While riding a scooter in Taiwan is hardly safe, teaching special needs kids in a cram school is more like a tour of duty on hamburger hill. I once knew a teacher, let’s call him “Timmy.” Six foot tall and 200 pounds, not that it helped him. The assistant teacher left him alone for a few minutes in a classroom of six-year-olds and when she returned all that was left of “Teacher Timmy” was a sticky ball, some bones, shreds of clothing and half a toupee. “Yeah yeah,” civilians who haven’t taught cram school say. “They’re just little kids.” Well you know what else is little? Piranhas.
Chen Yue Ji residence in Taipei, not far from the Confucian Temple. Contains the only extant set of stele in Taiwan awarded to a successful candidate in province level imperial exam. Many of the buildings date back to 1807 and parts of the compound have fallen into severe dilapidation (it was only heritage listed three years ago). 13 generation decedents still live in the compound and while it’s not really a tourist site open to the public, they were more than happy for us to look around and were able to tell us some interesting stories about the family’s history.
White object hanging on string lol? A bungee jumping leprechaun invisible to all but the initiated? Or do you mean ye olde Qing hi-fi speaker like thing near the window? That’s an electricity box. The old door in that pic has 天開 (sky opens) on one side and 長春 (eternal spring) on the other: with the roof caving in at least the former proved true. Rather poignant “dream of the red chamber” stuff: this was once the residence of one of Taiwan’s most prominent families, boasting three Qing dynasty officials, and now only a few descents still live there, siting chewing beetle nut in the ruins
Remains of the perimeter foundation of one of three oil storage containers bombed by the Americans in 1944. The fire burnt for three days and nights - some of our veteran Forumosans no doubt remember the terrible smell.
Early in the 20th Century these bricks began to replace the earlier Samuel and Samuel bricks (marked S) as the top tier red brick in Taiwan. You can see these TR red bricks in many Japanese era buildings. Contrary to what you might expect, the TR does not stand for Tyrannosaurus Rex or even Taiwan Ranga but Taiwan Renga (煉瓦 or brick is pronounced Renga in Japanese).
excellent job! it must have been tough detective work finding the locations even though most had changed surprisingly little.
one market sign was identical, I wonder if the trader was even the same person!
公司橋, Company Bridge, Tamsui. Named after the Dutch East India Company. The salvaged slabs and the stele date to the rebuilt stone bridge of 1862. On the stele you can see the year 同治元年 - First year of the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor (1861/2). The Tongzhi emperor was the son of the Dowager Empress Cixi. The Chen Ji Yue and Lin Ben Yuan families are listed as sponsors of the bridge on the stele (in this thread I previously posted pics of the dilapidated Chen Ji Yue residence. The Li Ben Yuan residence is a well known attraction in Yuanshan).
The scene of Tamsui in the Japanese era (digitally colored by hand), the location in the picture is the current Mackay Street, and the steeple building in the background is Tamsui Church.