A Video Walk Along Chung Shan North Road

Our video tour begins on the corner of Min Quan and Chung Shan North Road.  

We walk along the east side of Chung Shan North Road toward the Grand Hotel.

 

You will recognize some of the area along the route, the Florida Bakery, St. Christopher Catholic Church,  past the area of the old Linkou Club, and northward along the area of the HSA East Compound.

There are 3 videos in this series.  All were taken earlier this week, 28 September 2010.

 You'll enjoy seeing how the streets look today and hearing the sounds along the sidewalks.

 

A couple of notes regarding the videos.

I took these in High Definition (HD)  The crispness of the film lets you see what I saw as I walked along the street.  

 

I used a new camera, a Canon SD4000 IS.  There is some wind noise at times along the way. You might notice a few scenes where the "automatic" focus is taking it's time focusing.

The last video ends unexpectedly, my video card filled-up.

 

If there's something you would like me to video, drop me a line. 

Video 1 is HERE

Video 2 is HERE
.

Video 3 is HERE

Here's Your Guidebook to Taipei Air Station - UP-DATED

Click on the photo for a larger view.

Pete Tinderholt sent in a copy of his 1969 Taipei Air Station Guidebook for posting to our Taipei Air Station Web Site.

Pete worked at Site 4 on Taoyuan Air Base from 1971 through the summer of 1973.

Hope you enjoy looking through it.

You will find the complete copy HERE.

Anyone care to take a shot at guessing the location of guidebook cover photograph?

I don't know, but, I will guess the Grand Hotel.

What's your guess?

ADDED - 22 October 2010

Les Duffin sent over these photographs.  

Les believes the buildings are from the same area of the Grand Hotel as the photo on the cover of the booklet above.

 







 

Kids at the Bus Stop UPDATED

Photo courtesy of Ted Baxter, US Army MAAG, USTDC Comm Center

Boys and girls from outside the city, grouped together awaiting the bus for school.

These kids look pretty happy. Maybe they've never seen a foreigner so close-up.

A few boys have shed their shoes for the comfort of walking barefoot.

Reminds me of my 4th grade school days in south Texas when I often came to school barefoot.

It seemed to be the thing to do down in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. We even dug up the school grounds to play "keeps" marbles, and no parents were called to bring-in a pair of shoes for Johnny.

The kids of today are missing many of great things we experienced back in the day, as we grew up.

It's come to mind, after I revisited this article,  that I may have erred above when I wrote that some of the boys had shed their shoes for the comfort of walking barefoot. 

I believe, that possibly, these boys had no shoes to wear to school.

I apologize for inferring that these boys were barefoot for the comfort of walking without shoes.  I wrote this post without taking time to examine the times and situation surrounding these children in 1967.  It is quite possible these children were from a rural area where money is often quite scarce.

Nevertheless, the shoeless boys have grown into men and are hopefully leading productive lives today as they head toward their 50th Birthdays....

 

Taipei Images of 1965-1966

These photos were taken by Gary Wilson during 1965-1966.
Gary was assigned to Taipei Air Station with duty station at Shihmen.
Take a peek at Gary's Duty Station site here.

(1) Nanking Road as it was called in the 1960s.

(2) Another photo of Nanking Road,

(3) Another Taipei photo. Someone said the building was some type of Taiwan Military Hostel or Hotel facility.


(4) Does anyone recognize where this Taipei photo was taken?

(5) Taipei. My guess - we are looking toward the Main Railroad Station, right or left side of the street?

(6) Gary identified this photograph as Pedi-Haulers.

(7) Here is a group of Military Police or, are they Civilian Police, in Guard Mount formation on their way to change the Guard Posts.


Please leave your Comments below.
If you have a guess on identifying these old photos,
please refer to them by their number.

What Remains of Taipei Air Station?

This aerial view of Taipei Air Station was taken in 1975.

During the past couple of months, I've ridden the MRT (subway) to the old site of Taipei Air Station a number of times to look around. Every time I walked the streets in and around the area I discovered something new.

I took many photographs of the buildings and area. Each day, back on the MRT and returned home to down load the pictures into my computer and review them for posting to this Blog.

It became a difficult undertaking to go through all of the photos and come up with a few to post on the Blog which showed the buildings as they look today. It seemed impossible to present the area as it looks today in a few photos.

As I was watching a video on You Tube, it occurred to me that I could really show Taipei Air Station just as it is today, if I used You Tube. Everyone else was posting all kinds of video, why not me? I decided to take a video and see how it looked.

During a trip to Keelung the next day, I took video of the old port area. Many of you were in Keelung to pickup your POVs after they arrived from the Oakland. I remember my trip to Keelung in January 1966 to pickup my 1965 Mustang.

When I returned home from Keelung that evening, I downloaded the video onto my laptop and reviewed it. It looked pretty good. I decided to up-load it onto You Tube. I was already a member of You Tube by virtue of having this Blog Account. It took just about 5 hours to up-load the Keelung video to You Tube using ADSL from Taipei. Here is the Video of Keelung Harbor area, which was very close to the Keelung Main Railroad Station.

The rest is history... When I saw the quality of the video I had taken in Keelung, I was convinced that a Video Tour of Taipei Air Station would be my next project.

Today, in the series of videos listed below, I want to take you on a visual tour in and around the remaining buildings of Taipei Air Station.

Many who visited or were stationed at TAS in the mid 1970s and later will remember these buildings.

The buildings that remain today are here because they were returned to National Taiwan University (NTU) sometime after we closed-up shop in Taiwan.

As I remember, Taipei Air Station was originally constructed on farm land belonging either to the Agriculture Department of NTU or the Taiwan Department of Agriculture.

NTU has bulldozed some of our old buildings, constructed new buildings and some of our old TAS structures are still in use by NTU. One is being used as a Children's Nursery and School.

These 4 videos cover what's left of TAS. Not much remains, but our hand is still seen today in these structures, particularly in the old Chapel, which is now some type of Arts building.

I hope you enjoy these videos. If you worked at TAS from the mid 1970s on, you will recognize the buildings.

If you would like me to take videos of other spots in Taipei, please add a comment below.

I will also take video of other cities as I visit them and will try to find what's left of other sites and bases, BUT, I need to hear from you, pointing out the spots you would like to see again. If you could give me the coordinates on Google Earth I can probably find the site.

It has been my pleasure to present these videos for each of you who read my Blog.

I'm having the time of my life walking the streets and trying to explain what you're seeing on these videos. I know I have made some verbal errors in the films, please excuse my mistakes.

Here we go - Taipei Air Station as it looks in the Summer of 2010:

Video of the club and barber shop, we look outside and inside the building....

Video of the old 327th AD Headquarters Building, I walk up three floors and down a couple of halls to see what's there today.....

Video from the 10th Floor of the School of Business Management, looking out the west window

Video from the 10th Floor of the same building, looking northwest.

Four video's totaling about 30 minutes, viewing the old area as it looks today.

I'll be looking for your comments and ideas for more videos.

Tsi Gen -

Walk Down the Old Haggler's Row Street

Double Click on this and all photos for better view.
This map shows the route of the videos I took of Ximending,

All photographs below are courtesy of Shu Linkou Web Site

Earlier this month I rode the MRT =Taipei subway to Ximending and walked down the east side of the street that once contained the old "Haggler's Row" of buildings. Most of us ventured into Ximending at one time or another to visit the movie houses, shop in the stores or just sight-see. During my days in Taipei, Ximending was the "hot spot" of town.

This photograph was taken on the west side of Haggler's Row, in the rear of the buildings, looking south east.

The long stretch of buildings in front, going off left to right, including the railroad tracks were taken down and the road was widened.

The railroad tracks were put underground, along with the MRT tracks and Ximending MRT Station, which is very large.

Looking north toward the north gate and the old American Embassy.

Looking South. The new Chien Sheng Theater is seen on the left side of this photo.

Another view looking north, the First Department Store is the tall building on the right hand side of the street as well as the Chien Sheng Theater.

There are 3 videos in my walk, you can see where I began filming and where video 2 & 3 picked-up and ended by opening the Google Earth Map, the first picture on this page.

I hope you enjoy your walk down the old Haggler's Row Street.


Video # 1 starts here.

Video # 2 starts here.

Video # 3 starts here.

BE SURE TO CRANK UP THE VOLUME ON YOUR SPEAKERS.

Return to Taiwan in 2011 - UPDATED

We are thinking about sponsoring a 10-14 day tour of Taiwan in 2011.

We would spend a few days in Taipei on arrival. Give everyone an opportunity to see the old sites in the Taipei area.

Then travel down island to see Haualien, Taroko Gorge, Taitung, Oluanpi, Kenting, Kaohsiung, Tainan, Taichung, Sun Moon Lake and back to Taipei for a day before leaving for our homes.

If there is interest in a visit to Tainan AB and CCK AB it could possibly be arranged.

If you are interested in a trip let us know how many would be in your party, couples or singles, so we can work with some numbers and come up with a firmer cost factor.

We are all getting older and there may never be another opportunity to relive our fond memories of our times spent in Taiwan.

Next year will be the 100th year anniversary of the Republic of China. The big celebration will occur on 10 October 2011, 'Double Ten Day.'

The trip excluding air fare to and from Taiwan will run around $100-150 US per person per day, ball park and will include Hotel and bus transportation and guide.

The only out of pocket expense will be food, souvenirs and miscellaneous. Food will probably run somewhere around $30-40 US per day per person.

The final cost will be determined once we have a somewhat indication of how many we are working with. Cost will be reduced for couples.

If we go forward with this, the time frame will be in November 2011. This is the best weather in Taiwan as the Typhoon season is over, temperatures and humidity have dropped, much more comfortable weather. The 4th of July 2010, Taipei had a record high of 102.5 with humidity of 95%. You will definitely suffer in that type of weather.

Let us know your feelings on returning to Taiwan with us in November 2011.

Our trip last September was great, you can't imagine the stories that flowed throughout the trip and the laughter and joy it brought to our hearts, not to mention the fun of it all. A bunch of old folks walking around and just enjoying the sights and sounds, reliving the old days and having a great time with others that were in Taiwan themselves.

Can you come with us?

UPDATE - 4 August 2010----

We have received questions regarding spending a few more days in Taiwan before, or after our trip dates..

Certainly you are welcome to spend time in Taiwan or you may want to visit other Asian cities before or after our trip. We can arrange for you to stay at our Taipei hotel for those extra days if you would like. The free "Tourist Visa" you receive at the airport on arrival in Taiwan is good for 30 days.

In addition to our around the island itinerary, we hope to visit the old Club 63 for dinner one of the evenings we are in Taipei. We had dinner at the old club on our 2009 trip and everyone enjoyed visiting the old club again. Today, it is a beautiful and modern club serving the International Business Community.

Leave a Comment below, or email us at TaipeiAirStation@yahoo.com.

From Taipei, Tsi Gen......