Tamsui was the gateway to Taiwan and a busy port in the early days for foreigners, and this historic site was an excellent evidence.
All of grade five went with teachers and some parents, a big crowd but well behaved.
It was built by the Spaniards, who lost control to the Dutch and eventually taken over by the English during the Victorian era as evidenced in this video...
Next to this historic site sits a university campus, which has been evolved from the original Oxford college pioneered by the Mackay family.
Later on, we took a short ferry ride across the Tamsui river to Bali, where we visited a museum with the kids.
Dr Pan and family visited Taiwan recently, and we took the kids to 101 tower in Taipei....Grant speaks perfect Mandarin while Preston speaks ok, not bad for a couple of CBCs.....
and the ceremony took place at a nice but small local church where the bride attends regularly. There is a large population of christians in Hualien, and in fact, Taiwan.
It was a beautiful service, conducted in mandarin by a very humorous and talkative priest.
Although almost two hours long, it didn't seem that way as members from both sides of the family churches took part in blessing and singing.
The reception of about 600 people was at a five star hotel with a traditional Chinese banquet. I was surprised to learn that each table of 12 only costs $8k nt, which is under $300 cdn. A similar feast would cost at least twice of that in Canada.
And, get this, most gifts came as "red envelopes", and in my estimation, the total "red envelopes" collected would be twice of what the banquet would cost.....yes, weddings are profitable because Chinese people do not bring toasters and tea sets as gifts, they believe in cash.
A nice wedding and we look forward to their first born's "month old" banquet!
We had a quiet year end dinner at home, just three of us having hot pot....
Frankie made a lantern with dragon painted on, looks pretty good....
