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BEIJING ON A BUDGET MAGAZINE FOR CEBU PACIFIC • MAY 2019 Sun, surf, action and relaxation in OUR OUR IS COMPLIMENTARY • MAY 2019 • MAY IS COMPLIMENTARY SIARGAO#BestIslands p88 MAKING CONNECTIONS Going deep into Taipei's history and culture p100 FLORES DE MAYO A field guide to the lush flora of Philippine gardens 000 R1 COVER KF + Spine6.4mm.indd 1 12/4/19 2:50 PM Small but certain TAIPEI ALAMY PHOTO BY PHOTO 88 Smile May 2019 088-098 R1 FEATURE 3 - TAIPEI KF.MS.indd 88 17/4/19 2:19 PM Small but certain Taiwan might be an island, but its modern-day culture is built on the connections it has made throughout its history. Writer Timi Siytangco explores the capital city of Taipei to reflect on these enduring links ALAMY PHOTO BY PHOTO May 2019 Smile 89 088-098 R1 FEATURE 3 - TAIPEI KF.MS.indd 89 17/4/19 2:20 PM n the winter of 1949, ceramics, paintings, jade, calligraphy and other treasures were packed into 2,972 crates and shipped from Nanking, China, across the Taiwan Strait to IKeelung Harbor in Taiwan. They were from the imperial collection and had already spent 16 years hidden in warehouses and monasteries, TAIPEI protected from the Chinese Civil War. All that art has been caught in the middle of a stand-off ever since. And this is how the world’s largest collection of Chinese artifacts, representing 8,000 years of culture and history, came to be on permanent display in Taiwan. It survived multiple wars, travel by train, truck and boat and the ravages of weather and humidity. “Fortune was with us; not so much as a teacup was broken,’’ diplomat Han Lih-wu, who organized the shipments, was quoted as saying in the New York Times in 1986. A dynasty in an object 1 At the National Palace Museum, most visitors make a beeline for the 2 Jadeite Cabbage and Meat-Shaped Stone carved from jasper. These rock stars — so to speak! — sculpted by anonymous artists during the Qing dynasty (the cabbage is believed to have been for an empress’ dowry), have their own gallery and maintain a busy tour schedule. When we visit, the cabbage is away at the Taichung World Flora Expo. But no matter. The museum has 670,000 other objects. Jennifer Kung, a volunteer docent, gives us a tour. “I’m a geologist by training,” she says by way of introduction. “I see time in 10,000-year bands.” With that, she leads us on a joyful walk through the galleries, using everyday objects to bring entire 1 and 2 Inside the National 3 Palace Museum 3 Xiao long dynasties to life: ideograms etched on bao 4 A sculpture outside the a wood panel explain the evolution of National Palace Museum Chinese characters; a ceramic bowl is a window into the influence of royal kilns. Jennifer explains how an artist in the Song dynasty held a brush to AND SHUTTERSTOCK.COM ALAMY write elegant calligraphy. Then she sighs: “For me, that period is better than Ming.” BY PHOTOS 90 Smile May 2019 088-098 R1 FEATURE 3 - TAIPEI KF.MS.indd 90 15/4/19 3:39 PM Once you see it, you see this regard for well-designed objects everywhere. Exhibit A: xiao long bao ALAMY AND SHUTTERSTOCK.COM ALAMY 4 PHOTOS BY PHOTOS 088-098 R1 FEATURE 3 - TAIPEI KF.MS.indd 91 15/4/19 3:39 PM 5 Songshan Cultural and Creative Park 6 Dihua Street Delightful daily details Once you see it, you notice this regard TAIPEI for beauty and detail everywhere. Exhibit A: xiao long bao. Originally from Shanghai, it is Taiwan’s Din Tai Fung that gets credit for bringing the pork-filled soup dumplings to the world, by making that commitment to 18 precise folds in every dumpling. This attention is also found in xue hua bing, literally “snow flower ice”. The name comes from the petal- like shavings formed by a machine purpose-built for this dessert. The technique creates an ice cream-like texture that turns humble shaved ice into a vessel for all kinds of flavors, from the fruits at Ice Monster to the tower of almond snow from Summer Tree Sweet on Dihua Street. Precision and delightful intention has also reinvented that most mundane part of city living: garbage disposal. Whatever neighborhood you’re in, keep an ear out for Taipei’s garbage trucks. Taiwan has one of the most successful recycling systems in the world, and residents keep to a strict schedule. The trucks crawl down the street playing a cheerful 5 arrangement of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” as everyone comes down with their color-coded trash bags, tossing A nod to Japan until the end of World War II. The them straight into the trucks — Soulfulness balanced by Japanese also established Baroque- garbage day has become a community meticulousness rules other areas of style government buildings, durable event that also limits the need for urban design, like Taipei’s street plan, infrastructure that remains in use trash bins. The result: clean streets, no a grid system built by the Japanese today, and many of them are getting smells, no vermin. when they ruled Taiwan from 1895 a second lease on life. A standout example is Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, which was built in 1937 6 as the Matsuyama Tobacco Plant of the Monopoly Bureau of the Taiwan Governor’s Office. It was the island’s first modernized tobacco factory and it helped Taiwan survive the economic downturn of World War II. Today, it is a creative hub, home to the Taiwan Design Museum, shops promoting local designers, a bookstore SHUTTERSTOCK.COM dedicated to local authors and, on the second floor, a sprawling workshop PHOTO BY PHOTO and makers’ space. April 2019 Smile 93 088-098 R1 FEATURE 3 - TAIPEI KF.MS.indd 93 15/4/19 3:39 PM For travelers, the most obvious Going local reminder of Taiwan’s enduring Via the THSR, we head to Fu Wan connection with Japan is its bullet Cafe Villa in Pingtung County, where train. When the Taiwan High Speed chef and entrepreneur Warren Hsu Rail (THSR) was conceived in the has turned his family’s fish ponds into Culture 2000s, it was the first time the a leisure farm and award-winning shinkansen was exported overseas. chocolate brand. Leisure farms are vulture THSR travels along the island’s the Taiwanese version of bed-and- Essential stops for a quick but western rim. We ride it south to the breakfasts, and are such a popular well-rounded tour of Taipei end of the line, Zuoying station in option for local holidays that an Kaohsiung. association exists to support their TAIPEI National Palace Museum development. Every farm has its own Plan ahead and book the free personality, a reflection of the area and English-language docent tour. the owner’s interests. The museum’s northern branch 7 In Pingtung, the government had in Taipei has two daily. The southern branch in Taibao is been convincing betel nut farmers a modern and green facility to switch crops, and cacao turned surrounded by 50 hectares of out to be a good alternative. There parklands and a bird-watching were plantations in the hills near the platform. npm.gov.tw Hsu family ponds, and so Warren Songshan Cultural and saw an opportunity to marry his Creative Park love for unique flavors with an Originally Taiwan’s first understanding of local agriculture. modernized tobacco factory, He convinced his parents to build a it is now home to the Taiwan Design Museum and has a full state-of-the-art chocolate factory on calendar of design exhibits. fish pond land. The result is Fu Wan songshanculturalpark.org Chocolate, one of a handful of bean- to-bar chocolate makers in Asia. It Dihua Street The main shopping street in Dadaocheng, the oldest district of Taipei, has 120-year-old 7 Raw, split cacao beans architecture and traditional 8 Harvesting cacao at the Fu shops for dried goods, tea and Wan Chocolate plantations candy. Make a stop at Xia Hai City God Temple, where single locals still come to pray for a 8 good marriage. The Red House The city’s first government- run public market has been converted into a market for local crafts and the square next to it is Taipei’s LGBT hub. redhouse.taipei Cafés Taipei has an evolved coffee culture, with high-personality cafés peppered throughout the city. Get your third-wave coffee fix at Tamed Fox (tamedfox.tw) or go old-school with Fong Da Coffee (42 Chengdu Rd), which has been around since 1956. Leisure farms There’s a farm for every kind of traveler. Visit the Taiwan Leisure Farms Development Association website to find the farm for you. www.taiwanfarm.org.tw 94 Smile May 2019 088-098 R1 FEATURE 3 - TAIPEI KF.MS.indd 94 15/4/19 3:39 PM 9 Mr Meat Hotpot and Butchery 10 Pork knuckle from Mr Meat 11 Tamed Fox TAIPEI 9 10 burst onto the international stage in 2017, winning competitions with its 70% Taiwan cacao and Asian flavor In Warren and Han, we see the epitome combinations. We spend an afternoon tasting square after petite square of of a phrase the young Taiwanese have chocolate that Warren lays out on a latched onto in recent years: xiao que long wooden plank — first the classic dark chocolates, then the nama (a xing, “a small but certain happiness” Japanese chocolate recipe that uses fresh cream), then his own inventions: rose lychee nibs, dried mango, Thai curry shrimp.