A Walk on a Cool Saturday Morning in Taipei Part 5

A long look down Chungshan North Road from the Police Station area

A Photo taken in the 1960's of Chungshan North Road

looking south from the area of the old zoo

and the bridge across the Keelung River.

Can't see clearly down the street in this picture.

The HSA Compounds, the Hostels and other

US Military Facilities were just down the street.

The TDC HQ gate was just to the left of this photo,

down the road beside the river a couple hundred yards.

Another shot of the same area circa 1960's


A great shot of the taxi's waiting at the Zoo Entrance, 1960's.
The Zoo has moved to a large area southeast of
town. You can reach the zoo directly on the MRT

(Mass Rapid Transit), I visited the Zoo in 2006 and spent the day.

There is also a Gondola Ride from the Zoo area which is exciting.

Here's the Billboard no one can forget. This was taken in the mid 1960's, I remember the signage.

This was taken from the Grand Hotel within the past few

years. We see the Keelung River and I believe the old

Club 63 swimming pool.

Note the DaZhi Bridge down river.

Here is a link to beautiful photographs of this magnificent bridge

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hsuyo/195570786/in/photostream/

Another shot of the Keelung River and notice Taipei 101

in the smog distance standing tall all alone in height.

Same general area as above

Standing on an upper floor of the Grand Hotel looking south.

Looking to the extreme right side of the picture you see the old

HSA East Compound Area, probably the ball park area.

Same as above, but you we look down on Chungshan North Road.

You can see the the area where everything we once knew stood.

The tall building in the center of the photo is Shin Kong Life Tower.

Another photo of the same area, having moving the camera to the right


Another shot of the same area showing a plane on final approach to landing at Sung Shan Airport which only handles on-island Taiwan air traffic. All International Flights arrive at the Taoyuan International Airport.

The tall building is the Shin Kong Life Tower.

Everyone will recognize this picture. Taken in the 1960's.

Of course, Club 63. What a fine club, my home away from home.

I'm trying to find that Mongolian BBQ place down on the river.

I don't see it. Anyone remember just where it was located, maybe

it was behind the river bank trees?

This is an old picture taken from the area where the Grand Hotel stands.

I'm not sure if the hotel was build when this photograph

was taken. This shot could have been taken from the hill.

Look closely, you can see the zoo entrance, the billboards

and some old buildings that were there before the big

Police Station was constructed.

Construction on-going at the Fine Arts Museum. We're on

Chungshan North Road.

Flying flags of welcome to the Fine Arts Museum.

Notice the International Sign for Handicap folks.

Another current shot of the Police Station across the

Street from the Fine Arts Museum.

An early morning shot of the Police Station and Chungshan North Road.

The Fine Arts Museum has a Fine Arts No Parking Sign

with a beautiful art piece in back.

Here is a photograph of the HSA West Compound, taken early 1980's.

It was taken sometime after our departure from Taiwan.

I see this picture and I think to myself, it looks like both compounds

were maintained virtually as we left them, for some time after our

departure. I wonder why?

We're just about to the area where the entrance to the

old HSA East Compound was.

Here is another shot taken of the entrance to the old

HSA West Compound. The walkers have all but disappeared

for today. I believe they walk again tomorrow, Sunday.

Beautiful sign. I would guess this sign is just south

of the old entrance to the HSA East Compound

Continuing to walk south, there is the old book store

just in front of that bus.

This area was the land on which the Linkou Club once stood.

The club I knew in 1965 was an old house that had been converted

into the Linkou Club. The wall you see in the background was a

street, behind that wall today is kind of an alleyway.

Another shot of the same area

This looks like Chungshan North Road. Probably late 1950's early 1960's.

Update: "Flyboy" Commented that this photo taken Double 10 - 1966

Can anyone identify where this Double 10 Archway stood?

Back at the bookstore again, walking south on Chungshan North Road.

Here's an old photograph of the same bookstore, probably in the 1960's.

Notice the large signage of the left side of this picture on the top of a building.

If you walked south on Chungshan North Road from the

HSA Compounds, you ran into St. Christopher's Church.

Here is an old photo taken on a Sunday Morning, in the 1960's.

More of St. Christopher's?

St. Christopher's - Old picture

A more recent photo of St. Christopher's

This signage looks old and I assume it was placed in this

wall from a previous location on the property. There

has been a lot of building on the property since the 1960's

The entrance to the St. Christopher's Church Offices.

A few photographs ago, I asked you to notice the sign on top of a building.

Here's the same sign today. That would make this sign at least 40 years old.

A short distance past St. Christopher's Church we run into McDonalds.

This was the door menu in November 2007

Here's an old photograph on the corner of

Chungshan North Road and Minquan West Road.

The old King's Hotel was on this corner.

I turned right here and walked a block west to the MRT Station, which

was my destination earlier in the morning when I left the Howard Hotel.

But, had I arrived, I would not have done this Blog Entry.

Sometimes we need to stop and "smell the flowers."

Had I changed MRT lines at the Taipei Main Station on that Saturday morning last November, the whole day would have turned out much different.

Another photo of the King's Hotel, late 1950's early 1960's.

Ahh, at last, I've finally arrived at the MRT Station. Now it's just a short time until I can return to my hotel and relax. This photograph is the Minquan MRT Station. It was taken by my daughter in 2006 on our trip to Taipei. Our plane had arrived about 5:00 AM that morning. We were picked up at the airport by a family member and we went directly to our hotel. We checked in, freshened up and were off to explore Taipei 40 years after we left. That 1st Day in Taipei in May 2006 was very exhausting.

Hope you enjoyed your walk with me today, I had a wonderful time that Saturday morning in November 2007. I wish some of you who are interested could have been there with me. I don't like traveling alone. If you have questions on anything, post a comment below, I'll be sure to answer. God Bless.....

Tomb Sweeping Day is Friday 4 April 2008

What a wonderful occasion this holiday is. This time of year is also called Ching Ming.

Thinking about this day brings to mind those members of my family that have passed on..

I will visit the cemetery this weekend to clean the area, bring flowers and spend quiet time in remembrance of my loved ones that have gone on before me.

I will carry on a conversation while I am there. Funny how we can have conversations with folks who are only with us in Spirit. A wonderful time to reflect on our love for all of our family.

I will enjoy the visit and I will leave with joy in my heart.

Sometime during my visit I will recall the words of this wonderful song. When the music and words begin to flow through my mind's eye, I will let myself pray and speak words to my maker in some unknown language. Listen here.

God Bless you and your families.

Here is a link which explains the Tomb Sweeping Day more fully.

http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/tomb_e/tomb.htm

Check this link for an article on Qing (Ching) Ming Celebration in Hawaii

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/LIFE/804040330/1076

Have a safe and wonderful weekend.

April Showers In Taiwan

Thank you for your patience while I work on my Saturday Walk. I have spent so many hours on this piece only to have wrist pain and tight jaws. Seems that I have so many pictures to post that the Blog itself has become inoperable.

I will have to break this piece into possibly 5 different posts before everything will run correctly.

So. I again ask your patience and I will keep working on this.

Smile, something good will come of this yet.

Welcome to March 2008

I had left the " Reunion in Taipei" posting at the top of the Blog for a couple of weeks to see if anyone was interested in going this year.

There was some interest this year, but no commitments.

A couple of folks suggested 2009 as a better time.

Bill Kling who worked on Grass Mountain during his time in Taiwan and myself have come together to work-up a return trip to Taiwan in July 2009.

Please click on the LINK below and visit our new Blog to review the preliminary information of the July 2009 visit.

This trip looks good and I hope some of you may decide to travel next summer with us.

Keep you eye on the new Blog site for the trip information as it materializes.

Thank you and have a great day!

http://americangisreturningtotaiwanin2009.blogspot.com/

What Are Your Feelings on a Reunion in Taipei

A Get Together in Taipei in the Fall 2008?

I'm going to leave this Post on Top of the Blog for a week or so. Hope you'll send in your feelings regarding a trip this fall....

I've had a couple of notes regarding a possible "coming together" in Taipei.

Let me know your feelings.

Prices for air and hotel accommodations can be determined at a later date if we have enough folks who want to travel back to our old home away from home, wonderful Taiwan. A lot has changed, but I guarantee, you will be glad you took the trip. Consider your options and send in your thoughts.

I paid about $150.00 US for a room with a king bed which included a great buffet breakfast when I last visited Taipei in November 2007. We can find less expensive rooms, Air travel via Eva Airlines and China Air Lines are probably the least expensive. If we decide to GO, we can figure out an Itinerary at a later date.

Let your feelings and/or ideas be known by clicking on the "Comment" below.

ADDENDUM: 13 Feb 2008..

I ran the numbers with China and Eva Airlines..

Round trip Los Angeles to Taipei in mid September:

China Air - 853.00 Eva Air - $988.00

Not inexpensive, but it's a long flight and fuel prices are high. Maybe we could get a group rate.

The trip would be an experience. AND a side trip to Hong Kong would complete a wonderful and exciting vacation. I visited Hong Kong with my family in May 2006 and those 5 days were the most wonderful vacation days of my life. I had more fun, did more things and enjoyed the beauty of the city and harbor that can't be duplicated any place I know of. If I had been alone, it wouldn't have been so much fun, but with folks that share your values and history, you become friends and together things fall into place with much ease and the days are filled with happiness and joy.

These are my feelings and my heart.

Lots of us have procrastinated, put it off, drug our feet, made excuses about returning.

Is this the year to return? Can you see yourself standing on an outside balcony of the Grand Hotel on a sunny afternoon, looking down toward the old Navy Exchange, having excitement in your heart and butterflies in your stomach as you contemplate experiencing another few days in Taipei with friends. You can see all of the places you once knew. How could it not be a fun trip....

The summer Olympics will be finished in Beijing (8-24 August) and the tourists will be gone for the most part.

Let's discuss this and see what we can come up with.

Taiwan Television - The Early Days

Television in the Early Days

On the right is a copy of the "China Post" Tourism Page, dated June 11th 1968. Click on either photo to view a larger copy.

On the left, a copy of the daily TTV (Taiwan Television) schedule for Tuesday, June 11th 1968.

Interesting note on the "China Post." It was being type set in 1968, notice the uneven letters and numbers. I do recall that the China Post came out with a very slick newspaper or insert which was on magazine quality white paper and had very nice color. I do not remember if they only ran special editions in the new format, or they were into commercial printing and ran a special edition of the paper occasionally, such as Double 10 or Chinese New Year..... It was quite an improvement from the normal paper which I believe cost 2 NT.

If you retired to the barracks or your home after work and wanted to watch television, your choices we limited to the TTV channel. There was not much to watch, a cartoon at 6:30, then eat dinner, come back at 8:30 for the television show Mission Impossible, followed by a short feature on the Circus and then the Taiwanese Drama, which was "live" and interesting to watch.

On Sundays you could watch a movie, they featured a Chinese Opera show and other goodies on Sundays, which I believe was the best day to watch television.

On Friday nights they ran "Combat" with Vic Morrow. Any drinking establishment or club you walked into had their television set tuned to Combat. Thinking back to the day, I would guess Combat was probably the number 1 show in Taiwan. I'm thinking of the old solders who came over from the mainland with Chiang Kai shek, this program must have been heart warming for them. I wonder what their feelings were on returning to the mainland? One would guess that they were ready to return home, I guess we all would want to go home. Anyone have any observations on the military personal feelings about Taiwan and returning home to the mainland? There has to be something written about this, not the government, but personal writings by individual soldiers.

What are your thoughts on Taiwan Television? My history is limited to the mid 1960s and I'm sure television improved after I left the island.

Here is a short history on TTV: http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/T/htmlT/taiwan/taiwan.htm

Chinese New Year - The Year of the Rat

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

My wish to each of you is good fortune, wealth and happiness in the New Year. May God richly bless you and your family.

Without going into great detail concerning the Lunar New Year celebrations, I thought a few of the common traditional occurances would be of interest to many of us who are not familiar with these customs.

Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) or Lunar New Year.

This year, Chinese New Year begins on Thursday, February 7, 2008.

Chinese New Year's Eve is known as Chúxī. Chu literally means "Change" and xi means "Eve".

The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month.The first day of Chinese New Year is a time when families visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended family, usually their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents.The Chinese New Year celebrations are marked by visits to kin, relatives and friends, a practice known as "new-year visits" New clothing is usually worn to signify a new year. The color red is liberally used in all decorations. Red packets are given to juniors and children by the married and elders.

Red packets

Traditionally, Red envelopes or red packets 'hóng bāo' are passed out during the Chinese New Year's celebrations, from married couples or the elderly to unmarried juniors. It is common for adults to give red packets to children. Red packets are also known as Ya Sui Qian, which was evolved from literally, the money used to suppress or put down the evil spirit ) during this period.

Red envelopes always contain money, usually varying from a couple of dollars to several hundred. The amount of money in the red packets should be of even numbers, as odd numbers are associated with cash given during funerals Bai Jin. Since the number 4 is considered bad luck, because the word for four is a homophone for death, money in the red envelopes never adds up to $4. However, the number 8 is considered lucky (for its homophone for "wealth"), and $8 is commonly found in the red envelopes. Sometimes chocolate coins are found in the red packets. Odd and even numbers are determined by the first digit, rather than the last. Thirty and fifty, for example, are odd numbers, and are thus appropriate as funeral cash gifts. However, it is common and quite acceptable to have cash gifts in a red packet using a single bank note — with ten or fifty NT bills used frequently.The act of requesting for red packets is normally called asking for the red packet or money pouch. A married person would not turn down such request as it would mean that he or she would be "out of luck" in the new year.

For additional information of Chinese (Lunar) New Year in Taiwan, here is a link to a Taiwan Government site:

http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/culture/lunar-NY/