The shore excursion we planned for the day was eight hours long and took in as many stops as possible: Martyr's Shrine, Paoan Temple, Confucius Temple, National Palace Museum, Chiang Kai Shek's Memorial Hall, shopping at the Handicraft Center, and lunch at the Grand Hotel. Whew! Still makes me tired thinking of all the running around we did. The tour began and ended with hour long bus rides between the port of Keelung and the city of Taipei. Again the bus had white lace seat covers, but these were smaller than the ones in Japan and only covered the headrests. We had two bottles of cold water sitting in the cup holders of every seat. Philip and I had brought bottled water from the ship, but it was nice to have more. We used them all.

One of my co-workers is from Taiwan, so before we left home, I asked for her suggestions of what to see, do, and eat there. The first suggestion was to go to the National Palace Museum and see two exhibits in particular: Nature & Human In Unison and Uncanny Ingenuity & Celestial Feats. It turned out that the museum was the first stop on the tour. We did see both exhibits. The first one included what may be the most prized carving in the museum--the jade cabbage. It is about six inches long and is carved from a single piece of jade whose color varies from dark green at the top of the cabbage leaves to pure white at the base of it. The second exhibit had the tiny ivory dragon boat and other carvings of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Next stop was the Martyrs' Shrine where we saw the changing of the guard. Very young men who are usually new recruits are assigned to this duty. They learn to remain completely emotionless during the changing and during their shift on guard. Tourists were able to stand very close to the soldiers as they completed their duties.

We stopped at two temples. First the Confucius Temple. Outside, it had statues of four monkeys in the See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, and Do No Evil poses. Inside, the air was filled with smoke and the smell of incense and people worshiping even as tourists milled around. Confucious, a teacher and philosopher, was concerned with simplicity in life. The style of the temple reflects that style as it is not ornate as other temples and churches can be. The second temple on the day's itinerary was the Paoan Temple, a Taoist temple dedicated to Paosheng Tati, the God of Medicine. The temple was very different from the first in that it was elaborately decorated throughout. One of the gods worshiped in the Paoan Temple is the Goddess of Birth, Chusheng Niang-niang. And while we were there we saw a young couple, the woman obviously pregnant, at the shrine praying.

By the time we finished all these tours, it was almost two o'clock. We went to the Grand Hotel for a buffet lunch of all types of food. There was Western food, Chinese food, Indian food, Italian food, and a whole area for vegetarians. There was a bar with breads, another with desserts, a freezer with ice creams, all kinds of coffee, tea, and sodas, and a fresh fruit bar. My co-worker wanted me to try the guava and mango as they are much fresher than what we can get, but I didn't see them. The only exotic fruit I found was dragon fruit.

After lunch, we just had two more stops. First was a chance to do some shopping at the state-owned Handicraft Center. We were able to finish all the shopping that we felt like we absolutely wanted to do. Then we made a short stop to take photos of Taipei 101 before returning to the ship.