Cycle Taiwan Day 21 - More of Taipei and no more Bicycle

Good morning Ximen, let's patronise this Hockchew fishball shop 永富魚丸店. I hope my Hockchew wife would like it. It's located at Neijiang Street (GPS : 25.041649, 121.505513)

The fishball, meatball and dumpling in a sticky soup, tasted very good and I enjoyed it very much.

Another yummy choice, fish balls in clear soup.

The stir fried beehoon was delicious too, I have fallen in love with Taiwanese beehoon somehow it's different from ours.

After a short walk we managed to find the Presidential Office Building 總統府 and we found out that it is open to the public. We took up the queue together that required a security check and in no time we were in the building. By the way it was free of charge. It is located nearby Taipei Main Station, Ximending, 228 Park, and the National Taiwan Museum.

The in-house guide taking us through this gorgeous historical building with interesting commentary. It was after the Chinese Civil War, the building began to serve as the Presidential Office Building for the Kuomintang leadership.

Originally it was built to serve as the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan and that was during the Japanese colonial period.

The office of the many past presidents.

Portraits of the current and last two past Presidents of Taiwan.

The power of the people in Taiwan is truly a strong and powerful force in the ever changing weather of the country.

The president and her cat at work. This must be Think Think one of her two Presidential cats in the office.

Tsai Ing-wen 蔡英文 was born in 31 August 1956, is a Taiwanese politician and the President of the Republic of China (中華民國總統), commonly known as Taiwan. Tsai is the second president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and the first woman elected to the office. She is also the first president to be of both Hakka and aboriginal descent (a quarter Paiwan from her grandmother), the first unmarried president, the first to have never held an elected executive post before presidency, and the first to be popularly elected without having previously served as the Mayor of Taipei (the capital city of Taiwan). Nice knowing the President.

The building has sustained damage from Allied forces and was restored after the war to serve as the office of the Governor-General of Taiwan province and military affairs office. 

Somewhere near Presidential Office Building 總統府 we stumbled into 2/28 Peace Memorial Park 二八和平公園. After the end of World War II, the Japanese occupation of Taiwan had ended, with administrative control of the island being transferred to China, which at the time was ruled by the Republic of China government and Kuomintang party. The events of the Chinese Civil War led up to the KMT fleeing from the communists in mainland China in 1945 to re-establish the ROC government in Taipei City with the goal of regrouping and reclaiming the mainland of China. As Taiwan island (Formosa) was previously part of Japan, the KMT worked to remove Japanese influence from the island and promote pan-Chinese cultural values while limiting Hokkien-Taiwanese language and culture, and replaced most public offices and government procedure with the KMT while seizing monopoly control of the previous Japanese state-operated industries such as mining, sugar, tea, and tobacco.

Two years after the repatriation of Taiwan to the ROC, Taiwan Monopoly Bureau agents were sent to investigate illicit cigarette sales, assaulting the suspect in the process which escalated into a confrontation with locals. During their escape, agents fired into the crowd, killing one bystander. The next morning on 28 February, activists gathered outside the Governor-General's Office demanding accountability for the events of the previous day. Security forces were present, and the scene quickly turned violent with several deaths. The public was distrusting of the KMT and presented a list of 32 Demands including greater autonomy for Taiwan Province (of the ROC), government transparency, and free elections. All over Taiwan there were cases of rioting and violence against the KMT government and institutions, with some local militia fighting against the KMT army. For several weeks, the civilians were effectively in control of Taiwan until 8 March when more ROC army personnel arrived from Fujian Province to quell the rioting, after which the KMT ruled with an iron fist until 1987 to prevent social uprising and deter communist influence, a period now known as White Terror. Estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000+ casualties during the events surrounding the 2/28 Incident.

Jieshou Park 介壽公園 is just next to the building.

A lovely park located just in front of the Presidential Office Building that houses a monument dedicated to Lin Sen; President of the National Government of the Republic of China from 1931 until 1943.

We then walked to MRT NTU Hospital Station 捷運台大醫院站 as we were planning to have our lunch at Taipei 101 food court. At the station we saw another political protest again the current government.

Big and interesting portrait board at the underground train station.

Taipei 101 besides being an iconic structure it has a good food court at the basement. The food court was crowded and getting a table was not easy. The variety of food in the food court is pretty wide and alluring. These were our indulgence for the afternoon.

We headed to Wufenpu 五分埔 (GPS : 25.047108, 121.578350) by taking a MRT from Taipei 101 to Songshan Station 松山站. This bargain paradise is a huge maze of lanes and alleys full of garments.

While I was taking a rest at Wufenpu Park nearby I saw these friendly squirrels on the tree trunks nibbling their food in containers secured on the trunks.

Originally this place was the place of the aboriginal Ketagalan (凱達格蘭族) people, the land was purchased by five Fujianese families, renaming the area Wufenpu, or five tracts of land, and was primarily farm land until after World War II in 1958 when the land was used to relocate people who were affected by a typhoon that flooded Taipei City, nearby Raohe Night Market (饒河夜市). We ended up buying a few pieces of garment for our boys and had enough of shopping.

I think this mee sua tasted better than Ah Zhong's at Zimending. The mee sua came with the standard braised intestine and oysters. 

This stall 五分埔阿家麵線 can be found at  GPS : 25.046830, 121.578307 somewhere inside Wufenpu. Remember to take away your empty bottles or trash (that are not purchased from the stall) after you have finished your food because you be asked to do so if you don't.

That's for Day 21 in Taipei City.