A palace and museum - Keelung, Taiwan

Keelung officially known as Keelung City borders New Taipei to form the Taipei-Keelung metropolitan area. Keelung is a huge bustling city, day and night. We docked at Taiwan’s second largest port (after Kaohsiung) yesterday morning. Keelung is nicknamed the “Rainy Port” because of how often it rains, and true to its name, it rained while we were there as well. Many if not most of the city buildings are light with a covering of black mold due to their location near the ocean and the constant humidity. For this reason, I think it is a much prettier city at night by night than day.

Taipei (Taipei City) is the capital city of Taiwan. It is home to Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world with 101 above ground stories. It was built to withstand earthquakes above a 7 on the Richter scale and is considered by some to be the world’s most technologically advanced skyscraper. 

 

entrance to port of Keelung

Taipei 101 (center) - one of world's tallest buildings

Our day began with a visit to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall at Liberty Square, a memorial to the former military leader and first president of the Republic of China. The complex was begun in 1976, following his death. It is built as an octagonal (means “good luck”) using the colors of the national flag. Also at Memorial Hall Square is the National Concert Hall and the National Theater. We walked around the grounds and took photos for a bit before it started to rain. Most were visitors like ourselves, but we also saw the Honor Guards practicing, some teenage girls practicing their dancing and a young couple being photographed as (we assume) he was proposing to her. 

 

entrance gate - Chiang Kai-shek Memorial

National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

National Concert Hall - Memorial Hall Square

beautifully maintained grounds - Memorial Hall Square

a proposal?

And here's another short video of some young girls dancing - apparently this is a popular place to practice.

 

From there, we were driven to the National Palace Museum in Taipei where we spent a couple of hours.  It houses a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts and artworks, across 8,000 years of Chinese history. It was huge and one could have spent many hours there.

 

Took 3 generations to complete - 9 story pagoda

Precious Red Coral (formed over 500 years)

Court necklace with dong pearls, Qing Dynasty (1662-1722)

We arrived back at the ship in time for dinner, then went out with a few others to the Night Market which was only a few blocks from the port. It was another sensory experience. It was crowded, the heat was stifling and the sights and smells were a bit too much at times. Also, there were 8 of us and we were having trouble staying together in the crowd. 

 

friends from ship

 

I was overdressed with the rain gear, sweating profusely and feeling unsteady on my legs again so we decided to back to the ship before the others. Getting back into the AC, getting a shower and into my jammies was just what the doctor ordered. I wasn’t sorry that I went but I wasn’t sorry to head back to the AC either! Night market photos coming in my next post.

 

Keelung Port at night

walkway near where ship was docked