by Sander Tams
11. February 2010 19:09
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Went to a Qing Dynasty style Chinese garden in the neighbourhood today. I can walk there in about 5 minutes, and am quite surprised I didn't go to see it yet. The place is a beauty and rather big for a family garden, yet is easily beaten by most other publicly accessible gardens, parks and memorial sites in Taiwan, I'd say. On a slightly related note, the weather has been increasingly hot since Tuesday, and so, today was a very nice and sunny day to spend in a beautiful garden such as 林家花園 (lín jiā huā yuán).
I'd like to make the written content of this post minimal this time, as I have neither time nor much new information to pass on. Perhaps it's nice to know, that the owners of this garden were a very rich and powerful family in Taiwan. For a nice amount of time the richest, actually. You'll still be able to find some of their descendants around in the business world of Taiwan. Also, the family name 林 (lín) is very widespread. At least four of my classmates at Kainan had that family name.
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The view from the other side
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This is an intersection.
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You can walk inside the walls.
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And that's it. Of course there's much more to experience about being at this place. It's a bit of a labyrinth, and just lovely to walk around in. Thinking, talking, painting or taking photographs. The place also have many tiny speakers emitting relaxing classical chinese tunes from everywhere, and adds an extra dimension to walking around this place. Actually they were so hard to spot, that I in the beginning were thinking the music would come from a musician playing somewhere in the garden.
If you at any chance should come by Banciao, I highly recommend this place. It's probably less than a 10 minute walk from Banciao Station (to which you can travel by MRT, TRA, HSR or bus.) From Taipei Main Station, that's 5 stops eastward with MRT (blue line, towards Eastern Hospital).
The garden is open between 9:00 and 17:00, everyday except Monday. If you want more info, Taipei City Government has an article in english on it.
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