Well, again it has been some time since I have done any updates, however those of you who have complained will now wish you never said a word. I’m in the process of writing up my trip to Taiwan and so far it is set to rival the Yongle Dadian. So grab yourself a coffee, a cheeky biscuit or two and enjoy the first installment.
Before I begin, I probably should set the scene. Personally, I knew little about Taiwan before my visit so will share a fact or two about the country with you prior to boring you senseless with details of my trip.
Taiwan is an independent republic located off the coast of China with a population of around 23 million. It is the second most densely populated country in the world and is largely Buddhist, with a small minority of Christians. The official language is Mandarin, with a minority of people speaking Taiwanese. It is a modern, dynamic country that relies heavily on electronics and machinery exports to survive. Taiwan has a complex political status and is struggling to be seen by the larger international community as an independent republic. They are currently fighting for membership of international organizations including WHO and the UN – China is doing its best to hinder these attempts and refuses to maintain diplomatic relations with any country which formally recognizes Taiwan as the Republic of China.
Scene set!
Escaping the cold weather and drudgery of a semi-refrigerated school with no classes, I headed north to Seoul to begin my first official vacation from Korea. On the assumption I wouldn’t need to pre-purchase a train ticket for mid-week travel to Seoul, I arrived at Dongdaegu station only to find everything inexplicably sold out. I managed to somehow get the last ticket on a train two and a half hours later, so after grabbing a newspaper, coffee and bagel I staked out a spot in the gate lounge and settled in for the afternoon. Fortunately the winter Olympics were playing on the television nearby, so that proved to be a welcome distraction from the journalistic atrocities of the Korea Times.
I was due to fly to Taiwan in the early hours of Thursday morning so I headed to Incheon to stay with a friend on the Wednesday night. I left the apartment around 5.30am on Thursday morning only to find the whole city covered in snow! Not an ideal scenario as it causes havoc with flights – mine was delayed for an hour as there was a significant de-icing queue on the runway. I didn’t mind too much however, as I was luxuriating up in business class perusing the cocktail menu compliments of a free last-minute upgrade from Cathay Pacific! The one hour delay also lessened the waiting time in Taipei airport, as Kate’s flight got in around 1 hour after mine did. Unfortunately this did mean I had only twenty minutes in which to savor the airport’s tasteful 1960’s decor– it looked like what I imagine Auckland Airport did around 20 years ago.
Before I begin, I probably should set the scene. Personally, I knew little about Taiwan before my visit so will share a fact or two about the country with you prior to boring you senseless with details of my trip.
Taiwan is an independent republic located off the coast of China with a population of around 23 million. It is the second most densely populated country in the world and is largely Buddhist, with a small minority of Christians. The official language is Mandarin, with a minority of people speaking Taiwanese. It is a modern, dynamic country that relies heavily on electronics and machinery exports to survive. Taiwan has a complex political status and is struggling to be seen by the larger international community as an independent republic. They are currently fighting for membership of international organizations including WHO and the UN – China is doing its best to hinder these attempts and refuses to maintain diplomatic relations with any country which formally recognizes Taiwan as the Republic of China.
Scene set!
Escaping the cold weather and drudgery of a semi-refrigerated school with no classes, I headed north to Seoul to begin my first official vacation from Korea. On the assumption I wouldn’t need to pre-purchase a train ticket for mid-week travel to Seoul, I arrived at Dongdaegu station only to find everything inexplicably sold out. I managed to somehow get the last ticket on a train two and a half hours later, so after grabbing a newspaper, coffee and bagel I staked out a spot in the gate lounge and settled in for the afternoon. Fortunately the winter Olympics were playing on the television nearby, so that proved to be a welcome distraction from the journalistic atrocities of the Korea Times.
I was due to fly to Taiwan in the early hours of Thursday morning so I headed to Incheon to stay with a friend on the Wednesday night. I left the apartment around 5.30am on Thursday morning only to find the whole city covered in snow! Not an ideal scenario as it causes havoc with flights – mine was delayed for an hour as there was a significant de-icing queue on the runway. I didn’t mind too much however, as I was luxuriating up in business class perusing the cocktail menu compliments of a free last-minute upgrade from Cathay Pacific! The one hour delay also lessened the waiting time in Taipei airport, as Kate’s flight got in around 1 hour after mine did. Unfortunately this did mean I had only twenty minutes in which to savor the airport’s tasteful 1960’s decor– it looked like what I imagine Auckland Airport did around 20 years ago.
Incheon Airport, 9am on 25th February. Chilly!
After meeting Kate, we located our bus and headed to downtown Taipei. It was raining solidly, and didn’t stop for the first two and a half days we were there. Not to be deterred, we headed out to explore the Ximen and ShiDa areas, umbrellas at the ready. Our hotel was located right in the heart of the Ximending cultural and shopping district which provided a fantastic base from which to explore. Known as the ‘harajuku of Taipei’, the Ximending area attracts over 3 million shoppers per month, which for a country the size of Taiwan gives you a good indication of its popularity! Interestingly, it is also well known for student prostitution (thanks Wikipedia!).
Ximen district by night - around 1 minutes walk from our hotel!
Later we headed to the National Taiwan Normal University area and visited the ShiDa night markets. We didn’t stay particularly long as it was pelting down with rain, but had a good walk through all the stalls and took temporary refuge from the wet in a Taiwanese restaurant to indulge in beef noodle soup (Kate’s second bowl of the day!).
The following day we headed to the Taipei Fine Arts museum which was quite interesting. Amongst the various exhibitions was an ‘interactive’ piece, whereby you could submit your name and contact details with the chance to participate by ballot. Participation would enable you to join 9 other lucky participants in sitting in a hot tub outside the museum in full view of Taipei’s unsuspecting public. ‘Sittings’ were an hour long, after which time participants would be ready to exit and unleash their pruney white winter bodies to unfortunate museum-goers..
IInside the Taipei Fine Art Musem
The interactive spa pool installment
After the museum we headed to Beitou, a small town north of central Taipei famous for its natural hot springs. In contrast to the museum ballot, the public baths here provided Kate and I with an open opportunity to expose our white winter bodies – seemingly the other few hundred spa-goers who crammed into the pools with us had the same idea.
Much to our relief (and unlike Korean spas!), Taiwan bathing etiquette requires that you wear a swimsuit at all times. After changing in freezing cold outdoor changing rooms, we jumped into the pools (purely a figure of speech – we daren’t make a splash, lest the ageing lifeguard blows his whistle at us!). Kate managed to incur the wrath of The Whistle when she dared sit on the edge of the hot pool and dangle her feet in the water. We pondered the logic of this for a while until we were informed by someone in the pool that dangling your feet in hot water whilst the rest of your body is cold can draw blood away from your heart and can cause you to faint when you stand up. Fair enough!
The Beitou public baths
Dinner that night came courtesy of the food court in Taipei’s central MRT station. Not just any old food court either – it was a glorious, unabashed monument to gluttony and a great big middle finger to Kate’s ‘no sugar’ diet. We did a full loop of all of the stores before settling on a Taiwanese restaurant. There were a lot of store options, however many of them involved being able to speak and read Chinese through a complicated pre-ordering system. Well, in all honesty I’m sure the system was very simple, however our extensive vocabulary of ‘thank you’ and ‘hello’ ensured we were unable to order a single thing. The same sorts of places exist here in Korea - I can read the Korean alphabet but Chinese is a whole new ball game!
Inside one of the food court bakeries - scene of Kate's spectacular fall from the no-sugar wagon
The following day we visited the Longshan temple, which is a famous landmark near central Taipei. Built way back in 1738 by Chinese settlers, it has been destroyed in full and in part over the years by various events such as fires and earthquakes. Its most recent destruction occurred in 1945 during the Taipei Air Raid – it was bombed by the Americans who were convinced it was housing Japanese armaments. Many precious artifacts were destroyed during the raid which also claimed around three thousand (largely civilian) Taiwanese lives. Interestingly, Taiwan’s pro-American political stance means that to this day the bombing has been excluded from history books and media.
After leaving Longshan temple, we wandered through the daytime markets and stumbled across what looked like a quaint little traditional Chinese street. It turned out we were standing on Bopiliao Old Street, which is the most intact street within the previously walled city of Taipei dating back to the Ching dynasty. It had recently been restored and was the film set for ‘Monga’, a recently release Taiwanese gangster movie. We wandered through the restored buildings and courtyards and past the film sets which were filled with gawping fans and tourists. As we were leaving we came across a street artist who was cutting out silhouettes of peoples faces from coloured paper. We stood and watched for a minute, amazed at his ability and attention to detail. Unfortunately a minute was just enough time to be spotted (as a foreigner in Taiwan you generally stand out) and he announced that he was going to do cut-outs for Kate and I for free. We thought this sounded like a great deal, so we accepted. Little did we know he wanted to use us for entertainment purposes and to draw a crowd! He cut, and shouted “Dance! Dance!”. We danced, albeit begrudgingly. The crowd grew larger, and we grew more and more embarrassed. The relief when he finished was palpable – we scurried away, cut-outs in hand. It was embarrassing, but one of those experiences that you just can’t put a price on – something I will always remember! Particularly as it was captured on video…
No visit to Taipei would be complete without a visit to Taipei 101 – formerly the world’s tallest building at 509 metres tall. It has since been bumped to second place by the Khalifa Tower in Dubai which stands at a staggering 828 metres tall. Unfortunately nobody informed the Taipei 101 gift shop, which still sells a wide array of useless souvenirs and knick-knacks proclaiming “Taipei 101: the world’s tallest building”.
The building itself is an amazing feat of engineering and has been designed to withstand typhoons and gale force winds of up to 134 mph, and the strongest earthquakes likely to occur in a 2,500 year cycle. As testament to this, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck during construction of the tower, toppling two large cranes from the 56th floor and killing five workers, - the building sustained no structural damage whatsoever and construction resumed almost immediately.
The name ‘Taipei 101’ reflects the one hundred and one floors of the building, which in turn reflect and commemorate the renewal of time – as the tower was being built, a new century arrived (hence 100+1). 100 is also the traditional number of perfection, so 101 symbolises going one step beyond perfection. The main tower is comprised of 8 segments – in Chinese culture the number 8 is associated with good fortune, abundance and prosperity. The entire building has also been designed according to feng shui principles to maximise positive energy. Trust the Chinese to think of everything!
We visited the observation decks on the 89th and 91st floor (indoor and outdoor respectively) and enjoyed incredible views out over Taipei. Unfortunately visibility wasn’t wonderful, but still enabled us to see most of Taipei and its outer limits. We reached the observation decks via the world’s fastest elevator, which travels at around 17 metres per second and is fully pressurized to prevent your ears from popping as you whiz upwards! The interior is also designed to darken on departure and give passengers a view of the ‘night sky’ – cue a chorus of “oooooh! aaaaaah!” from excited tourists. Each elevator costs a paltry US$2.4 million dollars – a bargain! They’re certainly an improvement on the elevators I had the joy of experiencing in Latvia. The floor of the tiny lift quite literally sagged, courtesy of three enormous, loping, out-of-breath American tourists who insisted I hold the lift and wedged themselves in. The minute I felt the floor sag in the middle I tried to fight my way out but was met by an unmoving wall of blubber. I had to make do with propping myself up in the corner on the side rails and praying feverently for my life as we lurched skywards. Approximately 47 minutes later we arrived at the 10th floor where I frantically disembarked, kissed the ground and searched for the nearest stairwell (OK, so it wasn’t quite 47 minutes but it certainly felt like it!) It wasn’t so much a ride in an elevator as an opportunity to see my life flash before my eyes, repent my sins and make an impromptu bucket list! Had I a pen and paper I probably would have jotted out a will just to round things off.
But, I digress. That evening we wandered through the streets of Ximending, exploring shops and sampling a range of street food ranging from the delicious to the completely unidentifiable. A particular favourite was a Taiwanese spring-onion pancake cooked with your choice of extras (egg, corn, cheese, mystery meat) and spread with a delicious oyster sauce. Despite our best intentions we managed to avoid eating stinky tofu, a Taiwanese specialty. I like tofu as much as the next person and eat it regularly here in Korea, but quite frankly the smell was enough to make even those with the strongest stomachs feel queasy. The smell can only be described as what I imagine a large, fully-populated pet store (stocking mainly dogs and mice) would smell like after two weeks closed up. In hot weather. With no air conditioning. Furthermore after reading about how it is made (compliments of Wikipedia!) I can quite honestly say that I am exceptionally glad that neither a single bite nor atom of stinky tofu came anywhere near my person. For a full, no-holds-barred description of this foul and hideous food click here. I was particularly enamored with the statement “Some less scrupulous stinky tofu factories in China reportedly used rotten kitchen waste, chemical dye and human feces to prepare the brine in order to achieve the odor and texture in short period of time.” Excuse me while I puke.
On the subject of faeces, we also came across a particularly intriguing restaurant in Ximending called ‘Modern Toilet’, which is one of a chain of themed eateries throughout Taiwan (clearly not just a ‘flash in the pan’). In keeping with the name, customers are seated on toilets, dine from mini toilet ‘bowls’ and wipe their hands and faces on toilet rolls hung above the tables. A quirky theme indeed, but their advertising could benefit from a little less of a direct approach (see below). Clearly, patrons of Modern Toilet can see they will dine from a ‘toilet bowl’, but is the graphic illustration of poo really necessary? Perhaps I'm missing the point and it's some sort of delicious Chinese mainland fecal-inspired side dish. We didn’t dine there as we had already eaten, but we spent some time investigating their menus and having a giggle at the advertising and decorating.
And that's all from me right now ... second installment coming soon!
That poo is amazing... hersheys kiss anyone?
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