Taiwan 2025 - Chiayi Château, Cottage with Statues

A closer view in back of the side grounds, with a cottage for perhaps the chief gardener.  Very European looking, which was no surprise since the Jourdeness family is French.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiayi Château, Side Fountain

The side fountain, which is sizeable.  My awesome brother-in-law seen walking arm-in-hand with his wife in bottom left corner.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiayi Château, Panorama of Side Grounds (VIEW ON LARGER SCREEN)

Decided to capture the vast expanse of the side grounds with this 4-shot panorama.  Gosh, how many gardeners can the Jourdeness family afford?  Every inch of the lawns and gardens were immaculately manicured.  Tomorrow's post will feature a closeup of the big fountain you see straight ahead.

This being a stitched panorama, my brother-in-law (blue shirt) appears twice in front of the fountain.

Taiwan 2025 - Chiayi Château, Front Entrance from Inside

Another view of the front once inside the tourist entrance.  We had to pay to go in - guess this rich family must make expenses somehow.  The sheer size of the structure left me wondering how many beds and baths there were for guests...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiayi Château, Front Gate

Must stop for a picture in front of the fancy gate.  It was hot that day, but my 95-year-old father-in-law will always dress up to go out, no matter the weather, even in his small village up in the mountains.  Very much a generational thing, but also a function of his former profession as a doctor.  His wife once complained to Chenjean, "Why does Jim always wear shorts?"  To which I would respond (if I could in their language), "Why do you wear long sleeves and long pants in this blazingly hot weather?!?".  No reason to make the air hotter by blowing in it...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiayi "Castle", Revealing Signage

Aha!  The sign says it's a château.  So it's not a castle after all, but a château!  Not quite the same, but must be interesting nonetheless.  Still figuring out why a very rich French family is so keen on settling in Taiwan...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiayi "Castle", Front View

And here we are, rounding the corner for our first sight of the castle.  Yes, it maybe looks a little like a castle, but where are the stones and turrets?  And it has the family name over the front entrance, "Jourdeness".  Must be a very rich French family.  But why would they build this and settle in a place like Chiayi County, Taiwan?  The mystery deepens...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiayi "Castle", Spikey Tree

One day Chenjean announced that we were going to visit a castle near Chiayi City.  Hmmm...didn't know they had royalty or a castle anywhere in Taiwan, much less in Chiayi County.  Let's go see this castle.

We parked on a street adjacent to the place, and walked the periphery toward the entrance.  On the way we passed this nightmare and stopped to take a pic or two.  Who needs a moat when it's surrounded by these guys?  Side shot below:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Memorial, Ceiling Shot of Basement Museum

As stated in yesterday's post, it was very sunny and hot the day we took our friends to visit the Memorial.  We didn't know about this on any of our previous visits, but there are several basement floors underneath the statue that are AIR CONDITIONED.  Naturally we gravitated to this reprieve from the heat, and at the same time saw some pretty good exhibits.  Wasn't in the exact center for this ceiling shot, but pretty close.

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.