Jim and FiFi (Wei) Valkwitch's trip to Taiwan 2011
Things have really changed in Taiwan. Taipei has about doubled in population; it's clean and modern, with an excellent public transport system. We took a high speed train (200MPH) from Taipei to Kaohsiung in 90 minutes. Used to take 8 hours by car.
The International Flower Show was in Taipei while we were there. It was located on the sites of the old HSA Headquarters compound on ZhongShan North Road and also on the other side of the street where the PX, Commissary, Movie Theater, Softball stadium used to be. We spent a day there and walked south on ZhongShan N. Rd to MinQuan West Rd., corner of which housed the Kings Hotel, Kings Club, ABC club. This corner was a little run down compared to the rest of the city. The building where the Kings club was is vacant and looks like it's waiting for the wrecking ball. The cool thing was the corner where the Linkou Liberty bus dropped us at it's first stop coming down the hill. There was a place called the Florida Bakery. It's still there. We went in to confirm it - they have been there for 60 years. I went by Linkou a few times, but on an 8 lane expressway. You can get "up the hill" from Taipei now in about 15 minutes. It's really built up with condos.
Here's a link where a lot of our first week's photos are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimvalk/
More pictures located here: http://s1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc494/JimValk/?albumview=slideshow
Make sure you use Slideshow view at some point looking at them.
A few more photos:
1st. From the International Flower show. This was taken on the former HSA compound on the west side of ZhongShan N. Rd. Those structures in the background are in the area where the snack bar and bowling alley were.
2nd. Taken on a pedestrian bridge over ZhongShan N. Rd between the former HSA compound and PX compound on the east side of the ZhongShan. View is looking toward the North - that's the Grand Hotel in the background. You can see from the signs that continuing North takes you to ShiLin (TienMou, JinTan, YammingShan) and Beitou.
3rd. Taken from the same bridge, except facing South toward MinQuan Rd.
A few more:
1st. Florida Bakery - where the Liberty Bus from Linkou let us off. Yes, that's a 7-11 store on the corner I think there was a bar there in our time (Playboy or OK). There's a 7-11 every other block in Taipei.
2nd. South West corner of ZhongShan N. Rd., and MinQuan W. Rd. Former Kings Hotel, with the King's club in the red brick building to the right. Now vacant.
3rd. I think this is the the building where the downtown Linkou Club Annex was.
