Taiwan Day 8

In the morning visited Shandao Temple where grandmother-in-law has a shrine. Afterwards, took red line MRT all the way to Tamshui, the end of the line. Visited Fort Santo Domingo - so it turned out the Spanish sailed all the way to Taiwan. In fact, the Spanish set up in the North of Taiwan and the Dutch in the South. Eventually it became clear to the Spanish that the Dutch weren't going anywhere so they abandoned the fort in the mid 1600s. The Dutch took it over. But later in the 1640s, a Chinese General attacked the Dutch and threw them out of Taiwan. The island was under the control of the Qing Dynasty (the last emperor). Something I know most Westerners won't know - the Qing are the Manchu people. Who are the Manchu people? In the 1600s they were a minority of about 1% of the population of China, but managed to take over the entire country. They seemed sort of like cousins / similar to the Mongols although they had a rivalry with them. Anyhow, the people we think of Chinese are Han Chinese...so it's a bit interesting to think about China in the modern context...they were ruled from about 1600-1905 by the Manchu people but during that time there was a lot of mixing between Manchu and Han...afterwards, China descended into chaos - Japan took over Taiwan in 1895 and later Manchuria in WW2...it wasn't until Mao in 1949 did the communists/Han take over China again. And even then, it was a bloody affair and a lot of Chinese fled to Taiwan to form a government in exile. 

So I digress. The fort was interesting as was the nearby "little white house." These are strategically located at the mouth of the Tamsui river. This river leads to the sea and is why Taipei is where it is. One day, should China invade, they would probably come up the river to take Taipei. Although, that might be a death trap as one could easily blow ships out of the water from all the nearby land provided they had the ammunition.

A note - perhaps I'm being influenced by the people I spoke to here - but it makes little sense for China to invade Taiwan unless Taiwan's government decided to suddenly declare official independence. First, from a military perspective, invading a big island like this would be a logistical nightmare. It would be a death trap far worse than the beaches at Normandy. There are mountains right down the middle of the country. There are windy old roads everywhere. There are very few beach areas. The weather most of the year is unpredictable. Military units could be scattered everywhere. Trying to form a beachhead could be met with a massive amount of concentrated force. Even if you set up a beach head, an insurgency could always go up and hide in the mountains or in the cities or both. But the bigger reason why an invasion would be stupid: they don't need to. Taiwan is basically Chinese. The mainland just needs to run out the clock on the matter and continue to grow economically and become attractive to the Taiwanese. Eventually, the government of Taiwan will elect a hardcore pro-China government and just fully embrace the "one-China" policy. The only thing that could spoil this eventuality would be a military invasion. Again...I've digressed...

In Tamsui there was an "old street" another hotbed of capitalism somewhat reminiscent of Chinatowns in the US. Lots of snacks and touristy items. I guess these were old commercial streets back in less modern times. 

Ate lunch at a weird, empty American place. Kids loved it. Ribs, steak, fries...too much food. Afterwards, I ventured alone out to Nanjing Fuxing area - got some baos at a popular dim sum place in the Brother Hotel. Then, picked up some hainan chicken from Ching Cheng, a local spot. The hainan chicken cost $3 - now I've had two pretty damn good $3 meals and I'm tempted to say that Taipei is one of the best places in the world to eat a meal for $3.