Daxi,Baroque Styled Town
Michella Jade Weng, Presenter:
Hi, I��m Michella and this is my friend...
Gunter Whittome, German Expat:
Gunter, hi. Today we��ve come to Daxi and I��m showing
my friend Michella around this traditional Taiwanese
town which is famous for its locally called ��Taiwanese
style Baroque architecture.��
The facades
of buildings along Heping Street show an interesting
mix of eastern and western architectural styles.
Gunter
Whittome, German Expat:
It��s got some really well preserved traditional
architecture. The Japanese they adopted western
architectural styles and in Taiwan they blended
them with some local styles.
The more
I look at them, the more the facades remind me of
temples.
Huang
Jian-yi, Guide:
You see mythical beasts here and they look like
characters you see in temples. This is because in
1919 when the houses on this street were being constructed,
temple craftsmen were hired to do build these western
style houses.
Ah, that
explains it. Something else to notice is that about
every third shop along the street is a furniture
maker - that��s another tradition in these parts.
Because
it��s so close to Shimen Reservoir, there��s lots
of fresh fish to be had here and they are eaten
in just about any way imaginable - fried, stir-fried,
made into dessert.
This
is the Chiang Kai-shek mausoleum. The changing of
the honor guards is quite a show to watch.
In addition
to paying your respects to the former president
in his final resting place here, you can also take
a walk in the park planted with more than 150 statues
of the former dictator.
Gunter
Whittome, German Expat:
Well now we��ve come to a quite different place from
Daxi, isn��t it?
Michella
Jade Weng, Presenter:
Yeah, we have statues of Chiang Kai-shek in all
different colors.
Gunter
Whittome, German Expat:
It feels like you��re surrounded by clones of the
same person. Schools, office buildings, they decided
they wanted to replace the statues with something
else and then the local authorities here decided
they��ll provide an asylum for these statues and
they collected them here.
For sure
you won��t be feeling lonely here. Daxi, Taoyuan
was recently voted one of the top ten small tourist
towns in Taiwan, and with lots of culture, history
and cuisine to offer, it can be a nice little day
trip if you��re coming from Taipei.