Taiwan

After living and working in Taipei for two weeks some other Davidson students arrived in Taiwan to intern or do a mini semester in Taichung. So over the weekend I went to visit them, including my sister Sarah. Saturday morning I biked to a nearby bus station, took a three hour bus to Taichung, then biked to the Wesley house on Tunghai University's campus where some Davidson people were staying.

Wesley house (one of the pictures in the gallery) is a house designed by architect Chen Chi Kwan and encorporates some traditional chinese architectural styles. After getting a room for the night I joined the others to attend a grand opening of a resteraunt on the school's campus which involved several speeches and a wonderful assortment of tea time foods. For dinner we joined all of the Davidson students to eat at a rechao (热炒) resteraunt, a taiwanese casual style of dining where a large group can gather and eat several hot quickly stir fried dishes family style. After dinner we rented a room for karaoke for a few hours.

The following day we started with a traditional taiwanese breakfast of congee and various side dishes wonderfully prepared by the house's manager, Wennie. Then we attended church on Tunghai University's campus. The service was in Luce Chapel, an architectural masterpiece frequently mentioned on lists of attractions to see in Taichung. The chapel was designed by chinese-american architect I.M.Pei, a famous architect whose projects include the glass pyramaid for the Louvre. The underlying design of the building is inspired from the traditional four sided chinese family courtyard. The sides are parabolic hyperboloids and when entering the chapel your eyes are meant to follow the curved surface up to the skylight backbone and the sky. Although it was hard to understand much of the chinese service due to my limited language proficiency it was still a wonderful experience.

After church we took the bus to downtown Taichung where we first ate lunch at a vietnamese place we found. Then we visited Miyahara, a famous ice cream shop in Taichung. Situated in a red brick building, it was orginally a large ophthalmology clinic. The inside of Miyahara was remodeled after Hogwarts from the movie Harry Potter and sells many desserts and goods in addition to ice cream. Although quite expensive, the ice cream was wonderful. The process starts with waiting in a line which at times can stretch extremely long. Then there are around 30-40 flavours available making it quite hard to choose. I ended up getting the 100% chocolate and the oolong tea flavours. On top was various deluxe toppings including a cheesecake square, pineapple cake, a matcha cookie, and a lemon cracker. After ice cream we explored Taichung's second market, then a repurposed train station shopping area, followed by a large shopping mall. For dinner we met up with some others and ate at an Indian resteraunt. Following dinner, I packed up my stuff and got on a bus back to Taipei, tired, but happy to have visited.