Cihu on Dragon Boat Festival Day

Rex and Mai-Ling Ma continued to serve as my excellent travel guides following a gourmet seafood lunch in the restaurant that can prepare fish in 100 ways. We arrived in Cihu along with many, many tourists including those from the PRC. Jiang Jie-Shie, or General Chiang Kai-Shek as he is known in the western world, used to visit this area often as it reminded him of his home province in the PRC. He renamed the area Cihu in honor of his mother. General and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek came to the lake area to walk and boat, and the area is called The Culture Resort of the Jiang. The information center features an overview of CKS and the Kuomintan from the 1930s until CKS's death. Rex was kind enough to give me some history lessons, as I have many questions about the Taiwanese feelings about the potential for becoming part of the PRC in the future. The KMT settled around Taipei, the seat of government where the Blue (KMT) party is still very strong. Southern Taiwan holds many people who still resent the "invaders," the Green Party. When the Green party was in power for 8 years, they tried to close the mausoleum and take away the military honor guards. They took down and destroyed as many of the busts and statues of CKS as they could find until his supporters sought to save and preserve them. (Just a reminder...the former president and some of his Green cronies are now serving time in jail for being corrupt and "greedy"). The current Blue group that is now in power is seeking to establish stronger economic ties with the PRC. The PRC prepared a burial spot for CKS, and is simply waiting for him to return home. Many people from the PRC come to Cihu to pay their respects to CKS and to honor his efforts to restore a democracy on the mainland. I was honored to pay my respects as well.

The walk to the mausoleum winds around the front lake to the courtyard home that was designed to hold the casket (notice the blue colors). You walk by two military guards that honestly look like statues themselves. The greeter also was in charge of wiping the sweat off the guards and keeping the spit and polish gleaming. The guards change every hour, and many visitors are on hand to take pictures. There is a private back lake where visitors may go if they register before hand. They are trying to keep that area in pristine condition, and access is limited.

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