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TAIWAN

Taiwan was Sean's 3rd assignment with State and this was where he spent almost a year studying Chinese.  It was also In Taiwan where we decided to get serious about planning our future.  Sounds heavy back then, I know, but after dating quite a while, we decided to get married before heading to Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan, southwestern China.  Taiwan was a very interesting period in our relationship.  Cheech and Sean made lots of friends, lost a few and got to experience the hassle of preparing to get married ---

Cheech came to visit Sean in Taiwan three times while he was there.  We get to spent time visiting tourist spot and the surrounding areas.  Including Chiang Kai Shek Park. 

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park opened in 1987 and contains not only the memorial itself, but also the National Concert Hall and the National Theater. The park covers 24 hectares, with a wide open plaza.

It is surrounded by a long white wall topped with small blue tiled roof forming a long hallway which wraps around the park. Outside the wall is a sidewalk (and a couple of good restaurants and a bar.).  The architecture of the memorial itself is modeled after the pyramid-like top of Tiantan in Beijing. (We have a picture of it on our Beijing page.) Its massive blue-tiled roof is capped with a golden peak on top, producing a majestic appearance. Inside the memorial, a ground-level library displays photos and mementos of the late president's life. The plaza in front of the memorial is often used for large scale shows, fairs, public activities and folk performances. International groups also frequently perform here. We went here for a bunch of campaign activities during the elections in 2000.

The National Concert Hall covers 40,950 square feet of space. Behind the stage is a huge Flentrop organ custom made in Holland to accommodate the proportions of this auditorium and to produce the best sound possible. There is one large area for audiences to sit as well as two levels of box seats. A capacity crowd of 2,070 people can gather here. The Recital Hall in the basement of the National Concert Hall is small, but its sound quality is the best in the whole complex due to the fact that hardly any noise from outside can reach it. A maximum of 363 people can be seated here.

The stage of the National Theater has two pits in the foreground for orchestras of up to 30-40 musicians. It is extremely well suited for musical shows, opera, ballet and modern dance. The first floor consists of a large area for the audience to be seated, and there are box seats available on the first, second and third floors. Altogether a capacity crowd of 1,522 people can gather here to enjoy concerts. At the reception desk on the first floor, programs of the day's shows can be purchased.

Also, by signing your name here, you can wait at the theater entrances and exits to observe the actors come on and off the stage. Tour guide services are also provided here, and there is a restaurant and gift shop for visitors as well.

On the third floor of the National Theater is the Experimental Theater which opened in 1988. In addition to large scale productions, smaller acting groups often put on productions here, and it may also be used for lectures or acting workshops. There is no formal stage as such -- the areas where the play is put on and the audience sits may be adjusted according to the tastes of each group. Because of this members of the audience can often sit wherever they want in the theater as there are no formal seats either. We tried a couple of times but never managed to get tickets for anything here.