Exploring Taipei #2

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

I woke around 0600 after 8h sleep. I had intended to have an early start but the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall didn’t open till 0900. Also I got delayed when I had a message from Jack (someone I travelled with in Oman for a couple of days) who had returned to Taipei after studying in London. He wanted to meet for coffee at 1030 so there wasn’t much point in getting an early start.

I got to the CKS Memorial Hall soon after it opened. It was already hot walking from the MRT to the hall where there was a large statue of the man. I learnt that there were two more floors as I didn’t have a chance to explore about 35 years ago. I descended to the one immediately below which turned out to be just an art gallery. Going down to the ground floor, there were interesting displays of the history of Chiang and the retreat of the Kuomingtang government to Taiwan.

At 1000, I saw the changing of the guards. Yeah, it was interesting enough. I think not caring about things like that comes with age; one develops it after having more than half a century on the planet.

I left the CKS Memorial Hall area and walked towards the nearby Starbucks where I met up with Jack. I didn’t recognise him but fortunately he called out to me while I was waiting for him inside. We had a nice chat for over an hour about life since our travels in Oman and also about Taiwan.

• I asked if Mainlanders on their tour get taken to the CKS Memorial Hall. Yes, apparently. I then asked what they might think of it and whether they take offence. Apparently not, since they won the war. They probably think “Oh, you seem to be commemorating the loser a fair bit, aren’t you?”
• Similarly I asked if the airport’s former name of Chiang Kai Shek had been changed to Taoyuan to appease the mainland in conjunction with direct flights to China. He says it was more to shake off the past of Mr Chiang who was a bit of a dictator.

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Taipei 101

From here, I made my way to Taipei 101. I must have been following outdated instructions and took the MRT to City Hall where it was a short but superhot walk to the former world’s tallest building. Damn! There was an MRT station there with the name Taipei 101 but I had missed it on the map!

The entry price to the observation deck wasn’t too pricey at NT$600. I bought a ticket for 1400 to allow time for lunch. But despite a very crowded food hall downstairs, I was done by 1300 which meant an hour to kill. Time went pretty quickly and I was soon up on Level 89. The ride up was in the world’s fastest elevator and took only 37 seconds.

The heat haze had become a bit stronger and the view wasn’t the best. I also went up a couple of storeys to the open air deck of which much was cordoned off. Then down one storey to see the wind damper which reduces swaying by 40%; it also reduces earthquake sway.

There was a short queue for the ride to get back down. The ride actually took a few seconds longer than the ride up.

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Dihua Street

I took the MRT to Zhongshan to walk to Dihua Street; it was back into the 37 degree heat and humidity. The walkng street offers an insight into the sale of traditional Chinese ingredients like mushrooms (especially the white and black cloud ear varieties), sharks fin, sea cucumber.

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It was nearly 1600, I was tired and did one pass before returning to the MRT for the long ride to Danshui (Tamsui) for the night market there.

Tamsui/Danshui

As the ride on the MRT progressed, the carriages got fuller and fuller. It was just a sea of humanity when I got to the seaside suburb of Danshui. I thought “forget it” for a moment but pushed on and walked along the waterfront where there were lots of stalls selling more fried food that I need for my two days in Taipei. I took the correct approach by sampling some to quench my desire but not buying any.

After exploring a decent length of the waterfront, I cut back in and returned by road for a slightly different ambience. The street were more lined with small shops and eateries but there were still some vendors.

Danshui offered an insight into some Taiwanese delicacies which I hadn’t seen before. I enjoyed it tremendously despite the crowd. I didn’t have much appetite due to the eat and only had an ice-cream popiah (fresh spring roll) with crushed peanuts and coriander, plus a red bean pancake.

I used up the remainder of my money back in town on some dumplings before retiring.

A few parting thoughts on Taipei:

• Something that struck me in the two days in Taipei was the lack of rubbish bins despite street food being heavily part of their culture. And despite that, there is nearly no litter anywhere to be seen!
• There’s plenty to fill in a couple of days but it isn’t a touristy city, especially for Westerners. There’s a lot more to sea around the island but I didn’t have time.
• It’s not as glitzy in Hong Kong, both in the city centre and also in the ourskirts.
• The authorities have tried to make Taipei more liveable with parks. And the concrete jungle gives way to green forests pretty quickly as one moves south.