So far today as been a pretty big day. We took the train to the National Palace Museum. I really learned a lot about Taiwan and its history. Kuan is a pretty good history teacher. The public transportation is really the only way to go here, but you have to be prepared to "surf" the busses and trains. Everyone uses public transportation so everything is always packed. When we were leaving the driver just kept telling everyone outside that there was more room in the bus. He was wrong unless he was expecting someone to sit on his lap.

We stopped at the seven eleven and I had a Taiwan beer and a hot dog. From there it was off to Tansui stop. This is a pretty popular location being at the head of the island right at the foot of some pretty tall mountains.

The next stop was Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. This is a memorial to the the president in the 1930s to 1940s. He basically started the Republic of China by moving from the mainland and si the original president just like our George Washington. The memorial is amazing in both size and beauty. When you are sitting there you almost can't realize how large the buildings actually are.  Once you get in the center of all of them and look around, you can tell they are huge. In the background you can see the JhongJheng building that was the tallest building in Taipei until Taipei 101 was built, and Taipei 101.

As we were leaving the memorial we were headed back into the train station and a guy Taos me on the shoulder. He asks if I am from America, and if I am from SC, and if I am from Belair! More than 23 million people in Taiwan and we run into one of our neighbors foreign exchange student friend. He is from Japan and is spending this week in Taipei. Better check our lottery tickets!