Most polynesians originated on Taiwan, spreading east across the Pacific as far as Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The island was named Ilha Formosa (Beautiful Island in Portuguese) by Europeans, with the Dutch establishing a trading port on southern Taiwan in 1634. The Chinese Qing dynasty took control of the island in 1682, making the island a province of China in 1885. The Japanese gained the island in 1895.
The Qing dynasty fell In 1911, and a civil war between communists and nationalists ensued starting in the late 1920s, with various attempts to combine forces to fight the Japanese. When Japan surrendered in 1945, control of Taiwan was returned to China, and the Civil war resumed on the mainland.
In 1949, the Chinese nationalists fled the mainland to Taiwan, expecting to return soon to reconquer the mainland from the Communists. While nominally claiming to be the legitimate government of all China (1), Taiwan is effectively an independent country, although the government cannot say that. Leading the Nationalist Kuomintang Party into exile was Chiang Kai-shek (2), Taiwan's dictator for 30 years until his death in 1975 (3).
The Changing of the guard at Chiang's memorial happens hourly and was a stop on a bicycle tour. The tour guide, Mike (4), presented a rather balanced portrayal of Chiang, whose reputation has been rehabilitation on the mainland as someone trying to undo the concessions granted to foreign powers through the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. Taiwanese descended from those on the island before the Chinese exile influx in 1949 are less enthusiastic.
Stopping for a snack (5), I chatted with 3 guys from the University of Texas. "Hasn't school started yet?" I asked. "Yes, but its syllabus week, so we're not missing anything." Two young women from Australia (one working in public accounting) rounded our the group. We poked into temples and by a street market to finish the tour.
Long train ride to the airport and a flight to Vietnam ended the day.
(1) The passports say Taiwan, Republic of China.
(2) Transliterated in the Pinyin system as Jiang Jieshi.
(3) His wife, née Soong Mei-ling, lived the last decades of her life in New York. She died there in 2003 at age 105.
(4) An American from Los Angeles, but married to a Taiwanese and resident on the Island for 14 years.
(5) Churros (although called something else), which the Taiwanese claim they taught to the Spanish.
Changing of the guard, Chiang Kai-chek memorial
National theater to the left, National Concery hall to the right
Bronze statue is bigger than Lincoln in D.C.
Cedar from the forests of Alishan on ceiling is aromatic.
Old city gates
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