Come on…let’s travel to Taiwan Sanjhih Gallery of Famous Sons

The Sanjhih Gallery of Famous Sons – part of Sanjhih Visitors Center – celebrates the lives of four scions of Sanjhih families.

The most famous is, of course, former President Lee Teng-hui. Lee – the first president of Taiwan to have been born on the island – held office from 1988 to 2000, and remains politically active well after his 80th birthday. He was born less than 100 meters from the museum, and educated at universities in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States.

Lu Hsiu-yi was another politican – a dissident and then a member of Taiwan’s parliament until his death in 1998. He studied in France, where he met his wife, a Taiwanese concert pianist who lated headed the central government cultural agency.

Tu Tsung-ming (1893-1986) was another kind of pioneer: The first Taiwanese to qualify as a doctor during the Japanese colonial era, which lasted from 1895 to 1945, he helped develop medical education in Taiwan after World War II.

Chian Wen-ye (1910-1983), a composer of international renown, in fact spent most of his life in mainland China. However, many of his compositions – such “Song of Alishan” – drew on his Taiwanese background.

Another part of the Visitors Center explains in some depth the history of the Sanjhih area, from the arrival of the Ketagalan people (who inhabited North Taiwan before Han Chinese settlers began to move in in the 1700s), to the develop of the various villages.

The role of religion and the history of some of the area’s most important temples is explained. And there are odd fascinating snippets, such as why one place is called Maosingdian, “dian” meaning store. More than 150 years ago, a man running a shop at that location prospered, but their success caused jealously. One day, a rival dumped a corpse outside the store; this scared off not only the customers, but also the shopkeeper and his family.

The grounds of the Visitors Center have been landscaped, and include an “ecological pool,” an “ecological ditch,” and “wild grassland.”

VISA: No need

Public Transit: No public buses go to this spot, but a chartered taxi could bring you here, and take you to other nearby places, such as the Li Tien-lu puppet museum.

Personal Transit The Visitors Center is located two kilometers inland of Sanjhih Town, beside Bei 11, a road that leads from the downtown into the hills.

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