The US Flag Flys Again at HSA

A few months ago, I was walking along Chung Shan North Road heading up to the Grand Hotel and came upon this building, which was then under construction.

A similar flag was hanging on the wooden frame of the building .  I was caught completely off-guard, I didn't know what to think. All sorts of things ran through my brain.  What was this?  Had some old GI jumped the fence and hammered on a US Flag as a prank? 

I smiled for a moment.  What a complete circle we had come. We opened the old US MAAG Taiwan in this area in February 1951, we closed the gates in April 1979, and now, here was our flag,  flying once again in the old HSA East Compound. 

Then it came to me, this must be the US Exhibition Building of the Taipei Floral Expo. 

Photos:  Looking north toward the Grand Hotel and Club 63.

 I did not enter the Exhibition, but took all of these photos from outside the fence.

 I may, one day soon, drape a Yellow Ribbon around the old tree.

Welcome home,  US Taiwan Veterans!

 

Photos.. Looking at the opposite side of the building from the previous photos..

I walked on toward the Grand Hotel, looked back, and took this photo.

Let's, for a moment, imagine we have just walked outside the Navy Exchange and onto the sidewalk on Chung Shan North Road...

We turn and look south.

If you were in Taipei in the late 1950s and most of the 1960s, you would see the old Linkou Club Annex sitting on the spot of that old hotel (now a restaurant) on the corner.

In the late 1960s, the club was demolished.  Then rebuilt on Min Tsu Road, which is just on the other side of the old hotel building we see down the sidewalk.
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Did I get it correct?

If you come along with us this November on our Return to Taiwan Trip, we'll walk down this and many other streets in Taiwan.

I've got a load of photos to post on my walk up to the Grand Hotel, the new bridge across the Keelung River and sites along the walk.

More later.  

Tsi Gen