The letter was actually sent off to CMS on October 14 for processing, and much seems to have happened since then. As we await the results of the US presidential election and as the UK goes into lockdown again, there’s a lot going on.
A little oasis in all that’s going on is to be found at Rainbow Village, Taichung 彩虹眷村, as high-rise buildings start to go up all around…
Let me just cheer you all up a little with some photos I took there early on Monday morning. This is one of my most favourite places to visit in Taichung, and so I was there for opening time at 8:00 am, the first visitor of the day.
Just to remind you, this place is the last remaining few houses of an old Veterans Village, built for soldiers and their families who came to Taiwan after 1949. Most of the land has already been taken for redevelopment, but old Mr. Huang (Huang Yong-Fu 黃永阜), known as ‘Rainbow Grandpa’ (彩虹爺爺), decided to start painting the remaining houses a few years ago, as a way to save his village….
His artwork was discovered by students from the nearby Ling-Tung University, and as a result, the village has not only been saved from demolition, but is now actively preserved by the local government. It is open to the public, and visitors can wander around, meet Rainbow Grandpa and do a bit of shopping to help fund the place (entrance is free). Go first thing on a Monday morning and you’ll have the place to yourselves!
The last time I was there was in October 2019, and what is different this time is that the land right behind Rainbow Village is now blocked off with a long white fence, and construction work behind it has already started…..
Gradually the area all around there is being developed with high-rise apartment buildings, which of course was what motivated Mr. Huang to start painting in the first place…. and he is still at it. Here he is signing my umbrella!
He was telling me that he’s nearly 100 – and he is certainly making the most of his remaining years! His artwork is stunning…
So thanks for reading my link letter – and enjoy the photos! And Rainbow Village are now selling face-masks covered in Rainbow Grandpa’s artwork, so watch this space, and you might see me in one before too long!
Smiles all round in honour of Taiwan’s Double-Tenth National Day last Thursday, October 10 ~ and the start of a 4-day weekend for us all! And what a good opportunity it was to show our 18 international friends some of the great cultural sights of Taiwan. 😊 The group are now on the final stretch of their 3-month “2019 Latin American and Caribbean Countries Vocational Training Project: Electrical and Electronic Engineering 拉丁美洲及加勒比海地區友邦技職訓練計畫-電機工程實務技術英語班”, in association with ‘Taiwan ICDF‘, and hosted by St. John’s University (SJU), Taipei. In a few weeks time, they’ll all return to their home countries of Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and we’ll miss them! Here they are celebrating Taiwan’s National Day …
Last week, the group were in south Taiwan for a 3-day Solar Energy Course at the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, where Dr. Herchang Ay, SJU President, is in charge of the Apollo Solar Car Team. The group traveled there on Monday morning by High-Speed Rail (see photo below), and the plan was that we would join them on Thursday morning to make the most of the 4-day weekend, traveling back to Taipei by coach, via all sorts of interesting places en route along the west coast.
Thus it was that we spent Thursday in Kaohsiung, Thursday night and Friday in Tainan, Friday night and Saturday morning in Chiayi, and from Saturday afternoon to Sunday lunchtime in Taichung, returning to St. John’s University along the west coast road on Sunday evening – trying to avoid the traffic on the final day of the long weekend. We saw a huge lot of really great places, so many in fact that there was hardly any time to rest on the coach in-between stops! Here’s the group posing at the first stop of the day…
There were 4 of us from SJU, A-Tu, me, Xiang-Yann from Malaysia and Jun-Hong. We also had a very good tour guide, Thomas, and a very patient driver, Mr. Chien. A-Tu and I went to Kaohsiung on Wednesday afternoon, stayed the night at St. Paul’s Church (thanks to Rev. C. C. Cheng and his wife!) and met up with our lovely group on Thursday morning at Weiwuying – my most favourite place in all of Kaohsiung – I just love all that wall art! It was good to hear our group’s reflections on their few days in south Taiwan – all positive, and they enthused about how friendly all the people were down south. It’s a fact – the further south you go in Taiwan the friendlier the people – and this was the experience of our group too. As we traveled around these past few days, many people would come over to meet us, some to enquire about the guys’ long hair or where they’re all from or to take a photo together, ah it was fun! Anyway, after the wall murals, we walked across the road to visit the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, which is a stunning building, but it was very hot and muggy, and the sky was hazy. It is ‘air-pollution season’ in Taiwan, and while the weather forecast may have shown days of yellow sunshine, in reality, it was mostly hazy and dull. And very very hot! 🥵🥵
Then we visited the Glory Pier and the Pier 2 area, plus Xiziwan. More hot, hot, hot! In fact, we had to cut short our afternoon sightseeing to save us all from getting heatstroke, and off we went to spend an hour enjoying the air-conditioned Dream Mall instead! As it was Taiwan’s National Day, so there were flags everywhere …
Day One over, and in the evening, we drove an hour north to Tainan, where we stayed overnight in the Sendale Tainan Science Park Hotel, in Sinshih (Xinshi), Tainan. The best thing about Sinshih is that when we got up early for exercise the next morning, we discovered the very delightful nearby Sinshih Elementary School, where everyone was busy doing exercise, the school open-air pool was full of people swimming, and best of all, the school walls were covered in mosaics and murals, all done by the children to show the history of the town – including the arrival of the early missionaries. I loved it!
Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan, and the first capital city, so the first must-visit place was the National Museum of Taiwan History. This museum was a big surprise to me – not only had I never been there before, actually I had never even heard of it either! It was opened in 2011, and is located in what seems to be the middle of absolutely nowhere, somewhere on the coast ~ but the museum is a beautiful building and the displays are excellent. Thomas took this photo of us at the main entrance…
Y’know, it’s not easy for a government to construct a good museum telling its own history from an objective viewpoint – and as far as it goes, they’ve done a good job, and especially in presenting the history of Taiwanese customs and also the big section about the Japanese colonial era. There’s lots of interesting displays and everything is in English and Chinese. One day hopefully the museum will also extend the displays to include more about the indigenous people, Christian missionaries and churches, and what really happened during the White Terror era. Anyway it’s a highly recommended museum, and our group spent a long time looking at all the exhibits – and taking part, as appropriate!
Next stop, and we were off to Tainan City to see the Blueprint Cultural and Creative Park ~ this is an old ‘dormitory village’ of houses originally built to provide accommodation for government workers and their families in days gone by, but now reinvented for visitors to come and see, and of course, to come and shop…
We also visited Snail Alley ~ I liked the old buildings – and, well, also the snails!
The best place of the whole afternoon was the Hayashi Department Store, which I loved, it has a really fascinating history, dating from the Japanese colonial era, and it was new to me. Their website says, “On December 5th, 1932, Hayashi Department Store opened and thus a modern age of Taiwanese culture began. The decade of 1930s was the start point of modern civilization in Taiwan. As the electric lamps, telephone, and water supply lines popularized, symbols of civilization such like the airplane and motor vehicles flooded into Taiwan. The cafés were becoming the fad of the day, as well as pop culture, movies, phonographs and jazz music. People´s mentality was opening up, and freewill dating was taking over arranged marriages, while dresses were replacing kimonos and Westernized education was popularizing. This was Taiwan in the 1930s”. On the top floor, there’s a very unusual Shinto shrine, there are also great views down to the road below, plus glass-covered walls that show where the building was damaged by air-raids during World War II. After the war, the building became mostly offices, but these days, it’s transformed once again into a shopping experience, though it has retained its original charm and elegance. I really liked it!
We didn’t visit the Confucius Temple, which is usually No. 1 on a historic tour of Tainan, but we did go to Anping Fort (aka Fort Zeelandia), built between 1624 to 1634 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). After wandering around the fort, we stopped at the Old Street and also watched a folk tale performance in front of the temple. Our group had a go at the games, and Jun-Hong got himself a temporary tattoo of a tiger!
So that was Day Two, and after dinner, we set off for the hour-or-so drive north to Chiayi, where we stayed in the very stylish Kuan Hotel, on the outskirts of the city…
Day Three was Saturday, and we were all up bright and early for the world’s biggest breakfast in the hotel restaurant. All of our lunches and evening meals were in Chinese restaurants so this was a chance to have something a bit different – plus lots of coffee ready for the day ahead! Our first destination of the day was the very famous Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum; this was my second visit. My first visit was when Chiayi hosted the Lantern Festival in 2018 – with lots of people and a really festive atmosphere. This time it was far more relaxed and a chance to enjoy the lake and the architecture, there was also a special exhibit on Thailand – and large elephant inflatables in the main entrance! I really like this place, it’s spacious, well-designed and full of interesting things – but not too many – just the right size for a visit!
The most famous object in the museum is the stewed pork / meat-shaped stone: “The 5.73 cm tall Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) piece is made from banded jasper in the shape of braised pork belly”….
So that was Chiayi – and after lunch we drove north for 90 minutes to Taichung, our fourth destination of the trip. We visited Miyahara, “a red-brick architecture built by Miyahara Takeo, a Japanese ophthalmology doctor in 1927. It was the largest ophthalmology clinic in Taichung during the Japanese colonial period. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, Miyahara became the Taichung Health Bureau”. After years of decay, it has now been reinvented as a restaurant and ice-cream shop, and designed like Hogwarts in Harry Potter. We also visited the Shenji New Village, but there were so many people, we didn’t stay long. Instead we decided to check into the hotel, then head to dinner and a quick visit to the Fengjia Night Market, most famous of all Taichung’s night markets – check out all those zillions of people!
Day Four arrived and there we were in the WeMeet Hotel in central Taichung. I lived in Taichung when I first arrived in Taiwan, from 1999-2006 and I kinda know my way around, so we were up very early to go and visit the nearby Taichung Park. The park is famous for the pavilion built in 1908 for the visit of the Japanese Emperor’s son to launch the railway – it’s the iconic symbol of Taichung, and looks good lit up in the darkness.
A-Tu and I wandered on and found Taichung’s oldest church, Liu-Yuan Presbyterian Church 柳原長老教會, built in 1915, which has a notice saying it is the only church in the world with dragon-shaped waterspouts… well, you learn something new every day!
And then we walked to the nearby site of the famous Yi-Zhong Night Market, which in the very early morning was distinctly less lively than it would have been some hours earlier. This is where I used to come for my language classes, and every day I would pass a church on the corner opposite the night market – an old wooden building, surrounded by a parking area. That church was originally a Japanese Anglican (NSKK) Church, but when the Japanese left Taiwan in 1945, there being no Taiwan Anglican / Episcopal Church at that time, so it was handed over to another church group. The building was still there until about 15 years ago, when it was demolished and a large retail building put up, with the church relocated to the top floor. You can see it in this photo. The lower floors are obviously let to Adidas – aka the Adidas Church?
My favourite place in Taichung is the Rainbow Military Dependents Village, famously saved from demolition by 97-year-old Mr. Huang, who started to paint the walls in beautiful designs, and over some years succeeded in saving his village. It is now a major tourist attraction, which is why we were there, but Mr. Huang is still the main focus, and he was posing for photos and enjoying the well-deserved attention. The government has stepped in and restored some of the buildings, and it is looking even better than before, while still very much retaining its original character. There are huge construction projects going on nearby, so soon the village will be a little oasis in the middle of a high-rise community…
After Rainbow Village, we went to the new National Taichung Theater, designed by Japanese architect, Ito Toyo, with lots of curved walls, under-floor air-conditioning and all sorts of sound caves and air-holes. We had an excellent volunteer guide who was really passionate about showing us around and explaining the design; he also took us inside the actual grand theater. His enthusiasm was so wonderful, infectious even – a very highly recommended tour!
So that was Taichung. We had one more place to visit, and that was on the way home, when we took the coastal road north to escape the worst of the traffic and visited the Miaoli Wind Farm, which was just visible far off in the sea – Taiwan’s first offshore wind farm, and on track to begin commercial operations by the end of this year…
And so we arrived back at St. John’s University on Sunday evening soon after 7:00 pm, grateful that everything had gone smoothly, thankful for our guide and driver, for good food and drink, and for all the amazing places we’d visited. This was a tour focused on Taiwan’s cities and urban areas rather than scenic landscapes, but as one of the group said, “We have plenty of beautiful scenery back home, but we don’t have high-rise cities – so that’s what we want to see!” And we certainly did see many, also a lot of baroque architecture which was the architectural style chosen by the Japanese to build Taiwan’s cities during the colonial era, 1895-1945. Now it’s just nice to back in the big open space by the sea that is St. John’s University, with the mountains in the background, and where the air is relatively less-polluted and the temps are definitely cooler. Ah yes, being away on a bus for 4 days really helps you to appreciate being home!
Thanks to SJU for all the planning and organizing of the whole trip, thanks to everyone in the group for being so lovely, and thanks be to God that everything went so well! YES!
Beautiful red maple leaves against a blue sky ~ now how’s that for a perfect picture of autumn?!
And the best place in Taiwan to see maples in autumn is at the high elevations, up in the central mountain range. So off we all went, all 60 or so of us, in a total of 9 (yes, nine!) minibuses, all in a long line. Almost processional – well, after all, churches like ours are good at processions! Large coaches cannot travel so far in the high mountains, so minibuses are ideal. The trip was 3 days and 2 nights, Tuesday – Thursday, and all were invited ~ and here we all are!
The Taiwan Episcopal Church has organized many trips over the years, usually in the spring or autumn, to interesting places ~ like in November 2015, when we went to the Matsu Islands. That was my first church trip. And now this is my second. I had managed to rearrange some classes, and most of the members of my Thursday afternoon class at St. John’s Cathedral actually came on this trip too ~ so I signed up – thanks to Bishop Lai and all my students!
Church members, their relatives and friends came from a wide range of the churches that make up the Taiwan Episcopal Church ~ we had 3 clergy, 3 clergy spouses, many energetic seniors, some couples, some younger working people and one lovely 3-year-old boy, who came along with his grandmother and her sister, and he only fell asleep once!
We all met on Tuesday morning in Taichung, gathered from all corners of the country – and set off eastwards, up into the mountains.
The Central Cross-Island Highway from Taichung to Hualien was constructed in the late 1950’s, about the same time as President Chiang Kai-Shek and his government were establishing farms up in the mountains to provide employment for retired servicemen. These days, the farms are still managed by the Veterans Affairs Council – together with the Tourism Bureau and some private companies – mainly for the benefit of visitors. Visitors like us ~ and thousands of others who travel there every year. We visited two of the famous farms, Wuling Farm 武陵農場 and Fushoushan Farm 福壽山農場, both places packed out with people enjoying the scenery.
When I left Sanzhi on Tuesday morning, it was, as always, raining. It had already rained for 4 days, and so it continued, for all the 3 days we were away. Cold too. Miserable, in fact! It is still drizzling today. And cold. But up in the mountains, there was blue sky every morning, all morning ~ and the clouds came rolling in beneath us in a sea of clouds every afternoon. It did rain a little at night, but we never saw it. Ah, it was wonderful!
The highest point on the Central Cross-Island Highway is just below the very famous mountain, Hehuanshan 合歡山 (3,416 m). Just nearby is Mt. Shimen 石門山 (3,237 m), well-known as supposedly being the easiest of the ‘100 Peaks of Taiwan‘ 百岳 to climb. So up we went! There was a biting wind, and it was 6ºC at the top – that’s very cold for us subtropical coastal dwellers! Maybe a third of us managed to get to the top, where breaks in the clouds gave us great views down below.
The road has been badly damaged due to typhoons and landslides and earthquakes and everything else, and is still under repair in many places. But our minibus procession got us through and down the other side to Lishan and then Wuling….
We stayed the night at a hotel in the Wuling Farm area 武陵農場, about 2,000 m above sea-level….
And we woke up the next day to beautiful blue skies and autumn colours…
The nearby river is famous for its Formosan Landlocked Salmon (yes, we saw some, but they’re impossible to photograph!) and further upstream is the Taoshan Waterfall 桃山瀑布, known as the ‘Sound of the Mist’ Waterfall. The walk there is 4.3 km each way – through the forest, and takes about 3 hours in total there and back. It was my first visit ~ and we had a wonderful morning. It is really beautiful!
Nearby is Taiwan’s second highest peak, Xueshan / Syueshan 雪山 (Snow Mountain), which I went up in 2011 ~ this time we went up to the trail entrance to look at the view. The view is spectacular. And so are all the lovely people in our group!
And then down to visit some of the Wuling Farm tea-growing area, and a small museum dedicated to what the farm was like in the old days….
We left Wuling and headed back to Lishan 梨山, where we’d passed through only the day before. Lishan (literally means Pear Mountain) is home to the Atayal People 泰雅族, many of whom are Christians. The area is also about 2,000 m above sea level, so lots of fruit and vegetables can be grown here that normally only grow in cold countries – like dear old England. The steep mountainsides in Lishan are no longer covered in big forests of beautiful trees but instead are covered in fruit trees, and at this time of year there’s no leaves, and the fruits in season are covered in paper bags to protect them – so the mountains look bare – but covered in white flowers, which turn out to be paper bags. They’re mostly apples, pears and peaches. It’s amazing – and yet devastating – all at once, to think what amazing things man has done to produce all that fruit, and yet at what cost to the environment. Reminds me a bit of the UK Lake District really – but just replace fruit with sheep!
Anyway, we went to buy some of the apples – oh, and cabbages….
Incredible clouds nearby….
And no, it didn’t rain, eventually the blue sky came through!
Oh yes, and a very regal line of trees….
Fushoushan Farm 福壽山農場 is one of the Veterans’ Farms, very high up in altitude, and before it got dark, we just had time to visit Tianchi ‘Heavenly Lake’ 天池, where President Chiang Kai-Shek liked to visit when he was at the farm. Check out his green house….
We stayed at the most amazing Lishan Guest House, just down the mountainside from the farm, and designed in the same style (and by the same architect, Yang Cho-cheng 楊卓成) as the Grand Hotel, Taipei. This was where President Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife stayed when they were in the area – but the building was badly damaged in the 1999 earthquake, and reopened in 2012 – as a hotel. It is very very popular, and certainly scores 100% for atmosphere ~ all that red colour, and all those lanterns! There are no lifts / elevators, and we were assigned the top floor – 3rd floor. So me and Ah-Guan, good friend from St. James’ Church, Taichung, struggled up to the third floor – to find that we had been assigned the room next to the Presidential Suite. It was a ‘hit the jackpot, won the lottery, gob-smacking moment’ lol!
We were clearly in the room that originally would have been used by the presidential bodyguard, and the most amazing thing was that we had access to the presidential balcony. This was the balcony with THE VIEW! And so we spent a happy hour or two welcoming all our friends to come and have a look! The presidential suite, as far as we could see (from peering in the windows!) has been left much as it was when President Chiang and his wife stayed there – we could see into a tea room, and into the mahjong room at the end….
That evening, after dinner, and after the Atayal Concert, we had a short service in the hotel dining room for our group. Ah, what a happy evening, and what a wonderful group of people!
Next morning, Thursday, yesterday in fact, and I was up bright and early (well not very bright, but certainly very early!) to see THE view across the mountains…..
See the Taiwan flag? From directly outside the presidential suite, it’s positioned exactly right in the centre of the ‘V’ in the mountains…. how’s this for a view?!
The hotel and the whole area is very atmospheric. Ambiance, man, it’s all about ambiance!
And so after breakfast, and more tours of our presidential balcony, we packed up, checked out and spent the morning at the Fushoushan Farm. What a place, and what a history! It is famous for a huge pine tree with an interesting story…
And even more famous for its Apple King Tree, with over 40 different kinds of apple grafted into one tree…
We had a tour of the farm….
And finished with the maple trees area near the main entrance, where a zillion people were taking a zillion photos, ah, it was photo-heaven!
And so it was reluctantly time to say goodbye to the farm and head back over the big mountains, westwards… but first a photo-stop near Hehuanshan, at the Central Cross-Island Highway summit (3,275m) – the highest point on the highest main road that crosses northern Taiwan, and a major destination for cyclists!
Follow my finger and in that direction is Nanhu Big Mountain, (the one on the left of the pointed one!) which we climbed in 2012…
This is a gathering of all from Advent Church, plus Mr. Di, our tour leader (third left)….
And finally to lunch, and back to Taichung High-Speed Rail Station to return to our separate destinations…. and I got home at 7:30 pm. And guess what, it was still raining in Sanzhi, in fact it hadn’t stopped all the time I’d been away!
A big thank you to our leader, Mr. Di Yun-Hung (狄運亨) for planning and managing the whole trip, along with a tour company team who drove us in their minibuses, and organized all the routes and meals and everything. It was a wonderful trip – the highlights being the waterfall, the maple leaves and of course the presidential balcony views…..
But it was also wonderful to be together with such a lovely group of people, renewing old friendships, making new ones, enjoying time together, taking lots of photos of everyone in different groups, and having a lot of fun!
And finally, thanks be to God for His amazingly stunning creation ~ and the colours (and miracle) that is the season of autumn ~ YES!
Rainbow Village 彩虹眷村 on the outskirts of Taichung is such an amazing place – it’s easily the most attractive set of buildings in the whole of Taichung ~ YES!
It’s the last remaining few houses of a Veterans Village, built for the old soldiers and their families who came to Taiwan after 1949. Most the houses are already gone, demolished and the land redeveloped, but old Mr. Huang (Huang Yong-Fu 黃永阜), known as ‘Rainbow Grandpa’ (彩虹爺爺), was not letting that happen to his village. Now aged 95, he decided to start painting the remaining houses a few years ago, and in doing so, has saved his wonderful village!
Not only has the place been saved from demolition, but the whole village has been preserved – and in fact has been closed recently while the Taichung City Government gave the place a whole new roof. Now it’s newly open, so I had to check it out. Mr. Huang was on hand for photos, and there’s even some walls newly decorated.
I love this place! I love the idea that one man with a paintbrush and a lot of determination and creativity can save a whole village from demolition!
And now there’s tons of tourists visiting, and guess what? It’s on a direct bus route from St. James’ Church ~ YES!
An interesting article appeared on the internet recently, The ‘Top 10 sights in Taiwan Japanese tourists love to visit‘ which has thrown Taiwan’s tourism industry a bit. Forget such famous places as Taipei 101, CKS Memorial and the National Palace Museum. They’re history. Consigned to the distant past. Instead, now, in 2017, coming in at number 2 on the list is the lobby of the ‘1969 藍天飯店 Blue Sky Hotel‘ in Taichung.
So, on my monthly visit to St. James’ Church, Taichung this past weekend, I found myself at 5:00 am on Sunday morning with a u-bike ~ and off I went to find it. It’s only 15 mins ride, down towards the train station, in a part of town where, let’s say, there’s plenty of room for improvement… As you can imagine, the place was hardly throbbing with tourists at 5:00 am on a Sunday morning, so the nice receptionist gave me my very own tour. Central to the lobby is a huge floor-to-ceiling wall artwork consisting of genuine vintage 1970’s suitcases all stacked very artistically. The numbers of the lifts are all Roman numerals, and the reception area is all vintage style. I like it!
It’s not far from the Taichung Park, but the sun wasn’t even up, and it was too dark to see the famous iconic building there. So off I went to find another interesting place not far away – a small community of tiny alleyways and close-packed houses, where the road has been repaved in red brick. So following the red-brick road is really quite fun!
Then I passed the Red Dot Hotel, which has a large slide in the lobby for guests ….
And finally, I came past the elementary school that is attached to the National University of Education, and outside was a water tank. Presumably until recently it was just a boring old water tank. It even says ‘groundwater’ on it. Now painted up and looking beauitful. Street art at its best. Smarties, or are they M and M’s? Anyway, I love it. Every school should have one.
Taichung at 5:00 am on a summer Sunday? Ideal for sightseeing! Before it gets too hot. Before all the crowds come out and all the traffic. Before even the sun comes up. YES!
Really quite amazing! 10 years of partnership! YES!
Y’know, partnerships between schools in different countries are famous for lasting a few years and then dying out. Sometimes they’ve just run their course. Sometimes they’ve depended too much on one particular person, so when that person leaves, it’s all over. Or sometimes the money runs out. Or the enthusiasm. Or whatever.
So it’s really quite amazing that the sister-school partnership between St. James, Taichung and Cambridge-Ellis (CES), Boston is still going strong after 10 years. Yes, it’s ten whole years this year! During that time, lots of teachers have been to visit in both directions, and even I’ve had the chance to visit CES twice, most recently in May 2014 (see my report of that visit here). So it was with great excitement that last week we welcomed 3 VIP visitors from CES, including their very lovely principal, Gerlinde, on her first ever visit ~ here to celebrate our 10 years anniversary!
And it all started 10+ years ago with Wan-Ching, a former student of St. James’ Kindergarten who grew up and moved to the USA, and actually worked at CES. CES has a language program which includes Mandarin Chinese, and Wan-Ching suggested CES could connect up with St. James, her alma-mater here in Taichung, Taiwan. She linked up the CES director at the time, Jenifer Demko and the then rector (now Rector Emeritus) of St. James, Rev. Charles C. T. Chen. Thank you Wan-Ching! And so the connection was made, and a partnership came into being, formally signed in March 2007. Charles and Jenifer are both wonderful people of huge vision and determination, with big dreams and ideas, and thrive on trying new things. But even they could not have predicted that we would have had such a successful 10 years together!
And so to celebrate this great milestone, we invited Gerlinde to come and visit ~ and she chose last week to come. YES! She brought Qiaoling, in charge of the CES Mandarin Chinese program and a great friend and support for all our teachers who have visited CES. Qiaoling just loved all the Taiwan food and was invited to so many meals here that even she couldn’t keep up! In fact she arrived in Taiwan a whole 12 hours early, which meant she could fit in extra meals with everyone. She is just so popular! Gerlinde also brought along her very charming and handsome husband, who kept us so well-entertained, always with a story to tell, or a cool pose for photos ~ there was never a dull moment all week! For all 3, it was their very first visit to St. James, in fact their first visit to Taiwan. We LOVED having them here…… aren’t they oh so photogenic?!
And what did we do all week? A tour of the St. James’ campus, meetings, classes, a lecture from Gerlinde ~ and meals with Rev. Charles Chen and MaryJo, our senior warden Samuel and supervisor Luanne, Preschool principal Susan, Language Institute director Yu-Mei, language teacher Jerry and his wife Jean, and St. James’ rector, Rev. Lily Chang (and we met her lovely 90-year-old mother too!), plus so many others. They met tons of people and enjoyed having fun with children of every age. Smiles and fun and laughter and of course, photos. Photos galore. For sure! Everyone at St. James was so happy to welcome them, and they were so gracious and kind and smiled all day at everyone! On Wednesday last week, Luanne also organised us all to go to Puli and Sun Moon Lake for the day, including the famous Puli ice-cream, mushroom farm and wine factory ~ and then TungHai University and Taichung City in the evening. Plus they went on a tour of the brand new theatre in Taichung (for Jerry’s account of that visit, see here). And for the grande finale, there was a farewell party on Thursday night, followed by a very lively visit to the night market ~ just don’t ask about that stinky tofu!
And a group photo at the farewell party of most of the people who’ve ever been to CES and their families, and those hoping to go this coming year….
I had the honour of being with our VIP guests all week, and on Friday brought them to Taipei to meet Bishop Lai and Mrs. Lily Lai….
And then for some sightseeing all around the great city of Taipei over the weekend. CKS Memorial, Taipei 101, JianGuo Flower and Jade Markets, Grand Hotel and National Palace Museum. All checked off the list. Mostly all in the rain too. Ah, but it was fun! Extra fun was that we invited former St. James’ teacher, Tiger and her husband to join us, they actually met in Boston, all due to our link with CES! And 3 of the St. James’ teachers came to Taipei too to join us on Saturday, and for some of them it was clear that they had seen more of Boston than they had of their own capital city lol!
So a big big thank you to Gerlinde and her wonderful VIP group for coming to Taiwan, for their gifts, their enthusiasm, their time and energy, their stories and their fun! It was such a great week. CES is having their own 10th anniversary celebration in a few weeks time, and Rev. Charles Chen and his wife, MaryJo are planning on being there, representing St. James. YES! Thanks to all at St. James for all their planning, their welcome and hospitality, it was all amazing. And thanks be to Almighty God for his many blessings on our partnership with CES over these past 10 years.
Every month off I go to Taichung to do the sermon in the St. James’ Church English Service, usually on the bus or train, and occasionally, just occasionally by High Speed Rail. Saturday was a rare HSR day….
St. James’ Church is right opposite the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and even though I pass along the art museum skywalk every time on my morning exercise, actually I hardly ever go in the museum itself. Sorry about that. Yes, the museum is all free, but still, y’know, I hardly ever go in. Except this weekend, I happened to notice that down below in the museum was a sort of street market art installation….
So yesterday afternoon in I went, and yes the street market art is really amazing. Like the kind of thing we make for role play in a kindergarten classroom. Except this is Art with a capital A, and you can only look and not touch. But it’s wonderful! Love it!
There’s also an exhibition on indigenous art, this painting is by Taiwan Paiwan artist, Etan Pavavalung titled ‘Migrate’.
Another piece, by a different artist using driftwood collected from Typhoon Morakot in 2009….
The art museum in Taichung is connected by a green walkway that goes for several miles, and ends up at the Science Museum. Also part of the morning exercise! At the far end is the science museum tropical greenhouse kind of shaped like a giant spider, and outside is the large horrible insect…. ha ha!
Ah yes, gotta make the most of my visits to Taichung!
‘God comes to us as a vulnerable human baby to an unlikely couple in an obscure place. And in doing so turns the world upside down. Jesus says: Stick with me even if I am different, confusing, or surprising. I have come, and I am coming to you today with love! Look for me. Listen. I am coming in an unexpected way’.
