Day Three
Today was day two in Taipei, and man, did I see a lot of it... I must have walked five or six miles in total today. I started the day off by taking the clean and efficient Metro over to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in east Taipei. The east side is the city's international business center and is made up of wide, broad boulevards, modern glass skyscrapers, and vast, empty plazas. It reminded me a lot of Beijing - the walking distances are huge, and the "mirage effect" (you can see where you want to go and it looks close, but it winds up taking forever to get there) was in full swing. Unlike Beijing, however, there was at least a lot of greenery and not nearly as much dust and pollution. The centerpiece of eastern Taipei is the Taipei 101 office tower, formerly the world's tallest until it was upstaged by the Burj Dubai a few years ago. I went over to check it out, but since it was so hazy outside, I didn't bother going to the top.
From there I walked about two miles back to western Taipei along a series of streets. The western part of the city is a bit more traditionally Asian - older buildings, shops and restaurants packed close together, and a little more chaos on the streets and sidewalks. As you can see from the photo, however, it's not that traditional (note the McDonald's). My hotel is near the train station which falls right on the line between the eastern and western parts of the city. It was threatening rain all day, which meant there was a steady breeze that made walking a little more pleasant.
At the recommendation of a few Taiwanese friends from school, I had lunch at Din Tai Fung, a restaurant that started in Taiwan but has since expanded across Asia and even to the United States (only in Los Angeles, sadly.) They're known for xiao long bao - soup dumplings - which are probably one of my favorite food items. I had two big orders, one with minced pork and one with minced chicken. Seriously good stuff. I may have to go back to Din Tai Fung in either Singapore or Jakarta later in the trip!
From there I walked south to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, a massive monument to the man who led the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, during the 1940s. When the Communists seized power on the mainland in 1949, Chiang and the Nationalists moved to Taiwan, where they set up the country and system still in place today (see yesterday's post for more on Taiwan-Mainland relations). The CKS Memorial Hall is definitely one of the more imposing buildings in Taipei, although as Taiwan has morphed into a full-fledged democracy (the Kuomintang is now just one party among many), there's been a move away from naming things after him. The main airport that I flew into yesterday was originally named for him but now has the more party-neutral geographic name of Taoyuan International.
From there, I intended to take a train up to Tamsui, which is a more traditional suburb located where its eponymous river meets the Taiwan Strait. However, it started raining pretty hard, so I decided to pass (have to save something for my next trip here, whenever that may be) and instead walked around the Ximen District in west Taipei, which has some nice pedestrianized streets and a lot of food stalls and trendy clothing shops. This was followed by dinner at a noodle shop recommended by Wikitravel and another long walk back to the hotel.
Tomorrow I will hopefully be meeting some Ross classmates for brunch before I take Taiwan's high-speed railway down to the southern city of Kaohsiung. Taipei has been a great way to start off the trip and I'll be sorry to leave, but there's a lot more ground to cover! And finally, in case you had any doubts about how "real" Taipei citizens are, please let this gentleman's hat clear them up for you:
Today I'm in: Taipei, Taiwan
First up, just in case anyone was having trouble, you can click on the pictures to see larger versions. I put the thumbnails on the post itself, but the larger files have been uploaded.
Today was day two in Taipei, and man, did I see a lot of it... I must have walked five or six miles in total today. I started the day off by taking the clean and efficient Metro over to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in east Taipei. The east side is the city's international business center and is made up of wide, broad boulevards, modern glass skyscrapers, and vast, empty plazas. It reminded me a lot of Beijing - the walking distances are huge, and the "mirage effect" (you can see where you want to go and it looks close, but it winds up taking forever to get there) was in full swing. Unlike Beijing, however, there was at least a lot of greenery and not nearly as much dust and pollution. The centerpiece of eastern Taipei is the Taipei 101 office tower, formerly the world's tallest until it was upstaged by the Burj Dubai a few years ago. I went over to check it out, but since it was so hazy outside, I didn't bother going to the top. 
From there I walked about two miles back to western Taipei along a series of streets. The western part of the city is a bit more traditionally Asian - older buildings, shops and restaurants packed close together, and a little more chaos on the streets and sidewalks. As you can see from the photo, however, it's not that traditional (note the McDonald's). My hotel is near the train station which falls right on the line between the eastern and western parts of the city. It was threatening rain all day, which meant there was a steady breeze that made walking a little more pleasant. 
At the recommendation of a few Taiwanese friends from school, I had lunch at Din Tai Fung, a restaurant that started in Taiwan but has since expanded across Asia and even to the United States (only in Los Angeles, sadly.) They're known for xiao long bao - soup dumplings - which are probably one of my favorite food items. I had two big orders, one with minced pork and one with minced chicken. Seriously good stuff. I may have to go back to Din Tai Fung in either Singapore or Jakarta later in the trip! 
From there I walked south to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, a massive monument to the man who led the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, during the 1940s. When the Communists seized power on the mainland in 1949, Chiang and the Nationalists moved to Taiwan, where they set up the country and system still in place today (see yesterday's post for more on Taiwan-Mainland relations). The CKS Memorial Hall is definitely one of the more imposing buildings in Taipei, although as Taiwan has morphed into a full-fledged democracy (the Kuomintang is now just one party among many), there's been a move away from naming things after him. The main airport that I flew into yesterday was originally named for him but now has the more party-neutral geographic name of Taoyuan International. From there, I intended to take a train up to Tamsui, which is a more traditional suburb located where its eponymous river meets the Taiwan Strait. However, it started raining pretty hard, so I decided to pass (have to save something for my next trip here, whenever that may be) and instead walked around the Ximen District in west Taipei, which has some nice pedestrianized streets and a lot of food stalls and trendy clothing shops. This was followed by dinner at a noodle shop recommended by Wikitravel and another long walk back to the hotel.
Tomorrow I will hopefully be meeting some Ross classmates for brunch before I take Taiwan's high-speed railway down to the southern city of Kaohsiung. Taipei has been a great way to start off the trip and I'll be sorry to leave, but there's a lot more ground to cover! And finally, in case you had any doubts about how "real" Taipei citizens are, please let this gentleman's hat clear them up for you:
I love the self-pictures!
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