Breakfast isn’t included at our hotel in Taipei. We found a very nice breakfast spot, Melange Cafe. It’s not far from the hotel We went there for breakfast yesterday and today.
The air raid shelter sign right outside our hotel is reminder that the Taiwanese have a constant concern about a mainland China attack.
We went to two museums today the first is the Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s in a former school building not far from our hotel.
We walked to the second museum. It’s the 228 Memorial Museum and it’s about a mile from our hotel. It was extremely interesting. Taiwan was a Dutch Colony. It was a Japanese Colony for fifty years before World War II. As with most countries Taiwans history is complex.
After World War Two there was internal strife about who would control the Taiwanese government and whether the Japanese who had lived in Taiwan for many years would still have representation. Anti government protests broke out. The nationalist Chinese declared marshall law after protests started Feb 28, 1946. (Hence the name of the museum 228). Dissent was forbidden. The people who protested against the Chinese Nationalists were arrested and killed. For many years it was illegal to talk about what happened to them. The museum was created to redress the injustices of that period. I thought it was very well done and very interesting.
