Reservoir and Chiang Kai-Shek Mausoleum

Hello everyone!

After the hustle and bustle of the markets, we turned to a more relaxing environment the next day.

The Reservoir fit the bill perfectly, don't you think? =)

As we were walking around, we found this mystery fruit hanging just so perfectly on this tree. Later, we were told that it is called the 'jungle orange'.  I would have loved to taste it, but it was just slightly out of reach over the cliff, so...  yeah, we decided a piece of fruit was not worth potentially breaking our necks  =p

David and Mama  =)

After walking around a little bit, we decided to go to the market section (it seemed that there was one of these wherever we went in Taiwan!) to try some fish from the reservoir!

I love love love fish, but unfortunately, a couple of years ago, I began having stomach problems every time I had sushi.  It was the weirdest thing because I grew up eating fish, and one of my favorite foods was sushi!  Has anyone else had sudden weird allergy-esq reactions to fish?  Anyway, I was a bit worried about eating fish here because of that, but I don't know if it was the fact that it was cooked or because it was fresh water fish, but my stomach was just fine!  and good thing too, because it was so delicious, and I definitely had a whole lot of it  haha

After the meal, we decided to head over to the Chiang Kai-Shek Mausoleum/park/statue park to walk off our lunch.  With all of our food consumption, we needed some balance on the calorie burning side haha  I think it was pretty close to the reservoir, but I'm not actually sure because I just can't seem to keep myself awake when I'm in the car...  If I'm not driving, you can bet that I will be clonked out as soon as the car starts moving  haha

The walk to the Mausoleum was so beautiful and serene, even though there were tourists everywhere  =)

Chiang Kai-Shek really loved this lake because it reminded him of his hometown, and that's why he made his summer home there that is now his Mausoleum.  The lake really was a gem, and we even got to see the famous black swans!

I don't know much about the Taiwan history except for the bits and pieces I learned while I was there, but it seems that Chiang Kai-Shek was, and still is, a rather controversial figure.  On the one hand, he is considered the father of Taiwan, but on the other hand, some (including one of the later prime ministers) wanted him erased from history...?   And then there is Sun Yat-Sen, who is considered the Father of China, and since Taiwan is still technically a part of china, I guess that's also a source of some friction.

The friction and the controversy surrounding Chiang Kai-Shek is the reason this statue park came into being.  One of the later prime ministers of Taiwan tried to destroy all of Chiang Kai-Shek's statues, and I can't quite remember who pioneered this idea, but somehow, all of the statues got 'saved' and brought here to this park right next to the mausoleum.

Even though we all thought it was a bit creepy having so many statues just staring at us/each other standing in circles, the park was really beautiful =)

Just as we were wrapping up our walk-through, it started to rain, but that cast a beautiful haze over the entire park.  The pictures really don't do it justice, but you'll just have to take our word for it until you go experience it yourself  ;)

Thanks for dropping by, and I hope you are all having a wonderful day!

--Janny