Taipei: Day 1, part three

Piece of cake. There was enough English on all the signs for me to buy my ticket, find the train, and get off at the right stop. I got to the area about two hours early so that I could spend some time walking around to take in the sights. The first thing I noticed was how many American stores were here! McDonalds, 7-Eleven, KFC, and a ridiculous number of Starbucks stores. The sidewalks were cleaner than I expected and there was quite a bit to look at. As I walked further away from the station, I noticed a lot of greenery down a side street. I figured it was a park, so I headed toward it to investigate. Wow was it ever beautiful! There was a giant Koi pod and some pagoda gazebos and a VERY unique sculpture/fountain. I’ll try to describe it, but I think it’s impossible to do so with words. These pictures are of just the upper part of the sculpture, the base is covered with a thin layer of water, and there are stepping stones so that you can walk to the center where the water cascades down 20-30 feet underground. Water also falls all the way around the outer ring of the base. I think it is the most creative and original design that I’ve ever seen.

There were many people walking around the park, and everyone seemed so happy. At the same time, there was a somber feeling to everything, like this place had spiritual significance. I didn’t even find out the name of the park until late that night after returning to my hotel… 228 Peace Park. At first, I thought the name was weird, like they named it after the street address. But then I noticed the number 228 elsewhere when searching about Taiwanese history. And that’s when I discovered that the sculpture and park are a memorial to the victims of the 228 Massacre. A translation of the memorial inscription which describes the tragedy can be found here.

After I left the park, I walked back to the shopping area and went into a giant department store. This place was a 12 floor shopping wonderland! I checked out some of the clothes sections and found some very interesting clothes brands… Marlboro Country and Jeep! I was very tempted to buy a Jeep shirt, but they were very expensive… I eventually made my way to the 8th floor which was all toys and videogames! I browsed the videogames, but they were super expensive too! I noticed a crowd of kids standing in a little section, so I walked over to see what the attraction was. They were all lined up in front of these miniature arcade cabinets, playing a game called Mushiking: The King of Beetles. The unique thing about this game was when you put money in it, it’d spit out a trading card. And then you could swipe that or any of your other cards through a card reader to build up your beetle. These kids had huge stacks of cards! I stood there for a while trying to figure it out, but I ran out of time and had to get over to Caesar Park Hotel.