Cihu Memorial Park with the East West Culture Project

Had a full day on Sunday!  Maria (met her at Elias' birthday last week) told me about the East West Culture Project.  It's a group of people who gather about once a month and do various "cultural" things such as hikes, dinners, mediation, etc.  On Sunday, they had planned a trip to the Chen Kai Shek statue park in Cihu, Daxi (in the country side).

We all met at the South Exit 2 at Taipei Main Station 10am sharp.  Well it was supposed to be sharp, but we ended up waiting for stragglers until around 10:30 before heading downstairs together and boarding one of the TRA Trains (local trains).  I don't know the cost but it was probably a few $ to get from Taipei Main Station to Taoyuan Train Station.  Along the way we passed Sanxia and Yingge.  Good to know cause those places are quite fun to take visitors (Sanxia has a really cool old district, and Yingge is well known for their pottery and ceramics).

After the 20 min ride to Taoyuan we found the bus depot.  I hadn't eaten anything yet and neither had Jane (one of the many new people I met).  She is American Taiwanese (born in Taiwan but raised almost her whole life in America).  There was a small restaurant attached to the bus depot so we quickly slurped down these pork noodle soup things (pictured below).  Really simple but nice flavour.  Cost was $50NT each ($1.60) and that also included a side of greens.

We boarded the bus after 10 minutes and ended up crammed standing for the majority of the 30 minute ride.   I could barely stand on the bus as my head would touch the roof slightly.  However, one of the polish guys that joined us, Pawel, is 6' 6" and he had to hunch over the majority of the ride until a seat became available.  Poor guy!

A local Taiwanese girl continued to stare at us during the ride.  Our group of foreigners was quite large and we were chatting a lot in English and I think this local girl found it interesting.  She asked to take a photo of the blonde white girl (Maria) who was with us and once we departed, she insisted she get a group picture of us with her phone. lol.  She snapped a pic with her friend, and then she traded places and got into the picture with us.  Haha kind of felt like we were celebrities!

Being photographed by the locals

Waiting at the bus stop for the Cihu Shuttle Bus

 Another crowded bus ride later and we had arrived at the Cihu Chen Kai Shek Memorial Park.  It was nestled into the foot hills.  The weather looks a bit grey, and it was misty but the temperature was still quite hot. Mid-Upper 20's I'm sure (t-shirt weather even though it would occasionally sprinkle).

To give you a bit of background on Chen Kai Shek (CKS), he was a Dictator of Taiwan who used military brutality to rule Taiwan.  Many people hate this guy.  Jane jokingly said it was like having a park in Germany dedicated to Hitler.  And the reason this park exists is because many of the schools all around Taiwan, once this leader was out of power, wanted to get rid of the statues and buffs of him.  So they all sent their statues to this one park.  And now there's about a collection of 150 statues.  All of the same guy in this one park.  Quite bizarre!

CKS on a horse greets you upon crossing the water bridge into the park.

Every statue you see is the same guy! (except 1; his son)

They all look like stone or metal, but some of them are made of plastic. lol

There were about 10 of us on the hike.  The guy in the hat, Eric, is one of the organizers.  He's from Quebec!

They really captured the "shame" of the dog. lol.  I should have taken a picture of the symbol on the top of this sign.  It's a picture of a guy golfing with a big red cross through it.  I guess they had problems with people golfing here!

Left to right, back to front: Me, Pawel, Eric, Maria, Jane, Eva, Damien, Jack, Case, Rich, Noel, and Cordie.

"Hacks"?

A "hike" was supposed to be part of the itinerary and we hadn't really found any except for this steep muddy path into the jungle.  We hiked up for maybe 10 minutes but it started raining and the path was already muddy/slippery enough so we headed back down.

All the jars with the red lids are used to make alcohol from rice.  I 

We ended up finding a path up and out of the park along this lake.  Quite beautifully landscaped.  The path led to CKS's mausoleum.

black swans abound

Jack, Eric, and Case enjoying the walk

CKS's tomb

Where all the people are gathered is where the tomb is (inside those windows)

Guard going cross eyed

Ali was just over and telling me that these guys can't move or even blink.  They have 2-4 hour shifts where they have to just stand there completely still.  And the worst part is that they can't even blink!  Apparently there are guys beside them that have clothes to wipe away the tears from the soldiers' eyes. Brutal!

After the tomb we found our way back to the bus stop.  We sat around there for at least a good half hour.  It would have been a drag but the people we were with were pretty cool and a lot of fun to talk to.

The bus we took brought us back to Daxi where we boarded a different bus that would take us back to Taipei.  It was a long ride and I found myself sitting next to Case; A dutch business owner from the Nederlands.  His business does contact based manufacturing for North American and European clients.  Was really interesting hearing his background (he's been back and forth from Taiwan for over 12 years).  He is fluent in both English and Dutch and he said his Chinese and French was also really good.

The bus dropped us off at Yongning MRT station, which is the most south west station on the MRT.  We rode it a few stops back into town to Xinpu MRT station where we got off and went to Le Rouge, a pizza place run by some foreigners that the organizers knew.  The place had a really cool vibe to it despite having extremely low ceilings and door ways (less than 5" 6' tall).

We had just sat down and started to figure out what we wanted to order when Case, while trying to climb over the seats to get into the booth, smacked his head on one of the cement beams (not having seen it).  He had a minor concussion but the worst part was that he was bleeding quite a bit from the top of his head.  We stopped the bleeding with napkins and he took a seat in the back room where one of the staff took a better look at his head.  I'm sure it hurt like hell, but he was hungry and ended up staying to eat dinner with us (nursing his head with an ice bag).

The pizza was delicious!  And here's the link to their fb page which has menu, pricing, and location info in case I want to go back: https://www.facebook.com/lerougefrancis.  And the bill ended up only costing about $9 each.  A bit more expensive than a usual meal, but well worth it.  I would definitely go back!

After dinner we went back onto the MRT (case took a cab to the hospital to get his head checked out).  Around Taipei Main Station most people got off and took transfers to other lines including myself.  I was home by 8pm.

Long day but had a fantastic time meeting some new friendly people.  Everyone is really nice, and for the last 2 events I've attended, lots of people don't know other people so I don't at all feel like a new person stepping into a "new group."

Rich, one of the organizers, is putting together an 8 week traditional meditation course with a Chinese Sensai. I'm thinking of joining it.  Also looking forward to the next East West Culture Project event!