Taipei, Taiwan

The offer of a free hotel stay in Taiwan prompted us to make a fairly impromptu decision to go to Taipei, seizing the opportunity to travel in autumn. We enjoyed a comfortable and luxurious four nights stay at the 5-star Sheraton Hsinchu Hotel喜來登大飯店. The only downside is that this hotel is situated in Hsinchu City新竹市, some 75 km south of Taipei台北, Taiwan. Hsinchu is a major player in Taiwan's high-tech industry with many local and multi-national companies boasting facilities based in or near the Hsinchu Science and Technology Park.

With only a week to go, we quickly searched the internet for information on the places of interest and made our flight reservations. We managed to confirm our flight with Air AsiaX for a 5-days 4-nights trip RM1614 return, for two.

Day 1:  28th October 2014 (Tuesday) – Kuala Lumpur to Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei, Taiwan.

Our 5:45pm Air AsiaX flight from KL arrived at 10:30pm local time at Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan台灣桃園國際機場. Waiting at the arrival hall is the driver holding our names written on a card. He then ushered us into his waiting car and drove us directly to the hotel at Hsinchu City. The journey of 40km took 30 minutes as it was late in the night and so had lesser traffic. The fare was NT$1100.

 

Day 2: 29^th October 2014 (Wednesday) – Hsinchu to Taipei.

This morning from the hotel, we walked across the road and boarded a free shuttle bus to the High Speed Rail Hsinchu Station, compliments of the Taiwan High Speed Rail Administration for all passengers taking the rail service. The price for a high speed train ticket is NT$285 per pax (8% discount for Mon-Thu), leaving for Taipei at 30-minute intervals. We boarded the high speed train into Taipei City some 75 km away. The travelling time is 30 minutes travelling at 230 km/hr. We arrived at Taipei Main Station台北車站 which is the main transit station for the Taipei MRT Rapid Transit System (subway metro service), Taiwan Railways, the High Speed Rail and intercity bus terminals. Taipei Main Station is also home to several underground shopping malls including: Q-Square 京站, Shin-Kong Mitsukoshi 新光三越, Eslite Taipei Station誠品站前店, NOVA Electronics Mall, Zhongshan Metro Mall 中山地下街, Breeze Center 微風廣場, Taipei City Mall 台北地下街 and Station Front Metro Mall 站前地下街. At the Easy Card ticketing counter, we bought each the EasyCard悠游卡 NT$500 (NT$100 being the refundable deposit) for convenience of taking the metro and buses in Taipei.

From Taipei Main Station, we took MRT a stop away to XiMen 西門 Station. This pedestrian shopping area is one of the city's culture centers, hosting a massive variety of fashion clothing shops, restaurants and food. We did some research beforehand and went to try the famous Ah Zhong Mian Xian 阿宗麵線 No. 8-1, Emei Street 峨眉街. Opening hours: 11am-10:30pm. Price: Big bowl NT$65, small bowl NT$50. There were very few seats so most people just stood around and ate with only a spoon.

Next we took the MRT at XiMen Station to CKS Memorial Hall station and at Exit 5 , we walked towards the main entrance to visit the most prominent historical landmark in Taiwan, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 中正紀念堂. It is a famous monument; landmark and tourist attraction erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China, and was opened in 1980 as part of a national park and gathering area. At the front entrance stood the magnificent white gate with the distinct blue tiles and wording 自由廣場 which means Liberty Square. Past the Liberty Square stood two large buildings facing each other on the grounds of the CKS Memorial Hall. On the right is the National Theater 國家戲劇院, while on the left is the National Concert Hall 國家音樂廳.  An enormous garden with a huge pond and many large kois marked the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park中正紀念公園. The grand octagon-shaped white building, covered with blue tiles at the center of all these is the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. The two sets of 89 steps represent Chiang's age of death and led up to the main hall housing a large and impressive bronze statue of Chiang Kai-Shek seated in a chair.

The changing of guards takes place on the hour from 10am to 4pm. This is performed in the grand hall in front of the statue of Chiang Kai-Shek. We were late and missed watching the ceremonial guard change at the hall.

We walked down the hall and at the side of the building is the entrance to the museum which documents Chiang's life and career. From his bulletproof Cadillac to the clothing he wore and the chair he sat on. A wall clock has needles set to 11:50pm, the time of his death, as well as exhibits about Taiwan's history, pan-Chinese culture and history, and the ROC's development after moving to Taiwan.

It so happens that while we were there, we were able to see the next change of guard marching through the museum hall before taking a lift to the upper floor of the memorial hall for the ceremony.

We then made our way back towards the Gate of Great Piety 大孝門 and walked along the side wall at the garden towards CKS Memorial Hall Station to take the MRT to Jiantan Station劍潭 for Shilin Night Market士林夜市.

The Shilin Night Market in Taipei is one of the largest, most popular night markets in Taiwan with regards to street food, and also one of the most popular points of Taipei's night life among visitors. Located just across the road, a mere 70 meters from MRT Jiantan Station, the maze of alleyways is filled with a large variety of local street food. We tried the famous Prince Cheese Potato NT$70, the giant size Hot Star crispy fried chicken豪大大雞排 NT$60, Oyster Omelet 雞蛋蚵仔煎 NT$60, Frog eggs drink 青蛙下蛋 NT$35, the famous福州世祖胡椒饼Fuzhou Ancestor Black Pepper Buns NT$50, white bitter gourd drinks NT$80, fried oyster wrapped bun NT$60. There are many other food such  as Shilin’s Perfect Spare Ribs士林十全排骨, Shilin's Traditional Shop 士林老字號 small roll in a large roll 大餅包小餅, Ah-Liang's Flour Noodles 阿亮麵線, popiah peanut ice-cream花生卷冰淇淋, BBQ Squid, bubble tea and many more, but we were too full to try any further.

We then made our way back to Taipei Main Station to board the High Speed Rail NT$305 back to Hsinchu, taking the free shuttle bus at the front of the station and heading back to the hotel for the night.

Day 3: 30th October 2014 (Thursday) – Hsinchu to Taipei Main Station then to Tamsui Station.

This morning, we decided to try a different route to Taipei. First we traveled from our hotel by bus to Hsinchu High Speed Rail Station高鐵新竹站, then walking towards the Liujia Line 六家線 Station which is located less than a 100m from the THSR Station to board a local train to Hsinchu. Arriving 30 minutes later at Hsinchu Rail Station, we go across the road from the front of the train station, we walked along Zhongzheng Road. At the round-about junction, we saw the Hsinchu East Gate of the city. We then walked on Dongmen Street to Cheng Huang Temple城隍庙 Night Market. The temple can hardly be seen from the outside, as it is surrounded by a crowd of small food stalls. Outside the temple, there is a sort of semi-Singapore icon Merlion. Here it looks more of a fish statue Merfish. For breakfast, we ate the famous meat balls. Next we walked back to the Hsinchu Rail Station and boarded a local train NT$177 into Taipei.

Arriving at Taipei Main Station 1hour 20minutes later, we took the MRT to Yuansan Station圓山站. With 10 minutes to go, we knew we will be late if we did not hurry, so we boarded a taxi, fare NT$100, and told the driver to hurry us to The Martyrs' Shrine忠烈祠 (Zhonglietzi). The taxi speeded and we alighted at the entrance of Martyrs' Shrine, 2 minutes just before the changing of the guard on the hour.

During the parade, visitors will crowd on both sides of the path that the guards will be walking through. We were allowed to take photos at them but were advised by the staff in charge not to obstruct the guards or get too near to them. From the main entrance, the guards marched towards the Shrine building. After 2 of the guards were relieved by the new replacements, the guards marched out again to the front gate to have another 2 guards exchange for duties. They stood upright and motionless at their post with a solemn and serious look for an hour before the next shift change again. We took pictures with them. We took the taxi back to the Yuansan Station to take the MRT to continue our journey to Tamsui Station淡水. This is the last stop on the MRT red line heading north from Taipei Main Station and the train service terminates right next to the river walk at Tamsui.

At the Tamsui Station, we boarded bus no. 26 to Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf淡水漁人碼頭. This place is well known for its beautiful sunset, seafood, boats and more recently with young people because they come here to be at the Lover’s Bridge情人桥.  It is a good place to enjoy the sea breeze, strolling along the Fisherman Wharf and looking at sunset. At night fall, the bridge was illuminated with a wide variety of colour. Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf is also a popular shooting location for Taiwanese serial dramas. We spotted and recognized some locations around the wharf!

After having dinner at one of the restaurants at the wharf, we rode bus no 26 back to the Tamsui Station. Towards the north, along the river walk was the Tamsui Night Market. We tried out the local specialty, a unique produce of Tamsui which is the Agei 阿給 NT$35, a fried bean curd with tang hoon filling, served with a sweet sauce and a bowl of meat filling fish ball soup魚丸湯 NT$35. At the night market, after sampling some food, we bought the brown sugared ginger tea NT$200. We did not try the famous Ah Po 阿婆 Iron eggs/tie dan (铁蛋).

We then headed back to the Tamsui Station to take the ride on the MRT and alight at Taipei Main Station to board the High Speed Rail back to Hsinchu hotel for the night.

Day 4 – 31^st October 2014 Friday

This morning, we again traveled from our hotel to the High Speed Rail Station to Taipei. From Taipei Main Station we took the MRT to Dongmen Station東門. Exit 4, we walked towards Yongkang Street 永康街. This is where one can find two of Taiwan’s famous restaurant chains, Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐 and Kao Chi 高記, which serve what many have claimed to be the best ‘siao long-bao’ 小籠包 in Taipei. There was a long queue of people at Din Tai Fung so we went to Kao Chi for lunch instead. We ordered pan fried siao long-bao (10/basket) 小籠包, a plate of vegetables, a plate of shrimp fried rice and char siew baos and chinese tea, all for NT$770 on the bill. Next we walked along the streets of Yongkang Street 永康街.  Smoothie House 思慕昔has 2 outlets along this street, just a few doors away from each other. The bigger 2-storey outlet at No. 9 Yongkang St has a minimum charge for each individual diner and so we went to the smaller outlet instead, Smoothie House思慕昔15號本館, for the popular shaved ice dessert. Unfortunately it was too crowded so we decided to walk on to Lishui Street麗水街 back to Dongmen Station東門 to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall Station, having to make a line transfer at Zhong Xin station.

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall 國父紀念館 was built in 1972 as a tribute to the founder of the Republic of China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen. The hall contains displays of Dr. Sun Yat-sen 's accomplishments from the revolution during and after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. The park surrounding the hall is named Zhongshan Park, as the most well-known and popular Chinese name for Dr. Sun is Sun Zhongshan 孫中山, and includes gardens, decorative historical walls, and an exhibition and performance area surrounding  Cui Pond翠湖 or Emerald Pond.

Again on the hour, we watched the changing of the Guards. The guards appeared through the left entrance into the grand hall which houses a large statue of Sun Yet Sun.  Marching in the middle of the hall, they performed their routine flawlessly, giving a brief show of weaponry before the guards were replaced. It has a dramatic effect because of the echoing sound of the guards’ steps ringing throughout the structure.   Again, it was still impressive to see the guards stand still for a full hour without moving a muscle.

We continued on the MRT to Taipei City Hall Station 市政府站. Out from the station onto the street of Xinyi Shopping District, we could see the structure of Taipei 101 clearly and since it is so near, we decided to walk to Taipei101台北101.

We did not travel up to the observation deck and museum as the admission fee is NT$500 with a large crowd waiting, instead we just walked inside the building till level 5, then to the basement food court.

From Taipei 101 station, we took the MRT back to Taipei Main Station and did some shopping at Shin-Kong Mitsukoshi 新光三越 departmental store and had our dinner at the station. Knowing we would not be using the Easy Card further to ride on the MRT, we headed to the Easy Card counter at the station and were refunded NT$420. Thus we had only used NT$580 for 2 person for the 3 days of travelling on MRT. We bought a fare of NT$305 High Speed Train back to Hsinchu.

Day 5 – 1November 2014 – Saturday

Waiting for us at the hotel this morning at 10am is the cab, fare NT1100, booked to take us to Taoyuan International Airport. When the Air AsiaX counter opened up, we collected our boarding passes and did last minute shopping for souvenirs before we boarded the plane back to Kuala Lumpur.

We arrived at 10:25pm KLIA2 terminal and boarded the KLIA train to KL Central Station, with a senior citizen fare of RM24.50 per pax.

Currency exchange:  NT100 = RM11.11