I slept like a rock, and make it downstairs about 9:45 AM, just in time for the free breakfast. There was a choice of western and chinese. I had the western--eggs, ham, toast, coffee. OK because it was free. I then relaxed in my room until 12:00 when A met me downstairs. We walked next door and I had another sample of Taiwanese local food. Lunch was a beef and noodle bowl. Unlike some of the beef I had been served in Asia, the beef was actually a real piece of meat! The noodles were handmade by the cook. You can watch him make the noodle dough, which he shapes into a brick, and then he shaves off strips. The resulting noodles are rather thick, and of varying shapes and sizes. They are quite filling.
We then took a taxi to the Palace Museum, which contains many of the artifacts and antiquities that were in the Palace Museum of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Beginning in the 1930s they were removed from the Forbidden City and moved to various locations for safekeeping until finally coming to Taipei in about 1949. The Taiwanese say that all of the good stuff from the Forbidden City is now in Taipei, and they might be right. Certainly the quantity and quality of the pieces on display are more than what I saw in Beijing. The museum is in a large display hall on grounds that contain a garden and two other buildings. It is an impressive venue.
After the museum we took the bus and subway to Lungshan Temple, a very ornate and beautiful Buddhist temple. Although not as large as some others, it was among the most beautiful that I have seen. When I viewed the main hall I was moved to wanting to press my hands together and bow. I did not, since I do not know how to do this properly, but the place does have a special power.
A had to go meet her friend for dinner, and so we parted company and I headed back to the hotel. At 7:30 my friend D met me for dinner. We had meet a couple years ago at a trade fair in Miami. She works for a distributor/wholesaler based here in Taipei. She took me to a nearby neighborhood where I enjoyed another Taiwan style meal. We ordered shrimp with cashews, chicken, chinese greens, and rice. After dinner D took the subway home, and I went back to the hotel.
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