Welcome back to the YRC! Last week's "Dragon" elicited some of the best comments yet, including Gregg Shaw's interpretation of classic Chinese poetry and helpful naming conventions from Amjad and Johnny Velcro.
Today we head to the Pink Bridge! Bridges, in my humble opinion, hold a certain fascination, a certain allure. They are engineering wonders, landmarks of historical significance and even feature prominently as symbols of transition, change, risk and bungee jumping. For example, in "Apocalypse Now" (note the additional reference to the movie as we build tension for the Ho Chi Minh City trip) there is the fighting around the Do Lung bridge. The bridge is built during the day by the Americans and destroyed at night by the Viet Cong. This serves as the ultimate symbol of the futility of war. "The Bridge over the River Kwai" is also built (yuk yuk) around this central notion.
It should also be noted that many great cities have bridges that are central to the history of the city. For example, London and the Tower Bridge, Paris and Pont Neuf, Rome and the Bridge of Castel St. Angelo, New York and the Brooklyn Bridge, and of course, the famous Tridge in Midland, Michigan. An example in mythology would be the trolls that live under bridges, a frequent reference to barriers to progress and middle management.
To wedge China into this discussion, they have recently completed several long bridges which clearly establish themselves as the Great Bridge Builders of the 21st century and proud we are of all of them. Such is the power of bridge imagery and lore. I am sure we could go on like this for hours, but I am going to wrestle this topic back to the subject of our wanderings today...the Pink Bridge.
So, on to the island nation of Taiwan, the Republic of China, not to be confused with the People's Republic of China. We can muse on the irony that the Republic of China is an actual democracy, while the People's Republic...well, you know what I mean.
On with it! EP and I were in Taiwan in search of mystery, adventure and grilled squid. Well, once again, she was on a business trip and I was traveling limpet-style to carry her luggage. While she worked hard attending business meetings, I wandered the city. I found Taipei to be a healthy hybrid of East and West with a strong coffee culture. The entire population of the country (22 million) is about the same as the city of Shanghai. Taiwan has open borders and information flow, so it felt much more open and friendly than your average mainland city.
In search of amulets, I visited Taipei's most famous temple, The Mengjia Longshan Temple. Longshan is Taipei's oldest temple and is located in Taipei's Wanhua District, the oldest part of Taipei city. It was built in 1738 by settlers from Fujian, China. The Temple worships a mixture of Buddhist, Taoist, and folk gods such as Matsu, Chinese goddess of the sea. There are more than 165 Chinese gods that are enshrined here and it seems most of them accepted offerings of food and incense. It was also bombed in 1949 by American bombers hunting Japanese gods, I guess.
Spanning the entrance to the harbor, the Pink Bridge provides an excellent venue to watch the sun set and is a connection between, well, really, it's hard to say, what it connects. Like most of our fellow Pinkers in Transit, EP and crossed it from one side to the otherand back again, in search of, well, something to look at.
There was a very strong bond between all of us on the bridge, very much like feeling of being stuck in an elevator. Well, we are here, and there is nowhere to go, so let's just figure this out. That sort of feeling. We all seemed confused and slightly disappointed as we crossed and re-crossed the pink span, hoping to discover the source of the Pink Bridges existence and only to find, the other side, so to speak.
This is not to say we did not enjoy the visit to Taipai. There are great night markets, good food, hiking trails, mountain/sea vistas and some wonderful grilled squid. I mean, so fresh it tries to sucker your face while you munch on it. The air is clean, the city atmosphere is relaxed and lots of fun. However, we will leave you with this small satori from a year and a half of exploring in Asia. Yes, the YRC may seem so glamourous and full of drama. Yes, there are exotic places with beautiful men and strong women. Yes, there is mystery and adventure, but let us tell you this. Sometimes, you reach the other side of a bridge and you wonder why you went there.
Today we head to the Pink Bridge! Bridges, in my humble opinion, hold a certain fascination, a certain allure. They are engineering wonders, landmarks of historical significance and even feature prominently as symbols of transition, change, risk and bungee jumping. For example, in "Apocalypse Now" (note the additional reference to the movie as we build tension for the Ho Chi Minh City trip) there is the fighting around the Do Lung bridge. The bridge is built during the day by the Americans and destroyed at night by the Viet Cong. This serves as the ultimate symbol of the futility of war. "The Bridge over the River Kwai" is also built (yuk yuk) around this central notion.
It should also be noted that many great cities have bridges that are central to the history of the city. For example, London and the Tower Bridge, Paris and Pont Neuf, Rome and the Bridge of Castel St. Angelo, New York and the Brooklyn Bridge, and of course, the famous Tridge in Midland, Michigan. An example in mythology would be the trolls that live under bridges, a frequent reference to barriers to progress and middle management.
To wedge China into this discussion, they have recently completed several long bridges which clearly establish themselves as the Great Bridge Builders of the 21st century and proud we are of all of them. Such is the power of bridge imagery and lore. I am sure we could go on like this for hours, but I am going to wrestle this topic back to the subject of our wanderings today...the Pink Bridge.
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| Typical Market Street |
On with it! EP and I were in Taiwan in search of mystery, adventure and grilled squid. Well, once again, she was on a business trip and I was traveling limpet-style to carry her luggage. While she worked hard attending business meetings, I wandered the city. I found Taipei to be a healthy hybrid of East and West with a strong coffee culture. The entire population of the country (22 million) is about the same as the city of Shanghai. Taiwan has open borders and information flow, so it felt much more open and friendly than your average mainland city.
In search of amulets, I visited Taipei's most famous temple, The Mengjia Longshan Temple. Longshan is Taipei's oldest temple and is located in Taipei's Wanhua District, the oldest part of Taipei city. It was built in 1738 by settlers from Fujian, China. The Temple worships a mixture of Buddhist, Taoist, and folk gods such as Matsu, Chinese goddess of the sea. There are more than 165 Chinese gods that are enshrined here and it seems most of them accepted offerings of food and incense. It was also bombed in 1949 by American bombers hunting Japanese gods, I guess.
Like most civilized cities, Taipei has an excellent Metro system and on the weekend, EP and used it to zoom around the city, For our last day, we headed to the very northern tip of the city, the district of Tamshui. There was reputed to be a famous fisherman's market there. We went with dreams of squid, grouper, sea bream, and of course, the narrow-banded batfish. Though we searched quite diligently, we found no fisherman's market. There was the standard Chinese parking lot for buses, there was the standard Chinese set of new buildings built to attract tourism and there was the standard group of stalls selling dried fish, salted beef and other delights, but no market. However, we did manage to discover The Pink Bridge, aka, the Lovers Bridge of Tamshui.
There was a very strong bond between all of us on the bridge, very much like feeling of being stuck in an elevator. Well, we are here, and there is nowhere to go, so let's just figure this out. That sort of feeling. We all seemed confused and slightly disappointed as we crossed and re-crossed the pink span, hoping to discover the source of the Pink Bridges existence and only to find, the other side, so to speak.
This is not to say we did not enjoy the visit to Taipai. There are great night markets, good food, hiking trails, mountain/sea vistas and some wonderful grilled squid. I mean, so fresh it tries to sucker your face while you munch on it. The air is clean, the city atmosphere is relaxed and lots of fun. However, we will leave you with this small satori from a year and a half of exploring in Asia. Yes, the YRC may seem so glamourous and full of drama. Yes, there are exotic places with beautiful men and strong women. Yes, there is mystery and adventure, but let us tell you this. Sometimes, you reach the other side of a bridge and you wonder why you went there.
It's August and looks like you cannot wear Reefs there .. definitely not on my list of places to go in August ... The next story better be a place where you can wear Reefs in August!
ReplyDeleteWest Virginia had it's own (in)famous pink bridge, which was repainted white when neighbors complained about the "obscene color." As far as I can tell, no matter which side of the creek you ended up on, you were pretty much nowhere.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/wvagent/3503338743/