Well, it’s been 3 days in Taiwan and I have to say It is absolutely remarkable how well this trip is going so far. We arrived early on Monday morning and were picked up by Mr. Joe, who owns the Victoria Dao House in which Matthew Learning, Stefanie, and myself live. Peter and Neil caught the same flight, so the 5 us have been together the whole time so far. Architecture in Taipei reminds me a lot of Japan actually, the roads are narrow and incredibly clean, busy with plenty of motorbikes. The first meal we had a very simple roadside street restaurant, which consisted of Taipei signature rice balls, brown noodles, soymilk, and a strange smoky sour plum juice. This is where we met Karen, and Karen 2 AKA Li Mei who has been our main translator. Li Mei lived in Vancouver for 20 years and was one of the main contacts that has acted as a link between the Vancouver and Taiwan communities because of her relationship with Joe and Master Phillip Chen. So far, we have stayed in Mr. Joe’s other holy house in Xizhi District.
The hospitality, generosity, and overall orderliness shown by our hosts is truly inspiring and the highest testament to their character. Joe has organized our itinerary, our meals, and the transportation and drivers, with the help of Karen. He has humbly outdone himself, and I think he probably makes a habit of doing that. Karen’s organizational aptitude and sense have been on point the entire trip
We quickly visited the massive memorial hall of Chiang Kai-Shek, who was a major figure in the 20th century history of Taiwan, acting as a political leader for 37 years from the 1950s until the 1980s. Land reform and cultural reform were allowing entrepreneurship to flourish were part of his contributions, but also his suppression of free speech was part of his infamy. His interference with courts was common, upping dissidents’ sentences from mere incarceration to death, with cases tracing his orders directly for responsible for 297 people put to death. This time was known as the white period – ending in 1987 when full freedom of speech was finally won.
Settling in the holy house was easy, and four of us went for a quick walk through an enchanting little walkway behind the house spackled with plants that residents routinely take care of; we’ve noticed keeping copious plants is a normal activity in Taipei as seen on the balconies. The flora Here reminds me hugely of a cross between subtropical Queensland and Japan, with eucalyptus, bamboo stands, occasional evergreen pines and deciduous trees mixed with vines, lush ferns and fungi.
The delicious and visually impressive dinner that evening was prepared by a friend and colleague of Joe’s, who runs a grocery store and must be a trained chef. The food of this entire trip is to be of the Qing Kuo style (pronounced “ching-ko”), an oriental vegetarian style without meat, onions, or garlic. The spread was buffet style with a notable amount of great meat-replacement products that outdo any beyond burger I’ve come across thus far, and the ham and pork flavours and textures they’ve developed are very convincing not to mention the fish, breaded chicken, and crispy calamari. Part of the purpose of the trip is to understand and work toward a future import business of these meat-alternative products.
The next morning, we woke very early (jet lag, 4:30am) but I was astounded to be feeling absolutely 11/10 fantastic physically (minus my injured knee) which I attribute partly to the amazing food we had. We visited a fantastic mountaintop temple early, and our group cohesion really started to thrive as our philosophical and real-world discussions was aided by the collective wonder from the new country and amazing experiences. The drive through the windy, serpentine, scenic mountain road took us to the fabulous and hip Shilin district, where we settled into a classy Qing Kuo restaurant, which continually brought out the best vegetarian food I’ve ever had, dish after dish, until we were communally stuffed. This meal completely solidified our faith that veggie dishes can be as delicious as anything you’ve ever tasted; doubts erased and truth realized.
Full and ready to move, we were taken in the 8-seater Toyota Granva van to the national palace museum in Taipei, full of Taiwanese historical artifacts collectively arranged to impart the cultural identities and porcelain, poetry, Buddhism, jade, and much more into the political tapestry of the ages.
Back at the holy house, we were given more instruction and practice in some of the dao prayers that are customary. The little details in the prayer rituals reveal the depth of attention and awareness that goes in to cultivating the Dao, the way, and Wu Wei (effortless action). Yet another amazing Qing Kuo meal by Joe’s colleague and her family left us with immense gratitude to share.
We then went to the Raohe Street night market street, which as the nicest night market I’ve ever been to, and we enjoyed some fluffy Soufflés among the odd smells and interesting stores. As I gazed at the platinum rings I sought out, I realized that I would need to earn my own sense of right to buy something like that through my own persistent discipline and effort.
This morning, after our second morning of Tai Chi lessons from Joe, we packed and said goodbye to Joe’s holy house and left to visit the Art park that was created out of an old tobacco factory that made cigarettes for Japan. This was near the Iconic Taipei 101 tower (we had a discussion, and agreed it really does, in fact, look like a bunch of stacked noodle boxes), and the Sun Yei-Se memorial pavilion, the founder of the people republic of China.
For lunch we continued south to another holy house in an apartment complex, which was catered lovingly by one of the cultivators there who’s mother had established the house 30 years earlier. We were mutually honoured by the fact that this visit marked the first time foreigners had ever visited the house since its inception and discussed some premonitions the community members had that pointed toward our arrival days before. It felt homely and welcoming, like family and community.
After lunch we went to a science park that was a display of the current innovations and past successes of the organization that had worked to streamline and put Taiwan on top of the world in terms of chip manufacturing and a leader of many other technological areas. This served as a consolation visit because we wanted to visit the largest chip factory in the world, but tours are booked out many months in advance and we were unable to procure one in such a timely fashion.
Now we are nearly at the floating temple where we will stay in South Taiwan for a few days. The landscape on the drive revealed many bridges, mountains, classic Asiatic landscapes of rice paddies and small, square housing blocks. I’m looking forward to the rest of this trip!
Love to you and homies, Buddha and Guan Yin 😉 Thanks for reading!