Giant Lily-Pads at Shuangxi Park (雙溪公園大王蓮)

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Shuangxi Park and Chinese Garden is a two hectare park in Taipei City’s Shilin District situated between Chiang Kai-Shek’s former Shilin Residence (士林官邸) and the National Palace Museum (故宮博物院) at the base of Yangmingshan (陽明山).

The park features beautifully crafted pavilions, courtyards, arch bridges, zig-zag bridges and a man-made lake that is surrounded by a beautifully maintained landscape designed according to the standards of what you’d typically find in Southern China’s gardens and also with the concept of Feng-Shui in mind. 

With all that being said though, the park isn’t a very popular tourist attraction and only really attracts local residents who want to enjoy a bit of the outdoors near their homes.

That is however until the Taipei City Government filled the lake with the giant lily-pads as part of their effort to show the beauty of Taipei during the Summer University Games that were held in late August.

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Before I start I should probably mention that quite a few people mix up Water Lily's and Lotus flowers and think that they are the same thing. While they are both beautiful aquatic flowers, the lotus is one that stands high above the surface of the water and has those scary-looking seeds. Water Lily’s on the other hand float peacefully on the surface of the water and have big ugly lily-pads around them.

In actuality these giant lily-pads at Taipei’s Shuangxi Chinese Garden and Park (雙溪公園) have been all-the-rage as of late with lots of photographers, models and even the mayor of Taipei descending upon the grounds to get photos of the small lake filled to the brim with these giant lily-pads (大王蓮).

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When I parked my YouBike at the entrance of the park one of the first things I noticed was that there was a well-known local Instagrammer at the gates. We had never met before but we both live in Taoyuan, so instead of walking up to her like a creep, I sent her a message and said hello to be polite.

When I entered the park and got my first look at the lily-pads I was kind of amazed - Not only was the lake completely full of them but they completely covered almost every part of the lake making it seem as if there wasn't actually even any water in it.

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These giant water lily-pads which are native to tropical regions of South America are not endemic to Taiwan, so their appearance over the past few years in Taiwan has been one that has attracted a lot of people in any of the locations that have featured them. 

Since 2013 the lily-pads have been cultivated in Taoyuan and Tainan as part of their respective Lotus Festivals which take place every summer when the flowers are in bloom. In 2013 and 2014, the giant lily-pads made their first appearance in Taipei but only appeared again after a three year hiatus this summer. 

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The giant lily-pads which can reach widths up to 130 centimetres are delicate and it takes a lot of effort to cultivate them but when they are fully grown they are known for their ability to sustain heavy objects. 

The ability to stand or sit on the giant lily-pads makes for quite a unique photo opportunity and if you know anything about Taiwan you’ll know that there are obviously going to be lines of internet models, old ladies and families wanting to take their turn to take a photo on these lily-pads.

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I’m not particularly sure how long these lily-pads will last, so if you’re free any time in the next few weeks you may want to take the opportunity to visit the park to check them out before they disappear again. 

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Map / Location

 

Address: Intersection of Fulin Rd. and Zhishan Rd. (台北市士林區福林路與至善路交叉口)

You can take a bus to the park if you want but its actually just a short ten minute walk or less than a five minute Youbike ride from Shilin MRT station (士林捷運站). When I arrived at Shilin Station, I just grabbed a Youbike and parked it outside of the park and then rode it back. 

If you prefer to take a bus however, leave Shilin Station through Exit and from there take bus 206, 255, 303, 304, 620, R4 or R30 to the Taibei High School Stop (泰北高中站). It is a short walk from there.

Since you’re going to be walking either way I think you might as well just walk or ride a bike from the MRT station instead of waiting around for the bus, but it's really up to you!

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)

Lin An Tai Mansion (林安泰古厝)

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A few months ago I wrote a blog titled “Taipei’s Mansions” which had photos from two of Northern Taiwan’s most famous historical and well-preserved mansions. When I posted the blog, I had expected an obvious question and a few friends didn't disappoint as they enquired why I hadn't included the Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum (林安泰古厝) with the other two.

The reason was simple, the other mansions are just as well-preserved as the Lin Mansion, but they are still in their original locations which I felt was the most important factor in their authenticity. Apart from that, the Lin mansion is much more popular with tour groups as well as photographers that I felt it didn't really need to be included.  

I felt that photos from this place were already quite overdone and cliché as it is so popular for photoshoots for people who want that “Asian” feeling but aren't willing to leave the confines of the Taipei MRT system. Whenever you show up, you will always run into some models in traditional clothing walking around the grounds with a bunch of photographers following behind them. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but personally I prefer to use locations in areas less travelled and less overdone if I'm doing that kind of thing. 

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Wedding Photo Time!

I kept the Lin An Tai mansion in mind though as I know that photographically speaking, it is a pretty cool place with nice scenery and eventually introducing the grounds would fulfill the request from my friends to have all of Taipei’s traditional mansions covered. So here we are! 

As mentioned above, due to the expansion of some of Taipei’s major roads, the Lin An Tai mansion in its original location was faced with either destruction or relocation. By the 1970s the mansion had fallen into a bit of disarray and like most mansions of this sort, the original inhabitants had already vacated the premises for modern housing. The mansion wasn't being taken care of in the way it should have been and it has started to fall apart. 

Taipei is a city that tends to have little regard for tearing down the ‘old’ to make way for the ‘new’ but historians and civic activists argued that the mansion should be preserved and moved from its original location in Daan District (大安區) to a new location. 

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Enjoying the scenery.

The city government agreed and started a massive relocation and renewal project moving the mansion across the city to the Binjiang park (濱江公園) which was large enough to house a home of its size and historical importance. The relocation project started in 1978 and lasted until 2000 when it was finally opened to the public. 

The house was originally built by Mr. Lin an immigrant from Fujian Provinces Anxi County who moved to Taiwan and operated a successful business here. 

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The name of the mansion is interesting as it is named in part after the family, Anxi province and the name of the company the family owned. Today we have the Lin An Tai Mansion (林安泰古厝) which uses the characters “Lin” (林) the family’s surname, “An” (安) after Anxi County (安溪縣) in Fujian Province (福建省) and “Tai” (泰) after name of their successful company (榮泰行) 

I won't go into detail too much about the design of the mansion (My friend Carrie explains in much more detail and much better than I could) but what I will say is that the house was originally designed with Feng Shui (風水) being the most important factor in its construction.

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Hello Little Bird.

Since the mansion has moved from its original location, things have changed according to Feng Shui, but the ‘natural’ elements of a home still remain which means you will still find courtyards filled with nature, a pond filled with lotus blossoms and several shaded rest areas where the owners can enjoy the natural environment from the comfort of their home.

Feng Shui stresses a relationship with the natural environment in order to create more positive energy and even though the mansion has moved from its original location, you still get a pretty positive vibe from hanging out at the mansion. 

The mansion is situated a short walk from the Yuanshan MRT station (圓山捷運站) and if you are visiting Taipei, I recommend spending a bit of time in the area as it has this mansion, the Flora Expo park and Taipei’s Confucius Temple (台北孔廟) and Bao-An Temple (保安宮) all within a short distance of one another and can be covered over a few hours in the afternoon before moving on to Shilin Nightmarket (士林夜市) in the evening.

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The Lin Tai An Mansion is definitely worth a visit and if you are only in Taipei for a short time and want to visit a place that seems more “Asian” than what you'll find elsewhere in a modern city like Taipei - you'll be pleased with this place as it is a really well preserved monument to a time that Taipei city has more or less forgotten!  

Website

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots) 

Taipei's Historical Mansions

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Taiwan has hundreds if not thousands of traditional mansions throughout the country - but in Taipei, most of them have unfortunately given way to "progress" and have been demolished in order to build high-rise residential buildings.  

I don't live in Taipei so I have the opportunity to see a lot of these old Fujian-style houses quite often. I find that the further you travel south in the country, the more likely you are to find these kind of buildings. A lot of what you find in the south though aren't as well preserved as the two mansions I'm about to introduce and a lot of them are actually still used as residences and are not open to the public. 

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This blog is about two of greater Taipei's more prominent historical mansions. Both of these mansions date back over a hundred years and like most traditional houses in Taiwan are Fujian-style mansions, but they differ a bit in the way they were constructed, the amount of space they have and what they're used for today.

Both mansions are beautiful, there is no doubt about that, but they can be a bit touristy and are usually full of people on weekends due to their easy accessibility. They both provide a very nostalgic look back into Taiwanese history and allow people to trace their roots and teach history to their children who are more focused on the future than the past. 

Li Family Abode 蘆洲李宅古蹟

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The Lee Family Mansion, a 3rd class historic site in Luzhou has recently become more accessible to residents of Taipei through the completion of the Luzhou line (蘆洲線) of Taipei's MRT. The mansion is a short walk from the MRT station and has an admission fee of $100NT. 

The Lee Family Mansion has an interesting history - it was built in 1906 by the Lee family which became quite rich during the time and had expanded the building several times and owned much of the land around the mansion. The most important member of the Lee family in recent history was Lee You-Bang (李友邦) who was a general in the anti-Japanese militia. Lee led a successful insurrection against the Japanese, but when the Nationalists took control of Taiwan he was ultimately accused of being a communist and he and his wife were imprisoned several times before he was executed by the KMT government in 1952.  

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After Lee's execution, the mansion was maintained by his wife and was opened to the public in 2006. Today Lee Yao Bang is considered a Taiwanese patriot who fought bravely against the Japanese occupation of the country. His unfortunate demise somehow seems to have been forgotten however although I'm sure there were a lot of apologies given to his wife who was also persecuted under Taiwan's white terror era. 

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The mansion has been open for several years and holds several different activities throughout the year making it a tourist hot spot for Taiwanese people. It hasn't really been on the radar of foreign visitors up until recently though due to the completion of the Luzhou line of the Taipei MRT which made it more accessible. 

The mansion is well worth a look, especially if you're planning an afternoon exploring the Luzhou area. The area is quite interesting and the temple night market near the the Lee Family Abode is pretty cool to check out. You won't need to spend very much time at the mansion unless you want to listen to every audio presentation in the rooms. The area would also be nice for a picnic as there is a grassy front yard with a small lake in front. 

Lee Family Abode Website (No English)

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Li Family Abode Gallery (Click on Image to enlarge)

Flickr Link

Lin Family Mansion 板橋林家花園

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The Lin Family Garden and Mansion in Banqiao shares some similarities with the Lee Family Mansion in Luzhou, but this one is much grander in scale and includes a traditional Chinese garden. This mansion is considered to have the best traditional gardens in northern Taiwan and there has been a concerted effort over the past few decades to preserved the grounds for public use.  

The Lin Ben Yuan family (林本源) which was one of the most powerful Chinese-immigrant clans during the Japanese occupation period. The Lin clan were wealthy rice and salt farmers who moved to Banqiao (板橋) in the 1850s and constructed the Lin family mansion there. Due to the social atmosphere are the time, the mansion was built with security and privacy in mind, so it has high walls on all four sides and trees surrounding it. (I'm pretty sure some Ninjas could have gained pretty easy access to the grounds if they wanted to, but that might just be because I have an overactive imagination) The trees block the view of all the buildings surrounding the mansion which gives it a much different feeling than what you get at the Lee family mansion and almost transports you back in time before Taiwan became such massively urban developed country and another reason why the Lin family gardens is almost a must visit for tourists coming to Taiwan. 

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Similar to the situation with the Lee Family Abode, the Lin family seemed to do extremely well during the Japanese occupation amassing a large fortune and kept constructing new buildings within the grounds. They however they never forgot their Chinese heritage and used the grounds as a headquarters for meetings of the Chinese families who were opposed to the Japanese. 

Ironically when the nationalists took control of Taiwan after 1949 the mansion went from housing the Lin family to housing over 300 different families of squatters and suffered long periods of neglect until the Lin family ultimately ceeded ownership of the property to the Taipei city government in 1977 and donated 11 million NT dollars for its reconstruction.

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The grounds are currently well-preserved and clean and are regarded as one of Taiwan's best examples of a traditional Chinese garden. If you have a chance to visit Taiwan, or if you are already in Taiwan and haven't visited these gardens yet, make sure to visit when you have free time! 

Lin Family Mansion and Garden Website

Lin Family Mansion Gallery (Click on Image to enlarge)

Flickr Link