Taichung, A Love Story

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Location | New York City

Introduction: I completely forgot to write an itinerary entry for my trip to Taiwan & Australia… so in the introduction here, I’ll set out my itinerary for my trip…

October 15, 11:50pm – Depart from Newark to Taipei

October 17, 6:30am – Arrive in Taipei, head to Taichung

October 23-28th – Fly to Brisbane and Sydney in Australia

October 31st – Depart to return to NYC

As part of my pre-preparation for going to Taiwan, I’m going to write a blog series about Taiwan and everything it has to offer. For the first part of the series, I’ll focus on Taichung and surrounding areas. It’s where my family is originally from. For the second part of the series, I’ll focus on Taipei. I know about Taipei the best because I’ve spent the most amount of time there (in total about 7 months). Hopefully I’ll be able to provide some insights into what characterizes Taiwan to be it’s own unique nation.

It’s really not a love story, rather my own love for Taichung. This is going to focus on general information on Taichung as well as some stories from my family history.

Taichung, A Love Story

Taichung (台中 simplified or 臺中 traditional) is located approximately 86 miles SW of Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei. The third largest city in Taiwan with a little over a million people. Located in a valley surrounded by mountains with the Taiwan Straight to the west.

My ancestors left China in the mid-1600’s to move to Taiwan. In the present, we are at the 14th generation of the Lee family (my mother’s side) while my father’s side it remains unknown on how to trace a scattered family tree. To tell the story correctly, I’ll have to discuss my mother’s side of the family because there is more information readily available. My hopes is that I’ll also be able to find pictures and collect more stories during this trip when I have time to talk to my grandmother who is turning 80! (Happy Birthday Ah-Ma! 生日快樂阿姨!)

My Grandma and me in 2006

My Grandma and me in 2006

The Lee family left China and moved to Taiwan sometime during the mid-1600’s. As most historical sources have stated, during the 1600’s mainly men were allowed to travel/immigrate to Taiwan, therefore, to establish themselves, they’d often marry aboriginal women. So it’s relatively safe to say that besides Han blood, I also have aboriginal blood.

My great-great-great grandfather was a wealthy man who was a part of the local government in the early to mid-1800’s. He was well known in Taichung and his eldest son was also growing in popularity and power.  In those days they were carried around on palanquins through the street. One day, the eldest son was stuck behind a palanquin while crossing a bridge. He yelled out at the palanquin ahead of him, cursing the person for blocking the way. Unfortunately the person ahead of him peeked his head out of the curtains and it… was… his father! Oh my… a story we often laugh about in our family.

So much of my family history is steeped in Taichung that it’s easy to understand why I love a love affair with the city. Known as a very friendly city with it’s own uniqueness that can be described as a big city with a little town’s personality.

My great grandfather was a doctor (as his son was and so on… there were apparently many doctors in my family). His friend was also a doctor and tried to convince my great grandfather to start a hospital together. My great grandfather declined, because my great grandmother felt that his services should be offered to those who really need it, who are often those who couldn’t afford hospital care. My great grandmother was an extremely devout Buddhist. She devoted her time to helping those in need. So my great grandfather would often help those who needed a doctor and accept what they could give, monetary payment or not. Meanwhile his friend went on to be the founder of one of the top hospitals in Taichung.

Although I’m not religious myself, my morals and values have come from a mix of Buddhist & Taoist teachings. It’s so deeply entrenched in the teachings that have been passed down from mother to daughter in the Lee family. There are many shrines and temple throughout Taiwan. My grandmother grew up in the nearby town of Dajia (大甲). Dajia is well known for it’s temple to Matsu, a goddess of the sea that protects those associated with water. My family goes to Dajia annually to pray at the Matsu temple (Chenlan). There you can actually find my name in one of the many (hundreds if not thousands) of lights. Those seeking guidance can have any of the monks put their name in a light (or a prayer book) to be prayed over for protection. Offerings include food (particularly Taiwanese pastries and fresh fruit), the burning if incense as well as the burning of ceremonial money.

My hopes is to further explore temple culture in my short visit to Taichung.

On a side note, all I know of my history of my dad’s side in Taiwan is the Lin Family Shrine, dedicated to the Lin’s that traveled from the Fujian province to Taiwan.

I’m hoping to continue my love affair with this city with a photo journal. I’d like to find some books on the history of Taiwan to translate. We’ll see how it goes.

Pictures!!!

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Location | Canton

I made a picture diary. Some of the pictures aren’t working yet, but it should be fine… Check it out!! I’ll be adding more later!!!

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

It’s Over

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Location | Taichung

Well, my trip has come to an end. I can only hope that I will gain another internship in Taiwan in the future — like at Uni-President!! (They own all the 7-11’s and Starbucks in Taiwan AND they make my favorite drinks and puddings!!)

All the National Palace Museum Interns

All the National Palace Museum Interns

This trip has been the best trip ever. No lies behind that fo sho. I made a lot of good friends that I hope will last forever and I met a lot of amazing people. I’m making a photo journal of everything I did soon. It’ll be slow-loading, but worth the wait I guess.

Other pictures are here at Webshots.

Ok, the people:

NPM Interns:
Angel, Andrew, Alan, Jocelyn, Joey, Doris, Joe-Jay, Young, Tiffany, Monling, Grace, Vision, Joann, Myung-Hwa and Jean!

Group 9:
Angel (again), Tiffany (again), Karen, Martin, Ray, James, Chi, Esther and Stella!

Others:
JKo, Jeff, Laura, Will, Carrie, Diana, Eric (aka fanfan), Sam and more people I want to name but can’t think of right now (sorry sorry sorry!)

Ok, so I’ll write more later. Thanks for a great time everyone!! I love you all! More later!!

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

*NOTE* I wanted to make note that the man in the center is Ching Shieh. In 2006 he was arrested under charges of corruption, but later he was cleared of those charges. See www.supportching.com for more information.

Ilan

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Location | Taipei

I’ve started to notice a trend with my posts: they’re getting lamer and lamer. Anyway, let’s reiterate what’s happened this weekend.

So I went to Ilan with the TTT people. On day one we went to have lunch after arriving at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. After lunch we headed to the Tittot Glass Museum. It was ok, small, and had a lot of nice pieces, but nothing new (I’ve been to the Corning Museum in NY, which is amazing btw). I got 2 glass animal figurines for $100NT though. It was of a monkey and a frog.

After the museum we headed over to Ilan. A long drive, but we made it. We stopped to eat dinner over there, then on to the hotel. Since we had so many people, we were split into 2 hotels, which was ok, they weren’t very far from each other. We went to the night market instead of going to the hot springs (too crowded). The night market turned out to be 5 food stalls and a bunch of people milling around. We went to Family Mart (like 7-11) instead. Then we went around… and we went to another 7-11… and walked back to the hotel. At the hotel we played Mafia for 3 hours. Eric, Angel, Alice, Joey, Doug, Nelson, Andrew and James were all playing. I never got to be the Mafia, but I was the nurse 2 times. I was the narrator once too…

The next day we went to Dongshan River Water Park… Joey, Angel and I went into the water.. we were fine for awhile, cuz we didn’t get anything but our legs wet… but then JOEY wanted to go in this tunnel that sprayed water in all directions… well though I had my bathing suit under all my clothes (halter and skirt), I got soaking wet and my shirt and skirt didn’t dry for hours later. Anyway, we had lots of fun being wet and trying to dry… The water smelled really bad…

Dong Shan Water Park - Angel, Joey and Me

Dong Shan Water Park - Angel, Joey and Me

After Dongshan we went to lunch then to this traditional arts village. We went to the giftshop first, and they had a lot of cute things to buy. I got these two pics that are on little motors and when you seperate them, the pigs come back together and kiss. So cute!! Then I also got 2 keychain things, one boy and one girl. Joey took the boy one -_-;;…

Ok so I started this entry 3 days ago and I never finished it and now I’ve completely forgotten what it was about in the first place… or what I even did over the weekend. Let me think. Oh yeah, I also got geta’s at the traditional arts village.

Joey with giant paintbrush at the Traditional Arts Village

Joey with giant paintbrush at the Traditional Arts Village

After all of that we drove awhile to Lion’s Kingdom Museum. There we saw a bunch of statues of lions and also went down by the ocean to take lots of pictures. It was so much fun!!!

By the water

By the water

Then we had dinner, and drove home. Too bad the way home was a huge traffic jam. It took us 2-3 times as long just to get home… we finally got home and I rode the long ass MRT ride and yay, it was fun!

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Deer, Dogs, Fish and Peacocks

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Location | Taipei

Today I fed a swarm of giant goldfish (koi), saw peacocks, rode deer and got attacked by a pack of stray dogs.

Let me go into detail…

So we all went out into the garden to film for our video and so the garden of the NPM has big ponds with giant goldfish (koi), swans, ducks and probably other miscellaneous things. Anyway, we fed swarms of goldfish. It was as if they were starving to death. Then they also have peasants, chickens and peacocks. They looked so cool! So sad though, their cages are small…

Joe-Jay, Joey and myself

Joe-Jay, Joey and myself

Then afterwards, Alan, Angel and I went down to the aborigine park and took pictures around there… including a picture of Angel sliding down a stone slide and scraping all the dirt off the slide to create a much cleaner slide… also, me cupping an aborigine’s private parts =_=;; and also riding deer. Oh yes, the riding deer part was the best. We wanted it on automatic timer, but there’s a pack of stray dogs in there… so me and Angel got on the smaller deer and Alan set the time and ran toward the big deer… this movement threatened the stray dogs and they started growling and barking and moving toward us… oh before we even got to the deer this big dog came by and sat down in the middle of the deer and started to lick its balls.

Riding some deer

Riding some deer

Anyway…………..

We took pictures on the deer and got attacked by those stray dogs… and then we came back to the National Palace Museum and here I am typing this up.

The End.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Legpit.

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Location | Taipei

My legpit has a mosquito bite. Legpit is like armpit, but where your knees are.

I need to buy new clothes. I want a black swishie skirt. I also want other cheap clothes… SO NICE TO HAVE CHEAP CLOTHES!! I LOVE CLOTHESSS!!!

Ok, my clothing spending budget has now been bumped to $4000. I can spend that much… So far: $1000 + 700 + other random things…

Still need: shoes (there’s a pair for $1500 that I want…), bags… (iono yet) and probably fob shorts and fob shirts. :)

Ok!!!! Time to go eat.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Joey Is Staring

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Location | Taipei

I am bored.
I have 1.5 more hours of work.
Is Tony coming?
Today I’m going to Shilin.
I am tired.
I want to nap.
Goodnight.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Lovingly, With Heatstroke

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Location | Taipei

Its getting sweltering out there. *sigh. I’m bored right now. Let me talk about this weekend though…

I went to Bashen Water Park in Bali on Saturday. Dave got us free tickets!! Thank you Dave :). Anyway, it was tons of fun and I hope that all of us can go again soon. I want to go on August 6th or 7th. Clear your calendars everyone!! Let’s go!!!

Doris and I at Shabu-Shabu after the Waterpark

Doris and I at Shabu-Shabu after the Waterpark

Anyway, I’m really hungry right now, so I’m gonna go and die of hunger.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Today

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Location | Taipei

Words to describe today: humid, Danshui, mini turtle, fishball soup, stir fried noodles, beetles, high voices, bubble tea, cute little kids.

What happened today:
So, as usual, work. A bunch of really little kids came to visit the museum today and Doris and I went into the exhibit to take a look. They were so adorable!!! Doris even petted a head… lol! Like they were animals in a petting zoo. Later a lunch, Doris, Joe-Jay, Joey, Jean, Andrew and I were all on the bus going to Burger King. Well Jean was going to Shilin, which is a few stops after the Burger King stop. We get to the BK stop and Andrew and I get off and we look behind us and the bus is driving off, yet Joey, Joe-Jay and Doris are all… STILL ON THE BUS!!! We see the bus driving further… until it stops and the three of them come clamoring off. Other than that, the day was pretty uneventful.

After work, we (Andrew, Joey, Alan, Angel, Doris, Doris’ friend Kingston, and Joe-Jay) went to Danshui. Joey’s cousin, Candice, went with us too. First Andrew, Joey, Angel, Alan, Candice and I went to dinner, since Doris had to go get Kingston and wait for Joe-Jay. Afterwards we did a lot of walking around and sightseeing. We really like playing the claw game!!! The only thing we won was a mini turtle though.

We walked around for a really long time, just checking out things and chillin’. The guys took home huge “Taiwan Beer” blow-up plastic thingies. We all chilled in Starbucks for awhile… without getting anything at all. I guess it saved us money. I really wanted to eat the bird eggs though. They’re so good!! Maybe I will go to Danshui for dinner tomorrow too!

Overall, it was tons of fun and I’m glad that everyone had a good time.

Oh and Joe-Jay sat down and fell backwards into a pile of trash. Joey spent a long time trying to understand what “girl issues” were. “Why would a girl not be able to go into water?” Doris ate a penis chocolate and didn’t understand why we were all giggling like little girls. The condom shop has some really explicit photos… hehehe.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Again

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Location | Taipei

Welcome newest members to my evergrowing family: Angel (a mei mei), Doris (a jie jie) and Joey (a di di!). All I need to do is start collecting husbands. Theresa already collected 2!! I’m jealous. Teehee.

Ok, let’s see, the weather has been pretty bad lately… well just cloudy, humid, rainy, etc. Stinks. At least its supposed to get a lot better this weekend. I think I’m gonna go see F.I.R on Friday, OR I will go to Danshui with a bunch of people. On Saturday I’m probably going to go to this Nokia snowboarding event and then go to this waterpark in Bali wit some umich friends. Sunday is the group 9 reunion. I’m not quite sure what we’re doing, but it looks like we’re going to Dingtaifung again. I’ve already gone 3 times.

Angel and I completed a lot of the scrapbook we made for Stella. Yay. At least that’s done for the most part. Its really cute!! I think I’ll make one for myself eventually.

Oh lately I’ve been listening a lot to the Postal Service. They’re really good!! I need some more music!! Please send me music! :) I’m gonna buy a 60gb iPod soon. I’m going to wait until September to see if they announce the creation of an iPod that plays video.

Other things on my mind: there’s this one person I really like a lot here. I think that I’m doing a really bad job of showing my interest because I must be giving off mixed messages. Its ok though, I guess if nothing happens this summer, then when I go back I can concentrate more on school, but I’d really like to have a relationship again.

Anyway, I should be researching for my paper.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Away from Home. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]