Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Memorial, Changing of the Guard

...and what are all these people waiting for?  Why, it's the Changing of the Guard, similar to what you'd see at the Buckingham in London or Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the U.S.:

It was hot, hot, hot that day; don't see how they did it in those uniforms without fainting dead away.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Memorial, Outside View of Memorial Hall

This is a view of the Memorial Hall itself, which contains a Lincolnesque statue inside, per below.  Dwarfs anything seen in Washington...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Memorial, Macro-view of Complex

This is a view of same from the Memorial Hall at one end of the venue.  The buildings to the left and right are museums and administrative offices:

It's something that this entire complex is a dedication to the one man credited with the birth and development of Taiwan as we know it today.  He truly was the George Washington of their place and time.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Memorial, Liberty Square Arch

Now that we've been to Chiang-Kai-Shek's residence, let's have a look at his memorial, which is truly massive.  This is one of the entrances, called the Liberty Square Arch; looking at the people gives an idea on just how big it is.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Radiant Flower at Entrance

The last shot of the Residence series, captured at the entrance/exit on the way out.

While we're doing Chiang things, think we'll go to his Memorial Hall next...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Rose Garden Sign

Caught this sign for the Rose Garden on our way out, which I hadn't noticed before...

Full pic below:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Backlit Purple Bloom

Our time was growing short, so we headed toward the exit in time to grab a bite to eat.  I lost the group in stopping to snap off a few such as this guy.  Spent a bit of time in post-capture separating the plant into its own layer so the background could be desaturated to black-and-white, which I think turned out OK.  Original pic below:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Cradle Shot #2

Looking in another direction yields another cradle shot...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Cradle Shot #1

After some 150 steps to the top we found ourselves on a platform with views far into the city of Taipei itself.  I zoomed in and captured the first of what I'll call cradle shots; zoomed out perspective of same below:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Millipede

On the way back from Chiang's residence we spied some stone stairs leading a ways up to something.  No restrictions or barriers, so up we went, seeing lots of these critters on the way.  Such an amazing variety of creatures we have on this planet...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Sitting Room

Thought this sitting room was significant because of the picture of Christ front and center, an obvious display of where their faith stood.  And if there was any doubt among visitors, a full explanation was provided in nearby signage:

Near the end of our self-guided tour, we told a couple of the docents that a friend of ours at church in Texas (a white Caucasian) actually knew and befriended Madame Chiang (pictured above) after Madame moved to the U.S. following the death of Chiang.  Our friend's husband minded the financial affairs of retired Heads of State, and Madame Chiang was one of his clients.  They visited one another both in California and later in New York.  These docents got pretty excited about that, saying "Wow, that's pretty sacred to us...please give her this on our behalf!", then handed us a brochure with Madame's picture on it.  We didn't give our friend the brochure when we got back to Houston, but told her about what they said, to which she waved it off and replied, "No big deal."

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Porthole View

Porthole looking out into the front garden, complete with pond and fountain.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, The House Itself

So finally we make it to the residence.  I thought we'd get a good look at the structure, admire it, and walk on by, but it was actually open for tours!  We paid the fee, exchanged our shoes for the special foot coverings they gave us, and went inside.  Docents were at every corner ready to explain what was there and keep people from touching things, etc.  Very interesting, but I didn't take very many pictures because of restrictions.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Abandoned House

Something else we passed on the way to Chiang's house.  Looks like a house or living quarters of some kind, long abandoned.  There were several old, rustic, abandoned structures like this, which fires the imagination on what it was like in and around those places some 75 or more years ago...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Rustic Sign / Looking at Other Languages

Not that I understand anything this says, but it's rustic and artistically done.  Google Translate on the phone helps with most signage, but this one's a bit spotty (literally).

And I just like looking at stuff like this - which is art, really.  The fact that almost all of the the characters are different, the "font" used, the way they are spaced.  It's beautiful.  But Chinese isn't the only language that is unique (to us) to simply look at.  In this post from 2020 I mentioned finding a book as a kid that had its Foreword written in 41 different languages.  I would sit and just stare at those pages for hours, fascinated that someone in the world could read and make sense of all of those squiggles, dots, letters, and symbols.

Then later, during my college years, I started a collection of foreign-language Bibles.  I stumbled into the American Bible Society on 61st at Broadway while in New York City the first time, and was surprised that the vast inventory they had of Bibles in different languages was for sale.  From then on, I bought a few on every trip to the city, eventually ending up with a collection of about sixteen of them.  Some I've given away since, so think now there're only about twelve left.

That's not a sense of wonder that's gone away with age, either.  Just recently I compiled a translation of Genesis 1:1 in more than 250 different languages...again thanks to Google and Microsoft Word that made it easy.  These included new and obscure writing systems that I previously knew nothing about.  One day I'll print the nine pages on glossy paper and post them somewhere.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Pathway with Overhang

After hanging out at the Love garden area for a while the rain stopped, so we moved on in search for the actual house where Chiang lived.  This was a parting shot before heading over there...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Background Shot

Because it was not exposed to the sun, the interior of the coverings featured in the last few posts was much richer in color and texture, as can be seen in the background shot above.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Window Shot of Friends

Another window shot, this of our friend shooting with a Canon.  I recently told someone that if it were possible to go back in time I'd probably start with Canon instead of Nikon.  There's just something about those cameras...

Friendship is sometimes fickle, but a wonderful thing if it lasts - two of our besties from back in the States.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Window Shot with Umbrellas

Ticks three boxes - window shot plus candid plus well-distributed complementary colors.

The rain doesn't do much to inhibit the enjoyment of outdoors in Taiwan.  And because of the heat, we're grateful for a rainy day...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, The Love Garden

It had been years since Chenjean and I visited this place, so everything was new to us as we wended our way through the property.  This garden area was a bonanza for photography, and it was raining so the sun didn't create problematic shadows.  If you've studied much about Chiang you know that the latter years of his life were dedicated to spreading this message of love.  He became a Christian, yet provided space on his grounds for all faiths to practice their worship.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Rose Bookmark

Haven't done much with bookmarks lately, but once in a while find something that's a good fit.

This'll be the last post from the fantastic rose garden on the residence grounds of the venerated Chiang-Kai-Shek.  More to come of surprises discovered elsewhere...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Red-and-White Rose with B&W Background

Thought of this post back in 2018 and decided to try something similar with this guy.  Doesn't have quite the same effect, but was fun to do nonetheless:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Prototypical Yellow Rose

This is much more typical of what we think of as a "rose".  Dedicated to Abdel Hadi Mahrous, a good family friend who passed away in 2001.  I shall write more of him one day...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Yellow Rose Facing East

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Head-On Shots of Red/Pink Roses

Here's a head-on shot of a pink rose, that of a more "jumbled" variety, as I call it...that is, one that doesn't feature the usual wrap-around petals we normally associate with roses.  Below are two more red/pink head-on shots of different kinds of roses:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Peach Pair

 

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Lavender Rose with Buds

 

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Light Lavender Roses

The color on this one was so subtle I decided to increase saturation by about 40%, while darkening the background.  Saw another one nearby that gave me the opportunity to take a picture of something through something:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Pink Rose

It just takes a small positive comment here and there to keep me going with this blog.  When I showed my friend Brian this pic on the camera screen he did flip-flops over it and made the comment, "No wonder you have a blog."  Little did he know the value of that comment in propelling it forward (for better or worse!).

So I cropped, did some work on the petals, and decided to make it first in this section of the series.  We discovered a huge rose garden of an acre or more with every size, color and type imaginable.  Though pictures of roses are available in their millions already, I naturally had to capture a few with my own touch...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Forbidden Pond

Is there a subtle message here?  Does anyone know what will happen to you if you decide to take a swim in this pond?

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Amphitheater Stage

Don't know what they do here, but there was a little amphitheater with the stage you see above.  The shot below was taken going the other way later, on our way out.  A few compositional tricks were necessary to exclude construction going on at the time:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Cattle Egret Shot #4

And finally, our friend here is seen against a backdrop of complementing colors.  Catching this guy when we did was a real bonanza, and we hadn't even entered the park yet!

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Cattle Egret Shot #3 (with color variation)

Same guy but a few steps over where he ended up against a much darker background.  Seeing the consistency of its coloration, I decided to make a layer of him and fiddle with the hue.  How could I not?