Haaaave You Met...WT: Taipei, Taiwan

Taipei
November 9 – November 11

For quick readers:

My trip/places I saw in a nut shell
- Got to Taipei around 4pm (1st day): went to Longshan Temple (beautiful structure), Taipei 101 (tallest building in the world for a great view of Taipei), and spent the remainder of the night at Shilin Night Market (ate at the street food stands, played games, and watched vendors run away from the police)
- 2nd day: Taipei Zoo (best zoo with many animals), ate at Din Tai Fung (yum), went back to the Taipei 101 area, hung out at Shinkong Mitsukoshi Dept. Store area and watched a drumming concert, went back to Shilin Street Market for the food, attended Taipei Eye (celebration of Chinese performance: Lion dance and Taiwanese opera), went back to Shilin Street Market for the food a 3rd time (more food more games)
-3rd day: National Palace Museum (felt like a king, beautiful garden), airport (arrived too early), home!

Detailed Readers:

I took a weekend trip to Taipei, Taiwan. At first, I never considered going to Taiwan but I had this urge to travel before studying for finals, so what better place than Taiwan. It turned out exceeding my expectations tenfold and I wouldn’t mind traveling there in the future just to eat the food. Here’s what I did:

Checking In/Longshan Temple
We arrived in Taipei around 4pm on Friday and checked into Cosmo Hotel. It was hard booking a hotel since all the hotels I wanted were all booked so I ended up with this one. On all the tourist maps I got, Cosmo hotel was featured in them so it was a good choice. It is right next to the Taipei Main Station so taking the MRT was easy! After checking in, we went to Longshan Temple, one of the famous temples in Taipei. The structure of the temple is very old-fashion, which looks very nice. Inside the temple, there was a waterfall. I found that pretty random, but nonetheless it was worth taking a picture. The temple was very busy; I think there was a ceremony of some sort. People were passing out free food, “tong yiern,” a soup with glutinous balls for good luck.

Outside Longstan Temple

Inside the temple

Inner most of the temple

Taipei 101
After the temple, we went to Taipei 101, which is arguably the tallest building in the world. There are different criterions about what define tall or what not so I’m not too sure. Regardless, Taipei 101 is very tall containing 101 floors. We took the fastest elevator in the world, construct by Toshiba, to the 89th floor. It only took 37 seconds! At the top, I took pictures and bought some souvenirs at the gift shop. There’s nothing too much to do once you’re at the top. The scenery reminded me a lot of Tokyo Tower in Japan; the pictures are very similar with a lot of buildings with bright lights.

At the bottom of Taipei 101

Taipei 101 shopping mall

King Kong on top of Taipei 101 instead of Empire State Building

Taipei

Map of Taipei

Actual scene...look for the Ferris Wheel and the two bridges

Another angle

Shilin Night Market
Being on top of the Taipei 101 made me hungry so we went to Shilin Night market. The night market is a mixture of food, entertainment and shopping. We went into the night market snack square. Near the entrance of the square, game booths surrounded the area ranging from a BB-gun balloon popping game to a ear cleaning wax machine. The place targeted youngsters, but I found this place to be really fun. I tried this cork-rifle game, but I was doomed from the start. My goal was to shoot corks to break tissue paper that connected to various dollar bills. The corks were too weak to penetrate anything so all my attempts were useless. I secretly tried to wet my corks with my saliva to break the tissue paper. It was an ingenious idea, but didn’t work too well. I played the BB-gun game afterwards and won a small BB-gun. Yay for eye-hand coordinator/aiming.

The games made me hungrier so I went into the actual snack square. There were tons of food stands with so many options. I ended up sitting randomly at a stand and I realized that Taiwan is the originator of one of my favorite dishes in LA, “new roll fan (beef rice in mandarin).” IT WAS SO GOOD! I realized that Taiwan kitchens serve small dishes for a low price so you could try a lot of options.

The remainder of the night was spent at the Shilin Night Market for shopping. It was extremely crowded in the area and there were countless hidden passageways along the streets. Luckily I didn’t get lost. One of the most interesting things I saw that night was the mobile shopping carts. Let me explain. There were these ventors that pushed a cart around the shopping street and settled in the middle of the road. They carried items like fake Abercrombie called Abelcrombe, fake American Eagle clothes, fake Hugo Boss called City Boss. It was funny that these knock-offs are mockeries of the real things. Who would ever buy this? Anyways, I was browsing those a vendor’s cart when out of nowhere she said, “Sorry, I need to hide from the police” and pushed her cart away. Next thing I knew, all the mobile vendors were pushing their cart away to hide from the police. There was a train of carts being pushed down the street into alleyways. I didn’t see any police anywhere so I thought that it was a false alarm. It was interesting to see these people live their lives on the edge, each day trying to sell fakes while running away from the police. I wouldn’t think a police officer would come into such crowded areas in the first place. In my head, I was wondering, what if I just yelled “police!”, what would have happened?

It was around midnight that time and we had to go home before the MRT closed.

Outside Shilin Night Market

Inside...playing that dumb cork game!

Taipei Zoo
The next day, we went to the Taipei Zoo. I don’t usually go to Zoos but this is probably the best Zoo I’ve been to. The Zoo is HUGE so there was plenty of walking for me. What was unique about this Zoo was that I saw animals I don’t see at the LA or SD Zoo and the Zoo was divided into sections of animals belonging to African, Australian, Asia, the Desert, Temperate Zone, Nocturnal, Reptiles/Amphibians, Insects, and Birds. The downside was that it was raining. I took a lot of pictures here so refer to the pictures for the stories.

Welcome to Taipei Zoo, best Zoo in the world

Owl...it looks pretty freaky

Hedgehog...Sonic the Hedgehog...in training...

Porcupine

That's a HUGE Orangutan

Leopard

TIGER!!!!!! It kept staring at me...I was wearing a bright yellow pancho...it was raining

It got really close!

Zebras

Just a nice scene, the Zoo is HUGE!

Rhino asleep

Lion

African Elephant reaching for food. I was standing right next to the tree he wanted to eat from!

My animal friends

Brown Bear sticking its loooong tongue out

Puma, the real-life brand

Din Tai Fung
Feeling hungry, we took a train ride to Zhongxiao Fuxing to eat Din Tai Fung, the same place we looked so hard for in Shanghai, but this time, the Xiao Long Baos originated here. This Din Tai Fung was especially different from the other chains. You can actually watch how they make the delicious Xiao Long Baos through the clear glass. I saw the steam room and I felt really sorry for that guy that works in there; it’s like a person working in a sauna. Let me leave you with this thought…you don’t know if the steam is actually sweat or water…

After the food, we walked around the shopping street in the Shinkong Mitsukoshi Dept. Store area. There was a music festival going on so we watched it for a while. The Taiko drumming performance was something I have never seen before. It wasn’t just Taiko drumming, but included movements and choreographed moves. I can’t really explain it, but let’s just say, a guy became the drumming stand for another person.

Before leaving the Taipei 101 area, I took a quick picture with the tallest building. Onward to Shilin Night Market again. That was when I got my first Boba drink! Boba drinks originated from Taiwan! Hong Kong doesn’t seem to have Boba around here so that drink was very satisfying. We had dinner there and it was a cooking-in-front-of-you type stand. The food was kept hot through a foil sheet so the hot salmon was the best part of the meal. After the meal, I played some more games, a basketball and a punching game. The basketball game had 9 hoops where you can shoot into but I only got to the 3rd level, I’m quite rusty in bball.

Making Xiao Long Baos

Din Tai Fung

The steam room, I felt sorry for him...

Shinkong Mitsukoshi Dept. Store

Taiko drumming performance

Back to Shilin Market...playing with BB-guns

The ultimate basketball game!

Taipei Eye
We were running a little late to our reservation to Taipei Eye, a cultural performance of lion dance and Taiwanese Opera. I was hesitant at first to go to this performance because my experience with Taiwanese Opera is quite annoying. To be honest, I can’t stand it, but since I was in Taiwan, I was ready to go all out. The performance turned out to exceed my expectations! The first act of the show was a lion dance. I’ve seen many lion dances before but none like this one. The lion not only did spectacular stunts, but it had a personality. It was very funny and welcoming so many of the stunts involved the audiences’ reactions. Afterwards, I got the opportunity to take pictures with the two individuals behind the mask. They were soaked in sweat, especially the person as the back legs of the lion. I felt sorry for him, he had to be the one bending over the entire show. During the intermission, I was able to take pictures with the performers so it felt like a private picture session. The second act was the Taiwanese opera, but it turned out better than expected. I didn’t really understand the story plot. At one point, there were five guys vs. one girl in a fight. There was a lot of flipping and fighting in this act so that was awesome. Overall, it was quite a cultural experience for me. I enjoyed the two acts and I’m glad I decided to go to the performance. It was a new sense of appreciation for Taiwanese opera and a new look on lion dancing. That lion dance really set the bar high for my next lion dance. After Taipei Eye, we went back to Shilin Market for a 3rd time to shop and EAT! Then, home and sleep.

Lion dance

The craziest part of the act...the lion jumping across the pillars, keep in mind, it's two people with perfect coordination/timing

Celebrating at the end of the act, they went into the audience which was really cool

Up close and personal during intermission

My Posse and I

Picture with the lion dancers. They were so sweaty!!

It posed for me to take pictures

Act 2, Taiwanese Opera

A lot of flipping and jumping around...I didn't know my posse could do that

Fight scene

Last scene when they drown in the water

Back to Shilin Market one last time. Vendors selling things in the middle of the already crowded road. They will run when they see the police.

National Palace Museum
Bright and early, we took the MRT to the Shilin station to go to the National Palace Museum. On our way there, I found this “Fan-twan” stand! Fan-twan is a Taiwanese breakfast that I eat at home and it’s so good. It’s dry pork, pickles, and a fried pastry all wrapped in rice like sushi. I was very excited and when I took my first bite, it was like heaven in my mouth. SO GOOD! I should have bought two, when I went back, he was gone. At the National Palace Museum, we took pictures and took a stroll in the garden. The garden contained two ponds full of fishes and there was a machine for you to buy fish food. I bought two packs and fed the fish. For one of the packs, I dumped the whole thing all in at once and it was survival of the fittest. There was a lot of splashing among the fish. After the garden, we went to the airport.

Airport
We thought we were early at the airport, for the first time. However, as it turns out, we were too early. No one really looked at the departure time and assumed it to be 1:45pm. Instead, it was 3:45pm so we arrived early at the airport, a little too early. Nonetheless, we made the most out of the airport’s store and food. After a great meal at the airport with shredded beef over rice, I took a good nap at the terminal. On the plane, I thought I was going to stay awake, but I forced myself to sleep the entire flight. In all, I had very good sleep!

That's me in the middle.

Overlooking the courtyard

My royal steps

National Palace Museum as a whole

Palace Garden

Feeding the fish

This looks nice

Nice Scenery in the garden

Things I Ate:
Basically the highlight of the trip was the food! I feel that Taiwan is a country of good food and would recommend it to anyone who loves to try new food. They serve small portions for a cheap price so you can try many selections. These were the food highlights for me (all of these foods originated from Taiwan):

-Shredded beef over rice
-beef over noodles
-ice slushee with red bean
-fan-twan
-Pineapple cake
-BOBA
-fried dumplings

Shredded beef over rice! SO GOOD!!!!