Library Project

Today, June 1st, I finished my library project. I have visited all 57 branches of the Taipei City Library. They are all distributed over Taipei City, so I think I know Taipei City pretty well.

The last library on the list was the Longhua library in the Nangang district. I had gone to this library in the past but it was in the process of moving to a new location so I had to come back at a later time. The new library is in a city social center but the previous location was on the second floor above a city market. I took this picture of the old sign on the defunct library after visitng the new library.

Even though the Longhua library is no longer at this location, the sign will be here until:

1. A typhoon takes it down
2. A earthquake takes it down
3. The market building in taken down for a new development

It is just the Taiwan way of not expending effort unless there is some benefit.

For me, just getting out to see the city not on the tourist guide was the big benefit. (Retirement means that "time" is not that big of an issue.) Here are somethings that aren't in the tourist guide books. Out in Beitou(a Taipei District)
I came across a statue workshop with some works out on the alley.

The guy on the horse is obviously Chiang Kai-shek, but who is the other guy? After awhile, I realized that he was Chiang Ching-guo, Chiang Kai-shek's son.
Like with all Chinese emperors, when the emperor died , his son became the new emperor. Chinag Kai-shek died in 1975 and his son continued martial law until 1987. But Chiang Ching-guo, who died in 1988, didn't want to continue the dynasty and set the path to the first democratic elections in 1996.

(I think the market for such statues has dried up.)

Also in Beitou, I came across this,

Those are noodles drying in the sun. I had never seen this before, I should have asked where they were being sent.

This is the "graduation tree" which in the past, usually bloomed in June when the graduates are done. But now it blooms before the exams are finished. For many this early blooming is the clearest example that global warming is happening. Forget was scientists with their fancy words are saying, my own personal experience is that these thing are happening much earlier.