Tuesday 5 November, 2024

We left the Guest House/AirBnB after breakfast and headed to our warmshowers host. He is working today but gave us the instructions to get into his apartment. The instructions were very funny: Go down the small alley at the back of the shops, there will be a grey steel door. Put your hand through the opening and open the bolt. Then there will be another steel door, the key for that is on a small ledge, see yellow cord. When you have opened the lock, put your hand through that door and slide back the bolt. You will be in the storage area where you can leave your bikes.  Follow the stairs up three flights, I will leave my door open for you. He did, his apartment door was wide open.  Thanks Mark it made for a funny story and a good start to the day.

Before we got to Mark’s apartment we came across the statue of Koxinga on horseback. The statue is 8 metres long, 4 metres wide and 7 metres tall and weighs 200 metric tons. The statue was carved from Quanzhou White granite. This statue was presented to Tainan in 2008 by the society of Koxinga Studies, Quanzhou, China as part of intercity exchanges.

We investigated the garden area and found the shrine to Koxinga.  All of the information was in English and Chinese which made it more interesting. I also picked up a pamphlet explaining who Koxinga was and why this shrine was created for him. Koxinga was of Chinese and Japanese descent (Japanese mother). His father took him back to China where he studied Confuscious. However, he gave up his scholarly pursuits to take up arms against Qing invaders. He was born in the reign of the Ming Dynasty. In 1661 he headed to Taiwan to topple the Dutch colonial administration. He was successful in ending a 38 year colonial era (1624 to 1662). He renamed Fort Zeelandia to Anping Township. We are going to visit the Fort tomorrow.

Koxinga was held in very high esteem by the Chinese government of the time. However, he died at a young age of 39. (1662)

During the Japanese control of the Island a lot of the historic monuments were left to deteriorate. In 2008-2010 the Tainan City Government restored the shrine.

After we left Koxinga we found the south gate. This was one of seven fortified gates.

We spotted a small temple, which we went into just to get the Gods back on our side.

By the time we got to Mark’s apartment it was past noon. We sorted our laundry and headed out to the laundromat.

The area surrounding Mark’s apartment was the Blueprint Cultural and Creative Park. We investigated the area. Ralf took photos of the area. The collapsed historical space has been transformed into a 3D blue print sketch. The contours of the history of the building are outlined in white. The co-existing 2D and 3D sight lines morph from reality to illusion.

Other buildings represent old Japanese or Dutch buildings. Mark told us later that the area where the big shopping Mall is located was a Japanese prison and the area where the Blueprint cultural and creative park is located was the Japanese prison guards houses.

Unfortunately, Mark doesn’t have wi-fi so this will have to wait until we get to Kaohsing to post the next two days..

We had a great chat with Mark after dinner. We chatted about Taiwan’s political situation, with regards to Britain and other countries not recognizing it as an independent country. Most Taiwanese are not too worried about the situation with China. Although the Taiwanese government did go to the Ukraine to see how the Ukrainians managed to fight Russia and to see if Taiwan would be able to do the same. They determined that it would not be able to fight an aggressive China. They have decided to increase the mandatory conscription from 3 months to one year, in the hopes of getting more trained soldiers.

Taiwan is self-sufficient, in food, water, power and is the world’s leading producer of micro-chips. The banking situation has strict controls and has not had any major problems, even during the crash of 2008.

We discussed the school system and were amazed to learn that it is mandatory for kids to go to kindergarten at 3 years old. The middle-class want to ensure that their children speak English and will send their kids to an English kindergarten class. Mark teaches 4 to 5 years old. He teaches them in English – math, sciences (suitable for a 5 year old). He said part of his role as a teacher is to teach them to be self-sufficient and ethics. To be kind, to be helpful and to be independent. He said that by the time the 5 year old kids at his school  start Grade 1 their written and spoken English is better than his nephews who is in England. All students who go to university have to pass an English exam to be able to get into university. Mark said that some of his English friends found it hard.

We also talked about the cost of living. He pays approximately $300 Taiwanese dollars a month for his apartment which is one floor of a three storey building. The kitchen is tiny but everyone eats out or has food delivered. He pays about $NT 10 a month for electricity in the winter and $20 in the summer when it is really hot and humid. We didn’t discuss his pay but he indicated that most Taiwanese are not looking to buy property as renting is usually only about 7% of their overall income, whereas buying could be more than 35% of their income.