OELP Taiwan - Day 6

30th May 2014

-Shih-fen Old Street (sky lantern)

-National Palace Museum

-Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall

Yijun: Today is the second last day of our trip in Taiwan. We first visited Shih-Fen old town. What I find interesting at Shih-Fen old town would be the fact that you are allowed to walk on the railroads until a train comes in which you will have to get out of the way. You are also allowed to release lanterns into the sky, however, it was meant to be done at night and we could only book the Sun Yat Sen memorial in the afternoon so we had to give up on it. We wrote our wishes on the lantern bought by our teachers for our CID to write on, as a whole group we wrote all of our wishes and took a couple picture of us holding the lantern before we let it fly into the sky. 

Next, we had our lunch and proceeded to the Sun Yat Sen memorial, we learnt about the significance of Sun Yat Sen like, without him, China would not exist and the Qing dynasty might continue until now without Sun Yat Sen's revolution that chased the Qing away and restored the glory of the Chinese Republic. Without Sun Yat Sen, the Kuomintang would not have existed and Taiwan would not be like how it is this day.Thus, Sun Yat Sen is deemed as a very important person in Taiwan History.

Lastly we visited the National palace museum, we learnt about the various ways people from the old dynasty craft bronze and ceramics. We had seen some very nicely sculptured objects such as the walnut which was been sculptured into a boat with some people inside playing chess. That is utterly amazing to me as I believe modern professional would find it difficult to craft somthing like that and it was actually possible from a age when every technology was lower that ours. That proves that the traditional way is gradually being lost as technology becomes better. I also see ceramics that have the marking on it not drawn, but actually it was created together with the vase which also, hard to be done this day. These magnificent crafts needed to be preserved for the younger generations to see this also, thus the government tried so hard to preserve these crafts. I have also learnt that the sculptures and crafts that was been transported to Taiwan is all been kept at its top condition while the majority at China is either been lost or stolen or broken.

After this visit we went on to a biscuit shop to buy some food to bring back to our parents. I bought some pineapple cakes which my parents requested me to buy. The shop also provided sample which allow us to try out what is nicer to buy which is a very good way of attracting customers.

Sharlene: Finally got our turn to write our wishes on the lantern to be released into the sky! :') We've arrived at Shih-fen and the railway track was a really good place for photography! Also the track reminds me of the scene in 《那些年，我们一起追的女孩》!! 

After witnessing our sky lantern float away at Shih-fen Old Street, we went to Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The soldiers who stood by Sun Yat-sen's statue was standing there for an hour without blinking! How is that even possible? I was so amazed and also, the soldiers must be about 1.8m tall to be allowed to stand there I think. They're so cool! Anyway, we learnt about Sun Yat-sen's contributions to Taiwan such as his Three Principles of the People- Nationalism, Democracy and Livelihood. There were interactive ways to learning in this museum such as allowing us to cast a vote to either Sun Yat Sen, Huang Xing or Li Yuan-hong by stamping a red dot in the blank space of our wanted candidate, the commemorative stamp and also a painting of Dr. Sun Yat-sen that seems like he is looking at you when you walk from left to right. We saw how important and influential Sun Yat Sen was to Taiwan. In Singapore, I think that Mr. Lee Kuan Yew should be remembered because when Singapore grew from being a developing country to a developed country over 30 years when he was in charge of this nation. He has contributed so much to Singapore, such as the formation of People's Action Party (PAP) with some other people. Many development and success of our country goes to him. Thus I think that future generation should remember Mr. Lee Kuan Yew as the founding father of Singapore. 

The National Palace Museum. There were too many people, too many queues and too many exhibitions. As there were many tour groups in an enclosed room filled with precious exhibits, we had these headphones that were connected to a device each, playing what our tour guide says. Just like a walkie talkie, but only a one way conversation. It really amazed me because the museum actually thought of this way so that tour guide can have an easier time communicating with the group and visitors can also learn the most out of this trip. As we were touring the museum, I also saw other visitors who were alone, holding a black colored device. I think there is a recorded explanation to it that will play upon registering the photo of the exhibit taken by the visitor. Although the museum was filled with people, these creative ways made learning a whole lot easier. However, there was this group of people that annoyed me. They kept trying to squeeze past us, cut out queue and talked loudly. They may be extremely excited to see the beautiful collection but their actions were rude and disrespectful. We want to learn the enriching history and witness the skillfully crafted artwork too. So I feel that as visitor, we should be considerate and practice patience. Also, the size and effort put into this National Palace Museum shocked me because I did not know that these past works were treasured so dearly. One being the carefully crafted artwork from elephant tasks. The tiny details made by hand were so refined that no one in the modern time can craft now. This really shows how important art were back then and how skillful the people were. Now with advanced technology, we take more importance in studies and money instead. Hopefully I can continue to learn to appreciate and admire these artworks from the past. 

After the National Palace Museum, TASTING AND PURCHASE OF 凤梨树 AND 牛奶太阳饼 !!! Mostly for our relatives and family. 

Then the day ended with 小笼包 for dinner :-) #satisfied

[Cr: Emily and her fantastic photography skills]

Shaun:Today is our second last day in Taiwan. We went to the Shih-Fen old town, which was a famous site for releasing sky lanterns. We walked on the railway tracks and also wrote our wishes on the sky lantern. Although had done it before, it felt different this time as it was at such a memorable place with my friends. I really hope the wishes I wrote would come true! 

Next, we went to the Sun Yat Sen memorial hall. We learnt about his contributions to China by ending the dynastic rule and introducing democracy, nationalism and livelihood.

Fiona: The first place we went this morning was shihfen to release our sky lanterns. At shihfen, we were allowed to walk on the train tracks and take pictures on them, even though they were still in use. I was surprised as someone can very easily get hurt while walking on the train tracks. The scenery was beautiful and we got to buy a lot of souvenirs. When it finally got to the time where we could start writing our well-wishes on our sky lanterns, we got very excited. Some of the well-wishes I wrote were “十分幸福” and “天天开心”. Each person got their turn to write their own well wishes, and when it was finally time to release it into the sky, we cheered and marveled at the paper lantern with all our well-wishes and dreams slowly taking flight. It was an exciting experience releasing sky lanterns and I hope I can do it again in the future! Next, we went to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. Everyone was fascinated by the soldiers who were guarding at the entrance of the hall, as they had to stand still, at the same position, not allowed to blink or fidget for one entire hour. I was amazed by their perseverance and responsibility to guard the Sun Yat Sen statue, and I would never be able to stand like that for so long. As we were watching the soldiers changing shifts, I noticed that some tourists were very inconsiderate and did not abide by the rules there. During the changing of shifts, there was to be no flash photography, but some tourists chose to ignore the sign and did not turn off the flash on their devices. I feel that they were very inconsiderate by doing so as just one tiny flash might cause the soldiers to blink or get blinded by the flash. These tourists should spare a thought for the soldiers who had been working and training hard for their guarding duty, and not just care about themselves and their photos. After the changing of shifts, our tour guide at the Memorial Hall, Ms Yang, brought us to see the many exhibitions and things that were put on display there. We learnt a lot about Sun Yat Sen and his contributions, and I realised how significant his visits to Singapore were. This helped us understand Sun Yat Sen more, and might also help us in our History subject (we are learning about Chinese Revolution) this year! After the visit to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, we proceeded to the National Palace Museum. The exhibitions there were very interesting and most of it included pottery and relics from China during its imperialism. We learnt about ancient China and how each exhibition has a story of its own. As we approach the end of this OELP trip, we are trying to learn as much as possible to be able to acquire more knowledge here before returning home.

Esther: today was the second last day in taiwan ((nooooooo :-(((((( )) 

In the morning, we went to visit shifen old street where we were supposed to put up sky lanterns. It would have been prettier to put them up at night, but since we had to go somewhere else in the afternoon, we could only put it in the morning. Oh well, its better than nothing. So we went there and had some time for ourselves where we shopped for souvenirs and look at the nearby scenery. There were shops selling miniature sky lantern with wishes written on them. Then, it was finally our turn to write wishes for ourselves and we all wrote what we wanted to achieve. I learnt that when someone sees a sky lantern, they can pick it up from the ground and recycle it oops.

After having our lunch, we went to the Sun Yat Sun memorial hall where we saw the guard changing ceremony, (is that what you call it?) and also learnt some things about Sun Yat Sen like his three principals: nationalism, livelihood and democracy and his significance to the mordern china and taiwan. It was very interesting as the museum had make use of technology to show us some of his habits.

Lastly, we went to visit the long awaited national palace museum. I really looked forward to it as we had heard a lot about the jade cabbage, and could not wait to see it ourselves. The museum gave out free earphones, and a device that let us hear what our tourguide was saying by just speaking in his microphone, and that would reduce the amount of sound produced by everyone as there was a lot of people queueing up and we might not hear what he was saying. We were introduced to many artifacts and learnt the story behind some of them. 

Moments before our sky lantern was released...

And Sharlene finally opened the water bottle herself after no success for 6 days in the trip. (yay to no arm strength)