Taiwan—Taipei 2016-10-16

Today was a wonderful sunny day.  I started Daan Forest Park (大安森林公園).  I was hoping that I can take some good pictures of birds.  I did not find the birds that I was looking for.  But, the park is so beautiful.

In Taipei, each subway station has a unique design. The Daan Forest Park station is so cute.

Daan Forest Park is a public park located near the centre of the Da'an District (大安區) of Taipei. The park occupies twenty-six hectares and is used by residents of Taipei as a green activity space and for various outdoor activities.  Daan Forest Park is a beautiful park.

Taipei Weekend Flowers Market (建國假日花市) is next to Daan Forest Park.  The Taipei Weekend Flowers Market is connected to the Weekend Flowers Market located under the Jianguo Road overpass (建國高架橋) at the intersection of Xinyi Road (信義路). This flowers market has many vendors selling flowers, trees, and garden supplies, as well as Chinese trinkets, jewelery, and statues. Many locals will go to the flowers market to look for something special.

I decided to go National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂) since the weather was so beautiful.

The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a national monument in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China.

The Memorial Hall is white with four sides, and the roof is blue and octagonal.  The reason for a octagonal shape is because the symbolism of the number eight, a number traditionally associated in Asia with abundance and good fortune. There are two sets of white stairs with 89 steps.  The meaning of the 89 steps is to represent Chiang's age at the time of his death.

The Memorial Hall under the beautiful blue sky was picture perfect.

After the Memorial Hall, I rushed to National Taiwan University (臺灣大學) to meet a friend who is a professor of the university.

The university was founded in 1928 by the Japanese administration during the Japanese colonial era. After World War II, the University, reorganized and renamed it National Taiwan University on November 15, 1945.

The university has the largest campuses in Taiwan.  The univetsity has over 31,000 of students.

The most beautiful part of the main campus is coco-nut palms road which goes through the main campus in Taipei.

After visited the university campus, we went to a restaurant which located at the first floor of the Taipei 101.

Taipei 101 is most famous landmark of Taipei.  Taipei 101 is a 101-story building, and was classified as the world's tallest in 2004, and remained such until 2009.

We planed to take the subway which the station is located the underneath of Taipei 101.  Unfortunately, something wrong with the subway system, we had to wait about 40 minutes if we wanted to take it.  We decided to walk to other station and catch a different subway.

On the way to another subway station, we walked pass by National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館)and Taipei City Hall (臺北市政府).

The National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is a memorial to the Republic of China's National Father, Dr. Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), and was completed on 1972.

It was a wonderful day!