler cum store owner, however, didn’t allow me to take pictures).  Snake meat, according to traditional Chinese lore, have health (and libido) enhancing properties (something to do with this reptile’s impressive length).  Before its conversion into a night market, Snake Alley used to be notorious for its prostitution (banned since the 1990’s).

Its no surprise that snake meat (and snake blood, bile or sperm is mixed with a local liquor called gao liang) is served up as dinner at rows of eateries within the market. These eateries also serve red bean soup, Taiwanese-style muah chee, danzi noodles (also called tan tsai noodles), thick cuttlefish soup, eel noodles, shrimp in wine, grilled Taiwanese sausages, etc. There are also eateries serving even more unusual and “special” (and controversial) turtle meat and soup, stir-fried mouse as well as crocodile meat. Truly a place for people who live by the motto “I’ll try anything at least once.”  It just so happen that we weren’t one of those people.

Apart from the eateries, the night market is actually just one row of shops selling bags, cheap watches, hats, DVD and VCD movies, and souvenir items such as fans, place mats, key chains, Buddha figurines,brass sculptures,  jade amulets, etc.  Isha bought some these souvenir items as gifts for friends back home.  I bought a number of brass key chains.  There were also shops selling sex toys as well as kinky key chains (some were smaller, brass key chain versions of the wooden Ifugao barrel man, a man in a barrel which, when lifted, triggers a spring that releases a penis).  There were also a number of legitimate massage parlors (offering foot, half body or whole body massages) and stores where artists sell their paintings.

Kinky brass key chains

Having finished our souvenir shopping, we took a taxi and dropped off at the first MacDonald’s outlet we saw.  After another burger dinner here, we all boarded another taxi, dropping off Isha at her hotel before proceeding to the Gala Hotel.  It was now very late in the evening and, quite tired from a fruitful day of sightseeing and shopping, decided to call it a night.

Hwahsi Street Tourist Night Market: Hwahsi St., Wanghwa District, Taipei, Taiwan. Tel: (+886-2) 2336-9781. Open daily, 7 PM-2 AM.

How to Get There: from Taipei Main Station on the Blue Line, go two stops west to the Longshan Temple MRT. Come out  Exit 1 and take a right.

Mengjia Longshan Temple (Taipei City, Taiwan)

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From Taipei 101, Jandy, Isha and I again walked to the Taipei City Hall MRT Station where we boarded the MRT to Longshan MRT Station.  It was just about dusk when we arrived at the station.  Before exiting, we all bought cups of coffee for take out and, upon exiting, leisurely sipped it while watching a Chinese dance being performed, beside the fountain, at Manka Park.

Gateway of Mengjia Longshan Temple

After finishing our coffee, we all walked over to the Mengjia Longshan (also spelled as Lungshan) Temple in front of the park, one of Taiwan’s most important places of worship.  Surrounding the temple are antique shops, Buddhists article shops, fortune tellers, traditional Chinese medicine shops and paper stores selling paper products that are burned for the deceased.

Waterfall of Cleaning Your Heart

Built in 1738 (during the Qing Dynasty), on a much smaller scale, as the spiritual center of Han settlers from the Jinjiang, Nan’an and Hui’an districts of Quanzhou County, Fujian, China, the temple has been destroyed, either in full or in part, by numerous earthquakes and fires. Nevertheless, Taipei residents have consistently rebuilt and renovated it. From 1919-1924, it was renovated, in large scale,  under the direction of famous architect Wang Yi-shun, a master of temple building in Fukien.

The Fore (or Front) Hall

On June 8, 1945, during World War II,  it was hit by American bombers, who claimed that the Japanese were hiding armaments inside. The whole main hall and a part of the right annex were damaged and many precious artifacts and artworks were lost in the ensuing fire. The fire somehow  missed the statue of Avalokiteshvara (in Sanskrit) or Guanyin (short for Guanshiyin which means “observing the sounds of the world”), the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy (only her toes were singed), even though the iron railing around her melted.  After the end of the war, a few months later, the temple was again rebuilt.

The main deity Guanyin with 2 bodhisattvas (Manjusri at the left and Samantabhadra on the right)

On August 19, 1985, Longshan Temple was designated as Taipei City’s fourth official historical site (after the Chang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, National Palace Museum and Taipei 101). The temple, one of the oldest and largest in Taiwan, has also been declared a Secondary National Heritage Site.

The temple courtyard packed with worshipers

We entered the temple’s gateway and, at the courtyard, noticed a small, man-made waterfall (the Waterfall of Cleaning Your Heart)  on one side and a lucky dragon fountain on the other.  The temple was already packed with locals either praying, reciting religious chants, lighting candles or burning incense sticks. They worship a  mixture of Buddhist, Taoist and folk deities such as Guanyin (also called Kuan-in), the main deity, Buddha, Matsu and other divine spirits. Thus, it is often called “meeting place of the gods” for the wealth of deities worshipped here. We didn’t see any Western tourists.

A bronze dragon pillar, the only one of its kind in Taiwan

The resplendent Longshan Temple,  with southern Chinese influences commonly seen in older buildings, is an emblematic example of Taiwanese Classical architecture.  Facing the south and mixing traditional Chinese siheyuan (“four-building courtyard”) with palace architecture in its design, it has a fore hall, main hall, a rear hall (added around the end of the 18th century) and a left and right wing.

Yuan Tung Grand Hall, the main hall

The Yuan-Tung Grand Hall, the main hall, is the center of the whole complex.  It houses the statue of Guanyin. The rear hall is divided into 3 parts.  The center is for the veneration of Matsu, the goddess of marine voyage, the left is dedicated to the gods of literature (or patrons of examination for civil service in the olden days) and the right is for Lord Kuan, the god of war.

The Rear Hall

The octagonal ceiling in its fore hall, the clock tower roof, and the circular ceiling (with its 7-layered spiral plafond) in the main hall are exceptionally elegant.  Its doors, beams and poles are also beautifully decorated.

Exquisite and elaborate carvings

A treasure trove of folk art, its fore hall is graced by a pair of unique bronze dragon pillars while the main hall has four pairs.  The walls and ceilings are covered by exquisitely delicate sculptures as well as many Chinese poems, verses and lyrics on signs, adding a touch of literature. The temple walls are graced with paintings of vivid creatures while stone statues of mystical creatures guard the temple grounds.  The wall and the roof  are joined without the use any nails or braces made of metal.

A phoenix figure on roof edge

The temple roof, representing the pinnacle of mosaic art in Taiwan, is covered with overlapping tiles and is decorated with figures of dragons, phoenixes and other auspicious creatures, all decorated with porcelain, clay, and shards of colored glass.

Drum Tower (West)

Bell Tower (East)

Two 2-storey buildings, one housing the bell on the east and a drum on the west side of the courtyard, between the fore hall and the main hall, have conic, hexagonal roofs with double eaves that forms a converse “S” curve, the first such roof design in Taiwan.

Mengjia Longshan Temple: 211 Guangzhou St., Old Town Center, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan.  Tel: (+886-2) 2302-5162. Website: http://www.lungshan.org.tw. Open daily, 6 AM-10:20 PM. Admission is free.

The Taipei 101 Building (Taiwan)

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The rain had stopped when we returned to the mall and, after snacks at a MacDonald’s outlet at Jason’s Marketplace, the mall’s 1,000-pax basement foodcourt, Jandy, Isha and I exited the building to avail of this window of opportunity.  We all walked, some distance, to a nearby park to appreciate the enormity and grandeur of the 357,721 sq. m. Taipei 101, the first record-setting skyscraper to be constructed in the 21st century. From afar, its repeated segments and inclined  tiers simultaneously recall the rhythms of an Asian pagoda, a tower linking earth and sky (also evoked in the Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)’ a stalk of bamboo, an icon of learning and growth (also emphasized by  its blue green-tinted windows) or a stack of ancient Chinese ingots or money boxes, a symbol of abundance.

Our worm’s eye view of Taipei 101 Building

In 2004 (until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010), Taipei 101, formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center (until 2003), was officially ranked as the world’s tallest  building, displacing the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (check out my visit here at http://worldstotrek.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/kuala-lumpur-new-years-day/), by 56.1 m (184 ft).  It also displaced the 85-storey, 347.5 m. (1,140 ft.) high Tuntex Sky Tower in Kaohsiung as the tallest building in Taiwan and the 51-storey, 244.2 m. (801 ft.) high Shin Kong Life Tower as the tallest building in Taipei. That same year, it also  received the Emporis Skyscraper Award. In July 2011, the building was awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED Platinum certification, becoming the tallest and largest green building in the world.  Its own roof and façade recycled water system meets 20–30% of the building’s water needs.

Curled ruyi figures, appearing throughout the structure as a design motif, are ancient symbols associated with heavenly clouds that connote healing, protection and fulfillment. Each ruyi ornament on the exterior of the Taipei 101 tower stands at least 8 m. (26 ft.) tall.

An icon of modern Taiwan ever since its opening, the structure appears frequently in travel literature and international media.  Taipei 101 was designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and  constructed primarily by Samsung C&T and KTRT Joint Venture.   It  comprises 106 floors, 101 above ground and 5 floors underground.

The circular motif, the “zero” in Taipei 101, is also the shape of a traditional Chinese coin, a potent symbol of wealth

Architecturally created as a symbol of the evolution of technology and Asian tradition, this building’s Post Modernist approach to style incorporates traditional design elements and gives them modern treatments. Designed to withstand typhoon and earthquakes, Taipei 101, upon its completion, claimed the official records for:

  • Ground to highest architectural structure (spire): 508 m. (1,667 ft.). Previously held by the Petronas Towers 451.9 m. (1,483 ft.), the record  now rests with the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (UAE): 828 m (2,717 ft).
  • Ground to roof: 449.2 m. (1,474 ft.). Formerly held by the Willis Tower‘s 442 m (1,450 ft), the record briefly passed to the Shanghai World Financial Center in 2009 which, in turn, yielded it to the Burj Khalifa.
  • Ground to highest occupied floor: 438 m. (1,437 ft.). Formerly held by the Willis Tower 412.4 m. (1,353 ft.), the record also briefly passed to the Shanghai World Financial Center and then to the Burj Khalifa. .
  • Fastest ascending elevator speed: designed to be 1,010 m. per min., which is 16.83 m./sec. (55.22 ft./sec.) (60.6 kms./hr., 37.7 miles/hr.),  34.7% faster than the 12.5 m. (41 ft) per second (45.0 kms./hr., 28 mile/hr.) speed of Yokohama Landmark Towers‘ elevator, the previous record holder.
  • Largest countdown clock which was displayed on New Year’s Eve (fireworks launched from Taipei 101 also feature prominently in international New Year’s Eve broadcasts).
  • Tallest sundial: The  design of  circular Millennium Park, which adjoins Taipei 101 on the east, allows it to double as the face of a sundial. The tower itself casts the shadow to indicate afternoon hours for the building’s occupants.
  • Taipei 101 is the first building in the world to break the half-kilometer mark in height.

Taipei 101: Xin Yi Rd., Xin Yi District, Taipei City, Taiwan. Tel: (+886-2) 8101-7777. Website: http://www.taipei-101.com.tw.

Treasure Sky (Taipei City, Taiwan)

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As we exited the Taipei 101’s Tuned Mass Damper, Jandy, Isha and I passed through the Treasure Sky showroom on the 88th floor, the world’s highest jewelry arts boutique (438 m.).  It showcases art pieces made from Taiwan’s coral gemstones (momo, oxblood, pink, white), blue chalcedony, jade and other gemstones such as amethyst.   Three famed gemstones are found in eastern Taiwan – hornblende (commonly known as Taiwan jade), blue chalcedony and red coral. In the 1960s and 1970s, Taiwan hornblende held a 90% share of the global jade market.

Treasure Sky

Taiwan has been given the name of “Coral Kingdom” as more than 80% of the world’s coral gemstones come from Taiwan. The boutique’s Coral Arts Gallery houses the world’s tallest gemstone coral tree, with 6 shrimp fossils and measuring 141 cm. in height and 131 cm. in width. It was found northeast of Taiwan, from 200 m. below the Pacific Ocean. Also on display in this gallery are exclusive artworks made with authentic coral gemstones, revealing the sophisticated beauty of coral. Gemstone corals take 10 years to grow 1 cm..

The world’s tallest gemstone coral tree

Oxblood (a.k.a. red coral, Corallium rubrum),  long treasured as a symbol of dignity and felicity in traditional Chinese culture, is the most rare and precious of the coral gemstones and its durable and intensely colored red or pink skeleton makes it a highly sought-after material in jewelry manufacture.  It is dark red in color with white veins and a translucent kind of sheen. Only 3 countries (Italy, Japan and Taiwan) in the world produce red coral jewelry. The boutique claims to have the world’s largest oxblood coral necklace.

Chinese Dragon (momo coral)

Double the Fortune (momo coral)

Happy Buddha (momo coral)

Rich and Fortune (momo coral)

Seven Fairies (momo coral)

The Tree of Wealth (momo coral)

The Wonderland (momo coral)

The Tree of Fortune (momo coral)

Momo coral are larger and more suitable for carved artworks. Colors vary from pink, orange to dark red. Pink coral exists in the deepest part of the ocean and their colors can be faint pink or spotted pink. Due to water pressure, when corals are taken from such depths, certain lines will naturally form on the surface.  White coral, found in the eastern part of Taiwan, is naturally white in color.

Taiwan Jade

Taiwan’s blue chalcedony,  distributed over ranges in Hualien and Taitung, are the world’s most beautiful “natural” specimen of the quartz. Unlike blues from abroad, Taiwan’s stones do not need heat treatment to improve their color and they naturally possess a pure luster and clarity, which make them the darlings of Japanese collectors.

From Treasure Sky, we next proceeded to the elevator lobby where we again queued up for our turn at the passenger elevators.  This time, we made it to the 5th floor, again via high-speed elevator, in a much longer 57 secs..

Treasure Sky: 88/F, No. 7, Section 5, Taipei 101, Xin Yi Rd., Taipei City, Taiwan.  Tel: (+886-2) 8101-1128.  Fax: (+886-2) 8101-1158.  Website: www.cljewels.com.

Taipei 101 Tuned Mass Damper (Taiwan)

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From the Inner Observatory, Jandy, Isha and I proceeded to see Taipei 101’s much publicized, massive Tuned Mass Damper (TMD).   Also called a harmonic absorber, a tuned mass damper is a device mounted in structures to reduce the amplitude of mechanical vibrations, moving in opposition to the resonance frequency oscillations of the structure by means of springs, fluid or pendulums. Their application can prevent discomfort, damage or outright structural failure. Taipei 101’s TMD was specially designed to reduce movement caused by strong gusts of wind.  This motion can be in the form of swaying or twisting, and can cause its upper floors to move more than a meter. Certain angles of wind and aerodynamic properties of a building can accentuate the movement and cause motion sickness  in people.

Isha trying out the Interactive Hallway

On our way to the TMD’s interior viewing platform, we were entertained by a dimly-lit interactive hallway where clouds cleared as we stepped on them, revealing a satellite top view of Taipei City. Once inside the platform, we espied the much hyped up, sphere-shaped mass block/wind vibration damper  suspended from the 92nd floor to the 87th floor by 8 steel cables.  Measuring 42 m. in length and 9 cm. in width, each cable is comprised of over 2,000 smaller cables to ensure flexibility and durability. A tuning frame supports the suspended steel cables, monitoring building vibration and adjusting cable movement to regularize building movement and optimize damping. The TMD cuts building vibration by up to 40% and can, on occasion, move by as much as 35 cm., moving with the building at the rate of one oscillation every 7 secs..

The Tuned Mass Damper

Taipei 101’s TMD, the largest, heaviest and only publicly visible damper sphere in the world, consists of 41 circular steel plates, each with a height of 125 mm. (4.92 in.) being welded together to form a 5.5 m. (18 ft.) diameter sphere.  It has a gross weight of 660 metric tons (728 short tons). The TMD was designed, manufactured and constructed by Motioneering, Inc. (Canada), at a cost of NT$132 million (US$4 million), while Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers along with Evergreen Consulting Engineering, Inc. were responsible for the overall structural design.The pinnacle, at 450-508 m. in height, features 2 smaller TMD units of 6 tons  (7 short tons) apiece. The pinnacle may oscillate up to 180,000 times a year due to strong wind loads.

Again posing with another Damper Baby mascot

Beneath the TMD, a specially designed bumper system of 8 primary hydraulic viscous dampers automatically absorbs  and dissipates vibration impacts, particularly during major typhoons or earthquakes where movement may exceed 150 cm. The TMD’s movements are not always visible.

The Taipei Metro (Taiwan)

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After our short visit at Shandao Temple, Jandy, Isha and I now entered the Shandao Temple MRT Station where we plan, for the first time, to try out the Taipei Metro, more commonly known as the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit or Metro Rail Transit) or formally as the Taipei Rapid Transit System, to get to Taipei City Hall, the gateway to the iconic Taipei 101 Building.

Shandao Temple Station Entrance

This rapid transit system, Taiwan’s first metro system, was built and operated by the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) and it first began operations on March 28, 1996.  It consists of 96 stations and 110.1 kms. (68.4 miles) of revenue track. The system, an essential part of life in Taipei, carried an average of over 1.66 million passengers per day in December 2011.

Token vending machines

The Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) System operates in all 69 stations of the network. We  purchased our IC Single Journey RFID (radio frequency identification) tokens (in our case, blue as we were traveling along the Blue Line) from a token vending machine (NT$30 each).    They are valid only on the day of purchase.  These tokens replaced the existing magnetic single journey cards in 2007 (turnstiles were also replaced with speed gates during this time). We then have our tokens scanned at the speed gates to enter the station.  Upon reaching Taipei City Hall Station, our tokens were retrieved, again at the speed gates, once we exited the station.

IC Single Journey RFID token

The MRT system operates daily, from 6 AM to midnight, with extended services during special events such as New Year festivities. The trains operate at intervals of 1.5 to 15 mins., depending on the line and time of day. Stations become extremely crowded during rush hours, especially at transfer stations such as Taipei Main Station, Zhongxiao Fuxing Station and Minquan West Rd.

Station speed gates

Automated station announcements are recorded in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka and English. High-traffic stations, including Taipei Main Station, Zhongxiao Fuxing Station and Taipei City Hall Station, have platform gates to prevent passengers and other objects from falling onto the rails.

Taipei City Hall MRT Station

Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC): 7, Lane 48, Sec. 2, Zhongshan North Rd., 10448, Taipei City, Taiwan. Tel: (+886-2) 2536-3001.  Fax: (+886-2) 2511-5003. Website: http://english.trtc.com.tw

Taipei National Palace Museum (Taiwan)

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After our visit to the Revolutionary Martyr’s Shrine, we were next driven to the Taiwan Handicraft Promotion Center for some souvenir shopping.  On sale were porcelain, cloisonne, oil paper umbrellas, painted fans, wood carvings, crystal, etc.  Reto, Gabriella, Jandy and I just browse around while Isha bought some souvenir gifts for her friends.

Taipei National Palace Museum

We next proceeded to the final destination in our half-day city tour – the 198-acre Taipei National Palace Museum.  The national museum of Taiwan, it houses one of the world’s largest and most valuable collection of Chinese art treasures, with over 677,687 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks, most of them high-quality pieces from the Chinese imperial collection of China’s ancient emperors, began over 1,000 years ago in the early Song Dynasty.  The collection encompasses over 8,000 years of Chinese history,  from the Neolithic Age to the late Qing Dynasty.

Taipei National Palace Museum

As it was a weekend, the museum was packed with visitors and we had to queue in line.  We weren’t allowed to take photos of the collection.  Donning our headphones, Mr. Pang gave us interesting descriptions of the 1,700 artifacts on display which, incidentally, is only 1% of the total collection which numbers some 93,000 items of Chinese calligraphy, porcelain,  6,044 cast bronzes,  5,200 scroll paintings, 12,104 pieces of jade, 3,200 examples of lacquer and enamel ware, figurines, assorted carvings, fans, rubbings, coins, textiles and many other artifacts from Beijing’s Forbidden City as well as 562,000 rare, traditional books and documents. The rest of the collection is stored in temperature-controlled basement vaults. The displays are rotated once every 3 months, which means 60,000 pieces can be viewed in a year but it would take us nearly 12 years to see them all.

L-R: Jandy, Gabriella, Reto and Isha

The most famous and notable pieces on display at the museum are the Jadeite Cabbage (part of the dowry of the Qing Dynasty concubine Jin), the Meat-Shaped Stone, Agate Finger Citrons, White Jade Branch of Elegant Lychee, T’ien-huang Stone Miniature Mountain, the Jiu Manzhou Dang (a set of Manchu archives), the Carved Olive-stone Boat, the Jadeite Screen Insert and “One Hundred Horses,” a painting done in 1728 by Giuseppe Castiglione.

During the civil war, these important treasures were transferred, in 2,972 boxes, to Taiwan to evade damage.  This transition brought the re-establishment of the National Palace Museum (it was first called Chungsan Museum).  Designed by Huang Baoyu, its construction was started in 1962 and the museum was inaugurated on November 12, 1965, the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925).

A sitting statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen

The museum has 4 floors, the first, second and third floors are used for exhibitions while the fourth floor is a lounge where visitors can rest.  On the left side of the museum hall is the Chih-shan Garden (showcases many of the elements of traditional Chinese gardening art) while on the right is the Chih-te Garden. Also part of the Taipei National Palace Museum is the Chang Dai-ch’ien Memorial Residence, the home of the celebrated painter Chang Dai-ch’ien (1901-1984).

Taiwan Handicraft Promotion Center: No.1 Hsu Chow Rd., Taipei, Taiwan. Tel：(+886-2) 2393-3655.　Fax: (+886-2) 2393-7330. Email: thpc@handicraft.org.tw.  Website: www.handicraft.org.tw.

National Palace Museum: No.221, Sec. 2, Zhishan Rd., Shilin District, Taipei City 11143, Taiwan. Tel: (+886-2) 2881-2021. Website: www.npm.gov.tw. Open daily, 9 AM-5 PM. Admission: NT$160.

How to Get There: take the MRT Danshui Line to the Shilin Station then take bus R30 (Red 30 – Low-floor bus) to the National Palace Museum. Other routes that will take you to and near the Museum plaza are buses 255, 304, 815 (Sanchung – NPM Line), Minibus 18 and Minibus 19.

You can also take the MRT Wenhu Line to the Dazhi Station then take bus B13 (Brown 13) to the National Palace Museum, alighting before the Front Facade Plaza of the Museum. Alternatively, visitors may choose to take the Wenhu Line and get off at Jiannan Rd. Station, then take bus B20 (Brown 20) to NPM’s front entrance (Main Building).

Taipei Story House (Taiwan)

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Immediately adjacent to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum is the half-timbered Taipei Story House (old name Yuanshan Mansion), the only faux Tudor-style heritage building in Taiwan.  Built on the Yuanshan section of the Keelung River from1913–14 by Chen Chao-chun, a Dadaocheng tea merchant, it was originally a guest house for rich merchants and other important local people.   In 1998, the Taipei City Government designated this building as a Heritage Site and, in 2003, Miss K.C. Chen sponsored the establishment of Taipei Story House as a mini-museum to showcase historic cultural life in Taiwan, as well as to promote the re-use of historical buildings.

Taipei Story House

The ground floor is built of load-bearing brick while the upper floor is made of wood with English Tudor-style beams and woven branches on the exterior wall.  The staircase was constructed to look like a pagoda. The entrance portico is in the Classical style with Ionic columns.  The Gothic-style house tower and chimney are made of brick, and the curved gable is covered with bronze tiles, on which the verdigris caused by aging reveals the trace of time.

The Gothic-style tower

The tower above the entrance is inlaid with green, yellow and red-stained glass. Inside the house are two fireplaces and Art Nouveau tiles featuring natural and floral patterns. The overall configuration of the interior space, together with the outdoor balconies and terraces, exhibit a Classic style and are closely integrated with the surrounding landscape.

The European-style garden

The European-style garden, consisting of more than one hundred kinds of flowers, has a pond, red brick dwarf wall and curved paths.  Now a museum, it has exhibits related to tea and local history. Also within the grounds is the Story Tea House, a chic French fine dining restaurant opened in 2003 and operated by The Landis Taipei Hotel group.  We climbed up its view deck for a bird’s eye view of the complex.

Story Tea House

Our visit to Taipei Story House capped our walking tour of the city and, quite tired from all that walking, opted to take our first Taipei taxi ride (NT$100) back to the hotel. Later in the evening, we again had dinner, also along Changchun Rd., this time at a Burger King outlet.  Our half-day city was scheduled the next day.

Taipei Story House: 181-1 Zhongshan North Rd., Section 3, Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan.  Tel: (+886-2) 2587-5565. E-mail: story@storyhouse.com.tw. Website: www.storyhouse.com.tw. Open Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 AM-5:30 PM.  Admission: NT$50 (adults) and NT$40 (students and groups of 10+).  Free admission for children under 6 years of age, seniors over 65, and disabled person with one companion.

Story Tea House: Open daily, 11 AM-7 PM (11 AM-9 PM, Saturdays and Sundays).  Tel: (+886-2) 2586-8628.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Taiwan)

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From the Lin An Tai Historical House & Museum, Jandy and I proceeded to a 7-Eleven outlet for some ice cream before making our way to the 6-storey, 20,442 sq. m. Taipei Fine Arts Museum.  Shaped like a pound sign, it is a traditional siheyuan courtyard with a modern edge and its shape plus the creative sculptures (notably Ju Ming’s “Taichi Arch” and Lee Tsai-chien’s “Homerun”) in front made the museum easy for us to identify from afar.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Opened on December 24, 1983, it was the first purpose-built museum in Taiwan to host modern and contemporary art exhibitions.The museum has an actual constructed exhibition area of 11,741 sq. m. with more than 4000 pieces of art works. It consists of 24 galleries and is said to be larger than the National Palace Museum in terms of interior space. The art exhibits, which include the work of international and Taiwanese artists, change every few months.

Lee Tsai-chien’s “Homerun”

Each building floor has different arrangements, with the second floor displaying permanent collections while the third floor displays theme exhibitions. The basement is organized into 4 zones (D, E, F and G) for exhibitions and major art competitions.

Suspended gallery

Symmetrical and suspended gallery spaces are spread on each floor to form a new space where visitors can view and appreciate art. The grand windows also allow museum visitors to take in the beauteous views that overlook Yuan Shan, the Fine Arts Park Area and the surrounding environments. The building also houses audio rooms, art classrooms, gift shop (sells artwork and numerous souvenirs) and a library.

Another suspended gallery, this time glass-encased

The museum’s architecture, a local adaption of the Japanese Metabolist Movement (espouses large scale, flexible and expandable structures that evoked the processes of organic growth), is infused with elements borrowed from traditional Chinese architecture, which are presented via the structure of piled brackets in the form of suspended corridors, that, together, form a tubular-shaped composition. This tube-shape is identical to the Chinese character for “fountain,” hence fostering the museum’s analogue as a live source of culture. The task of designing and construction was given over to local architect Kao Er-Pan.

The Julian Rosefeldt “World Making” solo show

We didn’t view the paid exhibits but I did visit Julian Rosefeldt‘s  “World Making,” a free solo show of this much celebrated contemporary German new-media artist’s lavishly-produced 16 mm. and 35 mm. films and photo works (2001-2011).  Projected onto several screens to create a panorama-like effect, his films carry the viewer off into a surreal, theatrical world whose inhabitants are caught in the structures and rituals of everyday life.

The museum library

Taipei Fine Arts Museum: 181 Zhongshan North Road, Section 3, Zhongshan District, 10461 Taipei City, Taiwan.  Tel: (+886-2) 2595-7656. Fax: (+886-2) 2594-4104.  E-mail: info@tfam.gov.tw.  Website: www.tfam.taipei.gov.tw. Open Tuesdays-Sundays, 9:30 AM-5:30 PM (8:30 PM on Saturdays).  Admission: NT$30 (for adults) and NT$15 (discounted), 30% discount for group with more than 20 members.

How to Get There: Bus routes 203, 218, 220, 260, 277, 279, 310, 40, 42, 612, all exit at Taipei Fine Arts Museum station.  Via MRT, take the Danshui line and exit Yuanshan Station.  From here, it is a 5 min. walk to the museum.