It’s Thursday, aftershocks are more sparse, and field studies have resumed. Today it was our turn to visit Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the National 228 Museum.
We walked into the enormous Memorial grounds and it’s hard to describe the scale of the three structures (National Theatre, National Concert Hall, and CKS Memorial).
Off to lunch. Dez and Donovan went in search of Peking Duck (turns out most places require a 90 minute call-ahead). The rest of us found a Mexican spot that the kids were craving 🙂
Next was a visit to the National 228 Museum, which commemorates an anti-government protest that took place on 2/28/1947 which led to the Nationalist government killing thousands of Taiwanese citizens. Considered one of the most important events in the Taiwan independence movement, it wasn’t recognized by the government until 1995.
There was some confusion about the day’s history lesson after this visit. It was the nationalist government that committed these atrocities. The same nationalist government run by Chiang Kai-shek that we had just seen being memorialized in such dramatic fashion. I could sense the cognitive dissonance. Was he good? Or bad?
After returning to the hotel the entire class went to the Rao He night market. They tried stinky tofu and a handful of other dishes.
My favorite was the black pepper bun 胡椒餅. Really juicy pork inside dough cooked in a brick oven. This place has some awards from Michelin.
We gathered back at the hotel for one last surprise. Today was Daniel’s birthday so we all sang Shēngrì Kuàilè and had cake 🙂
