A Saturday Seeing the Sights in Keelung

This weekend we drove up to Keelung to stay with friends in the hill community of Badu, between Taipei and Keelung. we stopped in Taipei on Friday to tour the National Palace Museum, the repository of the artifacts that Chiang Kai-Shek looted...er...saved from China when he was defeated by the Communists. Sebastian was very excited to see the famous jade artifacts, especially the fabulous Ching Dynasty cabbage. Unfortunately I obeyed Museum rules and did not take any pictures in the museum, although Japanese tourists ran around photographing everything in sight, and there was even an American missionary girl skittering from exhibit to exhibit damaging...er...taking pictures of everything with a flash. Praise Jesus! Don't the heathen have wonderful art?


The National Palace Museum.


The Museum is located in the hills north of Taipei.

After we visited the Museum we went to a Tibetan antique shop. The proprieter was from Tibet and spoke excellent English. The atmosphere was wonderful, so naturally we immediately spent money we didn't have on things we didn't need, in the best materialist consumer style. Praise Tsai Shen! Don't the heathen have great credit cards?


Juying bargains for jewelry.

Friday night we stayed at my friend Jeff's in Badu. Jeff, who has been here since the Ming Dynasty, has a vast storehouse of knowledge about Taiwan, and also makes some mean tacos. He has specialized in the local geography and history of the Keelung area, and has hiked and driven all over its features natural and not.

Satueday morning morning dawned bright and especially clear, with good views of the mountains around Keelung.


An apartment development in the hills above Keelung.

Jeff and his lovely wife Maria immediately took us for a pre-breakfast hike at a reservoir nearby, built under the Japanese, with the original plans done by British engineer who had surveyed the area in 1896, right after the Japanese conquest. As we started out, there was a good omen...an eight-legged friend dressed to kill.....


Naturally, I had to bag this gorgeous spider.

I've created a page to tell the rest of the story of our Saturday around Keelung.


More doins' on the Other Coast!

Taiwan