FOR our summer break we got a tour with Travelocity that included our flight, hotel, airport pick-up and two city tours.
One of this was a hop in hop out tour of Taipei
I have done the London, Melbourne and San Diego hop in hop out and so was excited to experience another.
One of the business lines not fully explored in Baguio, my husband and I experience an organized two day tour of Bohol which could be replicated even in our city. Unfortunately, our city is losing its historical sites like the post office, Governor Pack Baden Powell, the Abanao horse trough and other historical spots that speak of our heritage.
Last May 23 we took a taxi to the Taipei main station, and the taxi driver does not know where the pick-up point was and dropped us at the far end of the station. We had to walk far, asking people, showing them the map which was in Chinese character.
When we finally reached the main station, one pointed east so we went east then another pointed west and we went west.
The temperature was above 30 which is beyond my tolerance and I was sweating all over, while my husband was just walking by the building waiting for me to find the right spot. I was ready to give up when I saw a man who, I perceive to be a sweeper of the ground, and I showed him the map, he pointed south and said something in Chinese and pointed southeast, which I interpreted as south for getting in the bus and SE for getting off the bus and so we followed his instruction and there it was, the bus with the tour guide.
The tour has two routes, the red and the blue, and the ticket we got allowed us the red and the blue routes. So took the red route which brought us around the eastern side of Taipei and after completing that we took the Blue bus that took us to the northern part.
We spent nearly two hours at the National Palace Museum. There are four floors and my husband was engrossed and explained to me some of the historical data and physical material. We got our tickets and given a map, some had literature like Gallery 103 the Treasures from the National Palace Museum’s Collection of Qing Dynasty Historical Documents and gallery 104 the Gems and collection of rare and Antiquarian Books, which we visited last.
We first went to the second floor and saw amazing jars, flat vases etc. in under glazed blue Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty. The Kneaded clay ceramics the Song Dynasty and the paintings and calligraphy of the Tang Dynasty.
The third floor housed the gathered treasures including the Jadeite cabbage of the Qing Dynasty. Also materials from the Zhou dynasty (ca 9th century to 771 BCE) Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) Shang Dynasty (13- 11th century). It really was amazing and these people who would come to visit the Museum to learn more of their ancient history and traditions. Amazing still is the commitment of the government to maintain the museum. They are closed on Sundays and holidays.
After lunch we passed by the Zhishan garden beside the Museum before going to the bus stop. Similar to the London bus, this is a double decker and top floor has a portion which was air conditioned and the other portion of the bus is top down.
The red bus route passes by the Chang Kai Shek memorial park, the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, the Taipei 101, Huashan Cultural and Creative Industries Park, Daan Park (biggest park) and several shopping areas.
The blue route passes the fine arts Museum, the Ambassador Hotel, Shilin Official Residence among others. We missed the shopping areas, as we were more interested on the cultural stops which were many and one day tour is not enough to if we have to explore all of them.
They have deities enshrined in most of these buildings and stops and we see tourist and locals bow down and offer incense.
Going over the hop in hop out tours, they highlighted cultural, historical and new additions like the Taipei 101. In 2013, I organized a Spiritual Tour of Baguio City, maybe I can organized that and sell it. We may lack historical sites to highlight should there be an organized city tour of Baguio.