Sunday, February 8, 2009

Taipei - part 2

While we were in Taipei, we went to the Chang Kai Chek Memorial. I was amazed at how much detail, time, and effort must have went in to build it. The memorial has 87 stairs going up to the main building to memorialize the 87 years of Chang Kai Check's life. It really was one of those places where it took your breath away.

Here is a little history for you. Chang Kai Chek became the leader of the Republic of China sometime in the late 1920's. He was anti-communist and during the Chinese civil war in 1945, he failed to lead the people to a free China forcing him to move his government to Taiwan. Taiwan is now a free country, but China still is ruled under Communism. While being in Taiwan, I have learned about many groups that are being killed in China because they are gathering together and this somehow scares Chinese officials. People gathering together in parks to meditate are killed for being in a group, people that are gathering together to dance are being killed because they are in a group and so on. It surprises me that this sort of thing happens but it is nice to know that the Chang Kai Chek Memorial is built in defense of somebody that had a vision for a better world.



















This is a video that I tried to take of the military guard. I think it is sort of funny:

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

Um excuse me my love... Who is that strange man on bended knee?

That memorial is beautiful! So jealous!

I love and miss you terribly!

Jaimie said...

The strange man on bended knee is Joseph. He proposed to me there. It was a really special moment so I'm glad we got it on camera :)