Shilin Official Residence 士林官邸

In the northern part of Taipei, not far from Shilin MRT Station士林捷運站, there is a beautiful park that has opened to public only 20 years ago. Before 1996 it was a mysterious place that not many had the opportunity to enter. For many years, starting end of March 1950, the houses inside the park served as a residence of the most powerful person in Taiwan, president Chiang Kai-shek and his wife. They lived there for 25 years until his death in April 1975.
This time I haven't had a chance to take a pictures of the actual residence building as we were taking the less frequented passes in the park to avoid the crowds. End of fall and beginning of winter is the time of chrysanthemum festival in the park and many people from all over Taiwan come to see the beautiful flower arrangements.

Right after entering the park we took a path going to the left and up the stairs. We climbed to the observation deck passing the old military guard shelter and an old grave.

Kids had time to play and to learn:

The view from the observation tower - on one side the city, on the other, mountains.

On the way down we passed a few abandoned buildings or rather ruins. I wonder what were they used for in the old days.

This area of the park looks very quiet:

The teacher has shown kids that they can eat clover stems (or rather suck on them) and they can play with them:

In the lower area of the park we encountered a young Malayan night heron that was "hunting" for earthworms.

We found a poor caterpillar all covered with ants.

And a pretty huge caterpillar:

We stopped to look at an interesting pupa of a moth, it was all covered with leaves:

Teacher talked a bit about these two special trees:

Formosan gum

Coffee!

And olives:

I did manage to take a few photos of the other parts of the park and a few chrysanthemums: