[RD] Discovering Taiwan

[warpus]

Chimei Museum (奇美博物館)

This private museum was established in 1992 by Taiwanese businessman Shi Wen-long, the owner of many of the museum's exhibits. His stated objective was to make world class collections accessible to locals.

Chimei Museum is known for containing one of the world's largest and most comprehensive violin collections, as well as an impressive collection of European weaponry and armour. There are other exhibits of note here, including exhibits of fossils and natural history artifacts from around the globe, as well as European art from the 13th - 20th centuries.

The museum and the Tainan high-speed rail station are about 10km away from each other, but they have great highway and rail connections. The uber ride to the museum took about 15 minutes. There is also a convenient rail link, if you don't mind waiting a bit longer.

 

[warpus]

Chimei Museum Exhibits

The museum contains a stunning collection of older weaponry & armour in very good condition. I'm not an expert, but I was impressed with the variety and condition of items on display, covering at least three of the continents. A great place to see interesting weapons and assorted equipment and garments from a great cross-section of cultures, regions, and civilizations such as Japanese, Indian, Persian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, African, Chinese, and of course the already stated focus on medieval European equipment.

Lots of guns, swords, katanas, helmets, and all sorts of weapons and equipment you can imagine covering a large crossection of human history. A truly impressive collection.

The natural history & fossils exhibition is worth a mention too

The museum complex itself is beautiful from the inside and outside

 

[warpus]

Rainbow Light Tunnel

A rainbow light tunnel designed to demonstrate the properties of light and colour can be found adjacent to one of the painting exhibits.

The paintings at the museum have a heavy European focus and cover medieval to modern paintings.. A lot of very impressive art on the display by artists like Caillebotte, Coorte, and Vigee le Brun, but I'm not really one to photograph paintings.. and the one I did photograph should probably not be posted on this forum. So I can't show you that, but I can show you this:

 

[warpus]

Siumai (燒賣) in Taipei's Datong District (大同區)

On my return to Taipei I booked a hotel in the historic Datong district, once an important trading hub and the original commercial centre of the city. It has one of the densest concentrations of historic buildings and preserved street layouts in Taipei.

My initial return to the capital wasn't shaping up as anything overly exciting. I checked into my hotel and found the nearest laundromat so I could wash and dry a couple loads of clothes. While waiting for the loads to dry I located a well reviewed Hong Kong style Cantonese Dim Sum restaurant and put in a couple orders.

This was a gem of a find. Everything on the menu is handmade from scratch, and the siumai dumplings are just incredible. The black truffle siumai (second photo) in particular were especially mindblowing. I think about them from time to time to this day.

The handmade ramen noodle stirfry here was also delicious and worth writing about. The plate looks a bit plain when you first get it.. You can't really see much of the sauce. But looks are definitely deceiving in this case. Such a simple dish, but such an amazing flavour and texture! I guess a big part of it are the freshly made noodles (but the sauce was perfect too). And in the end it was the black truffle siumai dumplings that stole the show.

And all for about $1.20 USD a dumpling! I made a note to return to this restaurant to try their other dishes, but unfortunately never ended up stepping foot in there again.

Overall this culinary experience ended up putting a nice stamp on the day, it felt more complete somehow.. The restaurant's name is Lei Hou Restaurant, I figure I owe them a shout-out.

 

[bene_legionary]

The restaurant's name is Lei Hou Restaurant

Hello!

(Cantonese joke XD)

 

[warpus]

Hello!

(Cantonese joke XD)

To confirm, the restaurant name sounds very close to "Hello" when pronounced in Cantonese, and that's likely why this name was chosen? When I google this I am told that a native Cantonese speaker would recognize that the characters from the restaurant name (擂銗餐廳) were selected for sound and not any specific meaning, i.e. in this case to sound like the word "hello". But I'm wondering if I'm missing any nuance of this

 

[warpus]

Day Twenty Three Reflections
Thursday, November 28, 2024

Total Distance Walked This Day - 7.8 km

The return to Taipei was a bit bittersweet. I was happy to be there and to have the chance to explore more of the capital, but I had a really good time in southern Taiwan and was sad to leave it behind.

And you know what, there is a photo of a painting I took at Chimei Museum that I can share here.

Apparently in the 1600s it was popular for Dutch painters to focus on hyper realistic food displays. This goes hand in hand with some of my own Taiwanese food photographs that I've been posting here.

This painting's somewhat unimaginative name is A Couple Courting in a Larder at a Table Laden with Food and Game. It was painted by the studio of Gerrit van Honthorst and Floris Gerritsz van Schooten between 1625 and 1634.

To give a bit more context to this, in the 1600s the Netherlands were enjoying a period of economic prosperity, which was often mirrored by Dutch painters of that period. Painting very realistic food sitting out on a table was quite popular at the time for that reason. The focus was very much showing off abundance and painting incredibly realistic looking edible elements like bread crusts, lemon peels, wine glasses, game birds, and the list goes on and on.. Including "flirtatious" couples or servants was a part of the theme.

Another reason why this caught on is that there was a growing Dutch middle class that wanted art for their homes. People wanted some variety and not just religious imagery on every single wall. Dutch painters embraced the demand and delivered.

The incredible detail in the food that these artists were able to achieve is what impressed me the most. Each food element seems like a separate challenge, often with its own creative considerations. There's so many different textures and colours there, some things are reflective, some have creases, there's feathers, leaves, and all sorts of other details. The museum had a decent number of these paintings around, and each one highlighted different foods. It was an impressive sight to behold.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Historic art nudity has been allowed here.

 

[Kaitzilla]

This painting's somewhat unimaginative name is A Couple Courting in a Larder at a Table Laden with Food and Game. It was painted by the studio of Gerrit van Honthorst and Floris Gerritsz van Schooten between 1625 and 1634.

I think I saw almost the same painting over the spring.
The 1600's Dutch, uhh, had a different style than other painters.

Smiling Girl, a Courtesan, Holding an Obscene Image - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The St. Louis Art Museum had a really nice statue of St. Louis out front from the World's Fair of 1904.
It was the symbol of the city before the arch.

Apotheosis of St. Louis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The keychain of Saint Louis from the gift shop was a bad idea.
He set off metal detectors at a concert and ripped pockets.

Did decently during The Crusades I guess.

Louis IX of France - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The nicely done portrait of a slave owner had a description throwing a lot of shade on him from the museum staff.

I can't recall who it was.
I don't think it was Henry Shaw.

Henry Shaw (philanthropist) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

**Edit**
Ah ha!
I found some of the pictures I took real quick.

King Francis I of France greatly resembles Markiplier.

Spoiler :

 

[warpus]

Day 24

Ri Xing Type Foundry (日星鑄字行)
Friday, November 29, 2024

This establishment is probably best described as a living museum and workshop of historical typography and letterpress printing. It is a traditional Chinese type foundry that preserves the craft of movable-type printing, a technique that is now almost extinct worldwide. It is the only remaining traditional Chinese character movable-type foundry in Taiwan and one of the last in the world. The foundry casts lead metal type (the small blocks) by melting and pouring metal into molds; the blocks are then sorted and assembled for printing.

The just massive collection of over 120,000 unique character molds spanning three typefaces (and multiple sizes) is on display here. Millions of manually sorted lead type blocks fill a maze of wooden shelving units. (10 million lead type blocks is the most commonly cited figure that I could find)

Visitors are instructed to not touch the blocks, as they have been meticulously sorted by foundry staff. I can't imagine what sort of nightmare keeping this organized would be if people moved the blocks around.

On top of Chinese characters there are also latin alphabet blocks here, arabic numerals, punctuation, some emojis, symbols, and custom & advertising blocks such as company logos.

You'll also find typecasting machines on display here, used to cast lead type blocks from molds, as well as other machines and tools that help with some part of the process. It is also possible to get a souvenir printed here using a combination of blocks of your choosing, although you are limited to a subset of blocks reserved for demonstrations.

A truly fascinating place, recommended to me by Alexander Synaptic.

 

[warpus]

Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (臺北當代藝術館)

Housed in what from 1945 to 1994 was Taipei City Hall, MOCA Taipei is Taiwan's first museum dedicated exclusively to contemporary art. It opened in 2001 in a 1921 built colonial era building that was initially an elementary school.

What's unique is that the museum to this day shares the building with the Jian Cheng Junior High School. These two distinct institutions aren't fully physically separated and do share some of the spaces, although museum visitors do not usually walk through any school classrooms, hallways, or facilities. On several occasions the museum has opened up some of the shared spaces to the general public for special exhibitions, but from what I understand that is generally fairly rare.

This unique arrangement is in place for multiple reasons. The building has a long civic and educational history, and when city hall was relocated in 1994 it was decided that the space is large enough to house two institutions. The high school campus that evolved from the original elementary school had been there since the beginning, adjacent to city hall. In 2001 the high school took over a part of the old city hall structure and MOCA Taipei took over the rest. The two institutions have coexisted and shared the space ever since.

An interesting museum with interesting and at times interactive exhibits.

 

[warpus]

OldiesBURGER (歐帝斯美墨餐廳)

I decided to eat lunch at an incredibly well reviewed nearby burger restaurant known for their over the top American perhaps Tex-Mex inspired burgers.

The burger I ordered was called the Slutty Meat Club Burger, which came loaded with ‬cheddar cheese sauce, ‬provolone cheese‭‬‭, ‬pulled pork, ‬crispy bacon,‬‭ an ‬over-easy‭ ‬egg, ‬pickled cucumber‭‬‭, ‬roasted tomato, and ‬caramelized onion with a chili habanero BBQ sauce. Oh yeah and a U.S. beef patty.

It cost the equivalent of $15 USD or so, not including the cheese fries or coke, which were both extra. That is quite pricy compared to most of the meals I ate on my trip, but I knew that going in. The ingredients were top quality from what I could tell and everything hit the spot. Overall it was a great burger experience. If you are going to have just one burger in Taiwan, consider this place.

The decor inside the restaurant is also a bit over the top, to say the least.

 

[warpus]

Maokong Gondola (貓空纜車)

The first tea farms in the hills and valleys of Maokong date back to at least the late 1800s, originally built by Han Chinese settlers who brought over tea seedlings and knowhow from Fujian province, mainland China. 1895 is a commonly repeated year for the first tea farm in the area, but that is the year when the Japanese colonial era began in Taiwan, which is also when Japanese authorities began to document this stuff via extensive land surveys. It's unclear but very likely that tea farms existed in the area for decades beforehand.

The Japanese established a tea research center in the area, as part of a broader strategy to modernize Taiwan's agriculture. They improved the infrastructure here, upgraded tea farms, and integrated the region into colonial infrastructure by promoting an export-oriented agricultural economy. The Japanese also formalized the name of this region - Maokong, after a Hokkien Chinese term for the pothole formations in the highland valley system here.

The reason this area became Taipei's premier tea region in the first place is that the conditions here are ideal for cultivating oolong-type teas. The fertile soil is perfect for tea cultivation, the temperature is stable, the steep well-drained slopes make tea cultivation easier, the valley floors are fog rich, and the high humidity is ideal as well.

Tea production here peaked during the 1920-30s, but began to decline in the 1950s and beyond or so, although smaller scale tea farms and production continues in the region to this day. In 2007 the gondola was built, which further accelerated a shift away from agriculture and towards tourism.

I was excited to finally have a chance to explore this place. When I was in Taipei last the aftermath of typhoon Leon led to bad weather and grey skies. This is one of the reasons why I left the capital early and headed south, towards bluer skies. Luckily for me my return to Taipei coincided with amazing weather all around! This allowed me to visit a couple of the spots I was hoping to visit before my flight home, such as the Maokong hills.

To get here you first have to take the brown MRT metro line all the way to the terminus station by the Taipei Zoo, in the far south-eastern reaches of the city. From there you jump on the gondola, which carries you further south for about 4km, with an overall elevation increase of about 275m, which takes about a half an hour. There are 4 total stops on the gondola ride, but I was interested in the very last one, right by the tea-growing area and all the teahouses and trailheads.

In the following video I took from the gondola the one recognizable landmark you'll briefly see is Taipei 101, the tallest building on the island.

Here's a similar video that shows you a tiny bit more

The whole gondola floor is seethrough.

My first stop was a teahouse where I could sit back and enjoy some locally grown and produced oolong tea. Luckily I was able to score a seat with a great view.

 

[warpus]

The first teahouse I tried to find a seat at had all the best seats taken. I did manage to get a shot of the view though, which gives you a better look at Taipei and the surrounding mountains.

 

[Birdjaguar]

It cost the equivalent of $15 USD or so, not including the cheese fries or coke, which were both extra. That is quite pricy compared to most of the meals I ate on my trip, but I knew that going in. The ingredients were top quality from what I could tell and everything hit the spot. Overall it was a great burger experience. If you are going to have just one burger in Taiwan, consider this place.

How did you eat it? Top down? Knife and fork? Handheld?

 

[warpus]

How did you eat it? Top down? Knife and fork? Handheld?

I went right in there and ate most of it handheld. It got a bit messy, with the cheese sauce and over easy egg and bbq sauce and all.. but it wasn't too bad. Finished it off with knife and fork.

 

[warpus]

Maokong Tea Master (貓空茶神)

This tea shop is owned by members of the famous Zhang family, who migrated to Taiwan in 1743. What's interesting about this family's story is that about 150 years later (in the late 1800s) two Zhang brothers also migrated to Taiwan from mainland China, bringing with them tea cultivation knowhow and techniques alongside the first Tieguanyin oolong tea seedlings. It is not clear whether the 1743 Zhangs ever met up with these later Zhang migrants, whether knowhow, seedlings, or equipment were shared, but the 1743 Zhangs ended up embracing tea cultivation as well (in the late 1800s). So now today we have two completely separate Zhang families, each famous in Taiwan for being experts in the field of tea cultivation.

Zhang Qingquan is the founder of this tea shop and a member of the 1743 lineage of the Zhang family. He began tea work in 1966 and founded this shop in 1980. The specialty here is deep charcoal roasted medium-heavy oxidation tieguanyin oolong tea. They have won a large number of top tier awards for their teas, too numerous to list here.

I am not sure if the person in the photo is the grandson or some other family member, but he definitely gave off tea master vibes. He was excited to share some tea samples with me, explaining the different types of teas, what altitudes they were grown at, and how they were brewed.

What's interesting is that most of these brewed teas underwent multiple infusions. The tea leaves are tightly rolled up and slowly unroll as you brew, different flavours and aromas releasing with each brew. The very first infusion will last 5-15 seconds, and sometimes that very first brew is even discarded. You repeat this process, with later infusions lasting anywhere between 10 to 40 seconds. The optimal amount of infusions varies depending on the type and amount of tea you are brewing. For example, everyday oolong tea requires 4-6 infusions, but an exceptional competition-grade oolong could require as many as 18.

So not only did the tea samples given to me vary in type of tea and altitude of cultivation, but also in the number of infusions. And yes, you could 100% taste the difference in tea quality and flavour as you tasted more expensive samples. I ended up picking out what I thought had the best flavour from what I perceived to be the mid-range teas and bought a small box of it for my mom, costing me about $35 USD.

The small box of tea I had bought made the TSA agents at one of the American airports I was flying through on the return flight incredibly suspicious. I was pulled aside, swabbed, and questioned. Luckily they didn't open the bag of tea and ended up being happy that I wasn't a drug smuggling mule after only 15 minutes of delay.

 

[warpus]

Some more Maokong tea pictures. They take their tea incredibly seriously! The high mountain oolong tea in the black box is the one I ended up buying.

I do wonder if a TSA agent thought that the implication behind the "high mountain" branding is that the tea gets you high. (it does not, it's just tea)

 

[Birdjaguar]

How times have changed. I and friends have brought boxed tea into the US on multiple occasions without any questions. Where was your port of entry into the US? Tea is such a frequent item brought into the US from China/Taiwan because it is the usual gift given to tourists, that the TSA would understand. On my last trip back from China I carried a large bowl that was made entirely of pressed tea wrapped in a plastic bag.

 

[warpus]

How times have changed. I and friends have brought boxed tea into the US on multiple occasions without any questions. Where was your port of entry into the US? Tea is such a frequent item brought into the US from China/Taiwan because it is the usual gift given to tourists, that the TSA would understand. On my last trip back from China I carried a large bowl that was made entirely of pressed tea wrapped in a plastic bag.

I flew from Taipei to San Francisco, I believe that's where I was questioned and swabbed. It wasn't a big deal, I was a bit amused, but also surprised that they were treating this tea as though it were something special. There's gotta be a decent amount of tea packaged like this coming back to north America. I suppose it could have been a case of greenhorn TSA agents.