Another Day In Town: More Insights

Though I completed my "A Day in Town" backpacking twice last month, visiting seven districts of Taoyuan City and Hsinchu City, I realized that I barely scratched the surface. I should return to explore more in the densely populated districts with rich history and cultural heritage. Incidentally, I learned that the results of the 2025 Taoyuan International Art Award, organized by TMoFA (Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts), was just announced.  Following the award ceremony on March 26, an exhibition was staged, showcasing the eleven finalist artworks, which were shortlisted from over 1,100 submissions from 83 countries. The exhibition is open to the public until May 18th, 2025 and admission is free. Though I'm by no means an artist, I like art and have visited museums often to appreciate the works and expand my  imaginative world. Therefore, this was an exhibition I should not miss, and I decided to spend another day in the eponymous district of Taoyuan City, where Taoyuan Arts Center, the venue of the exhibition, is located. 

So, I visited Taoyuan District again this past Tuesday. I first took a train to Taoyuan. From there, I walked for 50 minutes to Taoyuan Arts Center. The visit turned out to be my best museum experience in terms of modern arts. I could appreciate most of the works displayed and the key messages their creators wanted to deliver. The image shows a painting, which was a part of a series of works created by a Malaysian artist, dedicated to promoting ‘’Gaigaau‘’ (Chickenism), a legendary religion worshipping chickens, which originated from Hulu Perak, Malaysia. The works gave me insights that felt both strange and educational at the same time. Overall, I found the work fascinating.

The other series of works that impressed me the most was titled "Miraculous Café", of which a wooden structure imitating a flight control tower was particularly eye-catching. The creator told his story through his works: His family had been farmers in Dayuan District, Taoyuan City for generations. As part of Taiwan's national development plan, the government expropriated part of their homestead in the 1970s to construct Taoyuan International Airport. His family continued living there after the airport started operations. However, a horrible crash occurred in 1998, instantly killing 203 people, including 196 on board the plane and seven on land. The accident site was only meters away from his home, and he witnessed the plane rushing past in a gigantic fireball. The accident was one of the deadliest in Taiwan's aviation history, with the families of the victims and society at large deeply shocked and affected to this day. 

Years later, he decided to do something at the site in memory of the accident and those who perished, so he had his homestead converted into a cafe, named "Miraculous", featuring a flight control tower as part of its building. Over time, the cafe became popular and drew crowds of visitors year-round, customers and tourists alike. However, as part of the airport's expansion plan, the city government further expropriated its adjacent land, including where the cafe stood, last year. Thus, the cafe and his family roots on the land were now just a memory, sadly. As a result, he created these works to express his feelings about life's ups and downs. I felt connected to the creator because I was not a complete stranger to the story, having worked at the airport for ten years before.

Having explored new frontiers in my imagination, I walked out of the arts center and visited Taoyuan Main Public Library, which stood across the square. The library was a signature project of Taoyuan City, the fastest-growing of Taiwan's six special municipalities. Known as "the most beautiful library in Taiwan", it officially opened in September 2023, and has attracted visitors from around the country. This image captures a scene on the fifth floor where I read a few chapters of American literary classic Moby-Dick.

While walking back to Taoyuan Train Station, I passed Jinfugong, also known as Taoyuan Great Temple, which has been the religious, cultural and commercial center of Taoyuan since it was first built in 1745. Even new visitors notice this  landmark historical building because it stands right in the middle of Zhongzheng Road, the historical boulevard of Taoyuan, opposite the train station 700 meters away. I have passed the temple many times, and each time I passed it, I learned a little more about it, the place and people who live there. This time I learned that the main deity enshrined in the temple is Kai-Zhang Sheng Wang, literally meaning "the guardian of Zhangzhou"─note that Zhangzhou, along with Quanzhou, is a major hometown of Minnan settlers here─and the neighborhood was controlled by settlers from Zhangzhou, with a city wall built in 1809 (Taoyuan City Wall) to protect the city against rival settlers from Quanzhou.

 

On Wednesday, I visited Hsinchu City again. Upon exiting the train station, I took Tungmen Street, one of the city's historic main streets, and walked toward the city center. In the distance was the iconic remnant of the city wall called Yingxi Gate, the only gate remaining on the east side of the city wall. Looking at my own shadow in the image, I couldn't help but admire how smartly it was named: "Yingxi" literally means "welcome morning sunlight". It couldn't have been better named.

At the circle surrounding Yingxi Gate, I turned right into Wenhua Street where another iconic historical building stands: Shinchiku Prefecture Library, built during the Japanese occupation period. As a library, the building looks exceptionally grand by today's standards. Upon researching further, I learned that "Shinchiku Prefecture"  literally means "Hsinchu State"─at that time there were only five prefectures in Taiwan, the rest being headquartered in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. The jurisdiction of Shinchiku Prefecture was equivalent to Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, Taoyuan City and Miaoli County combined today. No wonder the library was housed in such a magnificent building. The library building was sold to a renowned local conglomerate, and has been converted into a Starbucks store now.

I strolled to Hsinchu Park, and discovered a few more historical sites, among them, this one amazed me the most: the old site of Hsinchu Weather Station, formerly known as "Shinchiku Seismographic Observatory". The observatory was built in 1937, in the aftermath of the 1935 Shinchiku-Taichū Earthquake, the deadliest natural disaster in Taiwan's history, claiming 3,276 lives and causing extensive damage. With the observatory beginning operations in 1937, The government's ability to observe and predict earthquakes and weather had been significantly improved. The weather station ceased operations in 1991, with the site now converted into a Louisa shop, a local coffee chain.

On my way to the last destination of the day, I stumbled upon another interesting historical site：Hsinchiping Former Residence. Hsinchiping was the first headmaster of Hsinchu Senior High School after World War II ended. Built in 1922 and located next to the campus, this dormitory housed six Japanese headmasters before Hsinchiping. The volunteer curator on-site shared two fascinating stories with me.

First, in order to support the newly established Hsinchu Girls' Senior High School, Hsinchu High School was relocated to the foot of Eighteen-Peak Mountain, leaving its conveniently located campus for Hsinchu Girls' High School. Second, Hsinchu Senior High School was one of the five high schools founded during the Japanese occupation period, aimed at enhancing the five prefectures' capacity for higher education. To this end, I suddenly realized that my alma mater, Cheng Kung Senior High School, was its counterpart at the time in Taihoku Prefecture (literally "Taipei State", with its jurisdiction equivalent to Taipei City, New Taipei City, Keelung City and Ilan County combined today). Then, as I became a freshman at Chiao Tung University near Eighteen-Peak Mountain, Hsinchu Senior High School was located right next to our campus. I was simply amazed by these closely related developments in my youth that had remained unknown to me until now.

Finally, I visited Black Bat Squadron Museum, a unique museum located at a site known as Dongda Flying Park today. It  exhibits items, documents and documentaries related to the former 34th Squadron of the ROC Air Force, better known as the Black Bat Squadron. It was a squadron of CIA reconnaissance plane pilots and crew based in Taiwan during the Cold War. The squadron flew missions over mainland China and Southeast Asia to drop agents, gather military signal intelligence around military sites, and carry out secret missions. Until the museum opened 15 years ago, the existence and operations of the squadron had been kept top secret from the public.

The 34th Squadron was formed in 1951 and flew its final mission in 1973. The squadron's emblem featured a bat and seven stars surrounded by a red ring. The bat and stars allude to night operations. The bat's wing pierced the "red circle" intentionally and the position of the stars represented the numbers 3 and 4 for its formal name; the 34th Squadron of the ROC Air Force. During its 22 years of operations under extreme dangers, 15 airplanes crashed and 147 crew members perished. The visit was worthwhile as I was able to learn many touching stories and pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives to protect our country.

Before taking a train home, I visited a Louisa Coffee shop in another historical building whose history I have yet to learn about. Enjoying my coffee on the second floor and looking out the window at a panoramic view of Hsinchu Train Station, which has retained its original structure since it was built in 1913, I couldn't help reflecting: I can not learn enough about the rich stories on this tiny land where people have lived for centuries, if not millennia. I will definitely return to uncover more.