26 December 2010

We woke late but luckily the hotel breakfast buffet went on until noon, so we filled up on cinnamon toast. We took the hotel's shuttle service to the nearest MRT station, across the river, and rode the subway to Yuanshan. Our original plan was to visit the Martyrs' Shrine but on enquiry it seemed quite hard to get to. Right by the station was the massive International Floral Expo site, so we ended up staying there for several hours. It was laid out with thousands of flowers and plants in various landscaped sections, each with its own theme.

Emily was very taken with a snapped off poinsettia she found and I prayed that no-one would think she had broken it and tell us off. She also liked the pineapple and kumquat plants that were laden with fruit.

We moved on through the huge site to the childrens' playground, as we felt that it was time for Emily to get something out of the trip. There were several sets of play equipment and also some fairground-type rides. We had a picnic first, during which Emily had to endure much attention. In fact we hardly saw any caucasians during the whole holiday and she had lots of people asking to have their photos taken with her, which she agreed to but never smiled for. We all went on the mini Ferris wheel

then Nick and Emily rode the spinning teacups (they make me too dizzy).

We used the free shuttle bus to go to the end of the park and our arrival coincided with a parade, consisting of two caterpillar floats and many costumed actors engaging with the crowd.

It was feeling bitterly cold by then, so we got the bus back to the site entrance. I spotted a Starbucks logo so we stopped and had refreshments at the large outdoor food court, then stayed a while longer to admire another themed garden. The site is only a mile from the domestic airport, Songshan, and every minute or two a landing aircraft flew close overhead, to Emily's delight.

With darkness falling we made our way across the city to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall - he being the founder of Taiwan. Emily was really tired by then and asking to go back to the hotel, so we only stayed 20 minutes. We wished we had gone earlier as it was an impressive complex. There were two massive halls that looked as though they had been lifted straight out of the Forbidden City. On the other two sides of Liberty Square between them, was a quintuple-arch and a statue of the great man housed in a special temple-like structure. It all looked very grand lit up for the night.

We reluctantly turned for home. In the station we stopped for take-out sushi, which was to be our dinner in the hotel room, and Emily was completely revived by the discovery of a two-foot long cardboard carp (which we later found to contain a huge rolled sheet of some sort of fishy wafer), which she lighted on with glee and refused to leave without. From Xinpu station we got in a very dodgy taxi for the short ride back to Chateau de Chine. The rear window was stuck open with a tatty black cloth curtain in its stead. At the hotel we chilled out in our little lounge and after Emily had gone to bed we had a belated Christmas celebration, with wine, chocolate and a film.