Taiwan Travels Part 1 - Taipei

A couple weeks ago I got back from my second international trip of the year - two weeks in Taiwan! I did a complete circuit around the island, starting in Taipei, then going into the interior to see Alishan, then Tainan on the southwestern part of the country, before making my way up the east coast. It was a very relaxing trip. Truth be told, I didn’t actually need two full week – the itinerary I followed could be done in 10 to 11 days. But having the extra time was nice because I didn’t need to rush.

The Awesome
The National Palace Museum
If you do nothing else in Taiwan (and like museums) go to the National Palace Museum. Seriously, it is one of the best museums I’ve ever been too. The National Palace Museum’s claim to fame is that it has tens of thousands of treasures from the Forbidden City in Beijing. The museum has huge, comprehensive exhibits one for jade objects and another on bronze objects, covering all of Chinese history. The oldest jade objects were than 7,000 years old. They also have special exhibits which allow them to show different parts of their collection – I saw one on holidays in imperial China that had everything from invitations to paintings to ritual objects. If you have any interest in Chinese history or Chinese paintings, this museum is an absolute must.

Worth Visiting
Taipei 101
I never fully got the “going to the top of a super tall building thing” but on a trip to NYC in March I did the Empire State Building for the first time and it was actually a lot of fun. So, I decided to visit Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world, on my trip. Taipei 101 has a massive shopping center on its bottom few floors and several observation decks. The main one is on the 89th floor, but I paid for the Skyline experience, which takes you to the 101st floor, where there is this lovely soothing space with tables and chairs and of course, views. It’s called “the secret garden” and I loved it. Technically the ticket included going outside but once I learned that included getting into a safety harness – I decided to stay in the indoors part of the building. Also – the building has a cartoon mascot that is an anthropomorphized mass damper.

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
This is worth visiting if only for the randomness of the location. I’m not going to get deep into Taiwanese history but - Chiang Kai-Shek was the father of modern Taiwan and also was a brutal dictator. So why am I recommending visiting his memorial hall? First reason is the grandiosity of the location. The memorial hall is a huge, building located on one end of a large and quite lovely park and faces the National Theater and National Concert Hall. So, it’s worth checking out just for the park and the architecture. The other reason is the Honor Guard Demonstration, which involves soldiers doing basically soldier choreography with their guns.

The Forgettable
Most of the Temples
I am sorry about this – it feels rude but it is true. I went to five temples when I was in Taipei and I genuinely forgot about most of them until I was rereading the notes I took when I was there to write this post. Which isn’t to say they weren’t cool – they were just … not terribly memorable, other than the fact some of them were tucked into busy, modern Taipei. The most memorable thing was the sort of cartoon Confucius statues at the Confucian Temple.

Conclusion
I spent six days in Taipei, although I would say you really only need four to five. There are things I didn’t do that would have been cool, but I don’t feel any need to go back. It’s surprisingly relaxed for a major metropolis, although maybe that’s because I was always up crazy early. The English-language infrastructure was fantastic as well, which I appreciate. It was also very navigable, particularly the metro and the train systems. Also, the trains in Taiwan, at least the non-bullet trains, were super cheap. Taipei is a good city to visit and a must do if you’re in Taiwan – especially the National Palace Museum. Go to the National Palace Museum. If nothing else – there is a piece of jade that looks exactly like bok choy.