Taipei Trip: Night Markets

If you come to Taipei, you should try the Night Market, where you can find local food, games, and excitements!

There are many night markets in Taipei. However, we only went to two different night market in Taipei. One is called Ningxia Night Market and the other is called Shilin Night Market, which is the biggest night market in Taipei. Well, they are market which are open at night but have different 'feeling'.

1. Ningxia Night Market

   We found many stalls selling local foods, stalls for games, few stalls selling souvenirs and small restaurants. In this market, we tried to eat Taiwanese-style sausage. It is made from pork (or boar?) If you expect it to be salty, then you will disappointed. The taste is unique, a bit sweet. Even though, I am getting used to the salty sausage, but this type of sausage can make me addicted. For me, it is delicious. 

   

We went to the different small restaurants and ordered the famous oyster omelet, fried rice and fried, steam dumplings. The price is quite cheap, e.g 10 dumpling for ~100 NTD, and quite filling your stomach. The oyster omelet: I could taste the oyster and a bit sweet sour-tasted the sauce. Fried rice: asian fried rice-type. Dumpling: Inside is pork meat, leek or green onion, I guess. We like steam dumpling better as it has more meat haha ;) Dumpling sauce? You could make it by yourself there, many ingredients are offered: soy sauce, minced garlic, chili powder, etc. We chose soy sauce mixed with minced garlic.

Here, you also might want to try other local food, like smelly tofu ( I haven't tried it yet, not mentally prepared for the smell), braised pork rice, noodle, flavored-shaved ices, exotic fruits, etc. Or you can try to play games: dart, shooting balloons. Warning: It is not free! If you are skillful enough you can get a prize! However, even you are not skillful for the games, at least you can release your stress and get happiness, right? ;)

2. Shilin Night Market

   It is really huge market! If Ningxia market mostly selling food then here, we could find almost everything here: from food stalls, many souvenirs, accessories, shoes, clothes shops, food courts, games booth, etc. If Ningxia market has many local people then here, you may found many tourists.

  We did not neither buy many things nor try many food here since the stuffs are more or less similar with other night market or shopping areas. At that time, we just bought water guava or bell fruits and grilled beef for our dinner.

TIPS:

> Most of the sellers in night markets could not speak complicated English, e.g if you order food, you may choose based on the pics. So, if you want to order specific food in the small restaurant, it is better to have translations in Chinese words or pics prepared.

> Many restaurants has Japanese translations. So, if you can speak or read Japanese, it is good for you ;)

> If you travel using public city bus, sometimes they don't have English translations for the stops. Just in case, prepare the map apps. How to pay for the bus? They have two payment systems: 1) Pay when you get in (Above the driver seat, it will be written:上, pronounced "shàng") 2) Pay when you get off (Above the driver seat, it will be written:下, pronounced "xìa"). For the details, refer to Taipei public bus website :) The bus will be operated until midnight.

Taipei Trip: City Tour

In 2007, I have visited some places in Taipei. So, this time I decided to join the city tour program from local travel agency in order to compare and see what do they have and what's missing from my previous trip. The cost is about 1200 NTD and it took 4 hours.

Ready? Let's start!

1. Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

 It is dedicated to Mr. Chiang Kai-Shek, the founding father of Republic of China (Taiwan).

There are 3 main buildings inside the complex with a beautiful garden surround it. There are three gates to enter the complex. The one that I entered is the Gate of Great Piety (大孝門)

 If you enter through the Gate of Great Centrality and Perfect Uprightness (大中至正), you will see the National Theater and National Concert Hall buildings which have red color.

Inside, there is the main building. The structure of the roof is octagonal. The number represents a good fortune in Chinese. The guide told me that the white color means freedom like clouds in the sky and the blue color means equality. The number of the stairs is 89 which symbolized the age of Mr. Chiang Kai Shek when he passed away. ( The original age is 87 years old, but in Chinese traditional culture, it must be added 2 years more for heaven and hell). The wall is mainly decorated by white marble and the roof is made by sapphire blue glass. At the time when I visited this place, there was construction to fixed the marble wall due to the typhoon :(

Inside the building, I could see the big statue of Mr. Chiang Kai Shek sitting looking outside. So many people waiting for the  changing guards performance!

As I can expect from the tight schedule of the city tour program, I cannot look around inside the garden. All I have is the picture of the garden entrance. Maybe, next time...

2. National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine
 

  Here, ROC government put the spirit tablets of 390,000 people killed during the wars. So, the guard will ask you to take off your hat during summer to respect them.

I could also find the statue of the martyrs inside the building with their name and how they contribute during the war written below.

The attraction that visitors could see is the changing of guard, similar with the one in Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.

3. National Palace Museum

This time, I went to three main exhibitions categorized by its collection's material:

 a. Jade

   Here, I could see the history how the jade was processed and the collections, such as vases, ornaments, etc. The most famous ones are jadeite cabbage and the meat-shaped jade. Even sometimes, you could not see them since too many people inside the room. ( We could not take pictures inside the museum. So, I took all pictures from the museum's website: http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/)

 b. Bronzes

    Here, I could see many vessels made from bronzes for offering, cooking, etc. The most interesting thing about this vessel is I could see the Chinese characters carved on the surface inside as long time ago they do not have paper for writing.

Here is the interesting animal statue! It is not a pig, not a dog, not a rabbit, not a turtle, and not a horse. Quiz! Why they make this statue?

Don't forget to see the Buddha's statue too..

c. Ceramic

   So many statues, vases, ornaments, glasses and caddies for tea or alcohols with different shapes, colors, designs.

4. Temple

   It is said to be the fist temple built in Taipei, which has unique combination between Buddha's and Taoism religion. There was another temple on the other side, but it was destroyed during WWII. I could not find many information for this... Inside I could see old Chinese and Indian? writings.

 The four God's and Buddha's statue in the garden.

5. Taipei sightseeing and souvenir shop

   I also could see the presidential office building and Grand Hotel, which is built by Madame Chiang Kai Shek as the first 5 star Hotel in Taipei. (I just pass by) We also went to souvenir shop as a part of the program.

Overall, it was a nice English travel program, recommended especially for the ones who have limited time, tight schedule, want to safe time and only see the 'outline' of Taipei. However, if you have leisure time and want to see everything in detail ( especially for the museum), it is better to go by yourself.

PS: Always check the opening time of the museum! Mostly they will have holiday on the first Monday of the month or national holiday.

Taipei Trip: Tamsui District

On second day, I decided to travel alone in Tamsui since my husband has a meeting to attend :( Tamsui or Danshui is the northern city of Taipei which was the centre of shipping in 19th century. It has many local attractions, historical spots and food!

It was easy to go there. I took a subway from Zhongshan station and change once at Beitou station to Tamsui station. All you need is a magic card: EASYCARD!!

There are a lot of alternatives to pay the subway, but we choose this card since it is more convenient to use: no need to go back and forth to buy the tickets, can be recharged (with money..), match our need that does not have many travels using bus and subway in a day and even can be used in the convenience stores. There are two types of EASYCARD: with deposit or without deposit. Ours is without deposit. If you want a card with deposit, you need to go to Ximen station to buy it ;)

Back to the journey.....

After I arrived, I could see the old Tamsui station dominated with red bricks color.

I could see the map of the attractions at the station's main entrance.

Here are some places that I've been visited:

1. Tamsui Wharf

   A fishing spot near the Tamsui river with mountain around; famous for its beautiful sunset scenery. Unfortunately, I could not experience it as I came during morning and could not stay until night :(

PS: If you are hungry, don't be sad, there are a lot of places for eating nearby. However, mostly will open about 10-11 AM. To kill the time, you also can rent a bike and take a boat tour to Fort San Domingo with your EASYCARD^^

2. Aletheia University and Oxford College

  One of the oldest higher education institutes in Taipei, founded by G.L. Mackay.

I walked from the Tamsui Wharf to this place, I found many interesting places and I could see how local people live.

PS: If you could not stand hot weather during summer, I suggest to take a bus since the attraction places are quite far each other.

3. Old street of Tamsui
 The street is filled with shops for decades.

 The famous iron eggs and snacks made from fish...

I tried a taiwanese cookie, outside is crisp and inside containing egg's yolk? and dried meat. Quite interesting taste! There are many other choices even for vegetarian.

I could find temples too... (Sometimes, they will have performance)

In the middle of the street, I went to the Tamsui Red Castle, a colonial building located in a hill area ( you need to climb! Up up!!) which now serve as a restaurant with the best view in Tamsui. 

Next is shopping time! Time is almost 12 AM and the stores in the area near station are open. They sells many stuff from ginger tea, souvenirs, nougats, traditional cookies, fruits, grilled squid etc. Don't worry if you cannot speak Chinese. Be confident and speak English! Some people will understand haha..or use your body language and calculator to tell the price!

Before go back to Zhongshan station, I tried another brand of milk bubble tea but for me, the C**o brand milk tea is closer my style ;)

Taipei Trip: First Day

After 8 years, I have a chance to come back again to Taiwan! Feel so exited!

I and my husband arrived at noon in Taoyuan International Airport in Oct 2015. It is our first time to try this new airport, which also called Chiang-Kai Sek International Airport. The airport is used to replace Taipei Songshan Airport since it became too small for the increase number of travelers. After finished the immigration, we tried to find a woman with the green vest near elevator since we rent the wifi router from her company^^. The rent fee is cheap, has unlimited wifi, and the best thing is we can return the router at any seven eleven store.

It is still summer here with temperature about 32 C. The sky was so clear. We can see the sun welcome us warmly. From the airport, we directly went to our hotel near Zhongshan subway station in Taipei by taking Kuo Kang bus 1841. The bus has many stops with an English version name for each. However, just in case, it is better to equipped ourselves with apps for map, translation, etc, especially if you cannot speak Chinese.

In Taipei, if the human population number is number 1, then the motorbike population number will be number 2, followed by the convenience store :)

We went to Zhongshan station area for dinner. We found a lot of restaurants at the streets behind Mitsukoshi Dept. Store with many choices: Taiwanese, Japanese and Western style food.

We decided to eat the famous Taiwanese beef noodle and dumplings. The overall taste was really nice. The meat is fresh and the soup has oriental smell.

Another famous food is CHICKEN PIE only for 65 NTD! It will match everybody's tongue^^ It is basically chicken meat (still have the bone. not similar to chicken nuget), but they make it more handy?

To end our first day, we tried the C**o's milk bubble tea. It is really cheap (35 NTD for large cup). The taste also gooood!