Day 6 - National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall & National Taiwan Normal University

Salutation to fellow readers!

Today is the sixth day of our trip in Taipei, Taiwan already. We started our day with a quick stop outside the Presidential Office Building while on our way to the National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.  Our tour guide briefly introduced the history of this place to us and the building was built during the period of Japanese rule of Taiwan from 1895 to 1945.

Next, we continued our journey and arrived at the National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall where we learnt many things about Taiwan’s late President – Mr. Chiang Kai-Shek.

 

We witnessed the prestigious and intricate crafting of the memorial hall and had a better understanding of the underlying concepts of the design from our tour guide. The colour of the blue sky and white sun symbolize freedom and equality. The Memorial Hall is built upon three stories of broad and solid foundations that symbolize impartiality and righteousness. The octagonal roof design creates many men, motifs on the very top, symbolizing the "unification of Man and Heaven." The roof is fashioned in the form of the Altar to Heaven and covered with blue glazed tiles, reflecting the sunlight. The apex of the roof is gold in colour and culminates the upsurge glory. None of the other materials, such as the white marble, red cypress ceiling, and light red granite floor, have been tinted with artificial colours, thereby imparting a feeling of sacredness, solemnity, hospitality, and peace.

Mr. Chiang Kai-Shek was a Chinese military and political leader who led the Chinese Nationalist Party founded by Mr. Sun Yat Sen, for fifty years. He was also the head of state of the Chinese Nationalist government from 1928 to 1949. In this memorial hall, we saw many items which used to belong to Mr. Chiang and numerous paintings and photographs which depict the various stepping stones in his life. The historical tour around the memorial hall made us awestruck by his contributions to Taiwan.  He passed away on 05 April 1975 at 11.52p.m. due to a heart failure.

 A statue of Mr. Chiang Kai-Shek can be found in the memorial hall. Guards are made to stand still at watch for hourly shifts next to his statue. When the changing of guards commences, a particular ritual is done as a form of paying respects to the late President.

 Our highlight in the afternoon was our learning journey to the National Taiwan Normal University Physical Education Department, where we were warmly welcomed with their staff. We were served with healthy fruits as refreshment. We had a tour around the school compound and we were really impressed with the various school facilities. They had a 400m track, a standard indoor swimming pool, a gymnasium, a judo room, two dance studios, and a hall that could fit in four volleyball courts altogether.

 After the school tour, we had a friendly sparring session with their students. It was really an enriching experience for all of us as they were definitely different from all other teams that we had played against previously. It was a mixed team and they were much older and taller than us. This gave them a huge advantage over us. Their height made it easier for them to block our attacks; hence it was much harder for us to score a point. Furthermore, they are able to engage tactical play effectively in their games. It was a learning point for us, to be more alert and more active on court. Even though we did not win any set, the score for each set were pretty close to each other. Most importantly, although we did not win, we put up a good fight against them and did not give up in any of the game!