Time Out in Taipei...
Today saw my first visit to Taipei, capital of this lovely island nation. Despite the horrible weather, fun was had and plenty of walking about (our feet can testify to it).
We set off from the hotel by taxi and grabbed a bus to Taipei from a stop close to the main train station here in Hsinchu. I think the name of the company was Freeway Express or something to that effect (it has green and red lines down the sides) and a return trip to Taipei cost us around 210 NT. The journey itself was somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half and gave a great opportunity to catch a little nap...
Upon reaching Taipei, we got off at the final stop which was at the main train station (台北車站) there and, after some searching, we made our way underground, passing through the mall there until we reached the nearest MRT station. From there, we paid 20 NT each for a single-journey to Taipei City Hall (市政府站) to reach Taipei 101, currently the world's tallest building.
The building itself is quite catching though perhaps not entirely aesthetically-pleasing if concrete and glass jungles do nothing for you. Inside, we found a range of shops and restaurants, each more expensive than the last one. We grabbed a quick lunch in the food court in the basement level...some good old sushi! After saying sayonara to the sushi, we made our way into the sea of consumers and stopped by the breathtaking Page One bookstore where we spent about an hour or so browsing through the vast selection of English and Chinese-language books that lay within. I ended up buying part 3 of Practical Audio-Visual Chinese, a good English-Chinese dictionary, China Through the Ages by Franz Michael and 2 magazines. Plenty of text to keep me busy until at least my next visit to Taipei...
After wandering around some of the other shops, we planned on going up to the observation deck and after queueing for a little while, the lady at the ticket desk told us that the weather was not very good, so we decided to postpone it for another day since we would have seen very little with the cloud cover.
Getting a little bored with 101, we headed out to the malls surrounding 101 and spent some time looking around Toys'R'Us (at Sander's request) and grabbed some snacks from a nearby supermarket. We watched people walk past us while nibbling on some Doritos and white chocolate-covered macademia nuts...
By then, our feet were beginning to protest and we decided to make our way back to Hsinchu. We jumped aboard a very crowded metro train back to the main train station (spending a few minutes curiously watching two albino Taiwanese twins who got on the train about midway) and proceeded to get a little lost in that underground mall. We finally found our way out onto the streets and tracked down the bus stop we needed. Luckily, there was a bus already waiting there and less than two hours, and some napping, later, we were back in the heart of Hsinchu and buying some food from a Seven-Eleven for our supper, before making our way back to the hotel.
We wonder what tomorrow will bring. Being the island's 'national day', we might be lucky enough to catch some sort of celebrations in the city centre so we'll see what comes our way.
We set off from the hotel by taxi and grabbed a bus to Taipei from a stop close to the main train station here in Hsinchu. I think the name of the company was Freeway Express or something to that effect (it has green and red lines down the sides) and a return trip to Taipei cost us around 210 NT. The journey itself was somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half and gave a great opportunity to catch a little nap...
Upon reaching Taipei, we got off at the final stop which was at the main train station (台北車站) there and, after some searching, we made our way underground, passing through the mall there until we reached the nearest MRT station. From there, we paid 20 NT each for a single-journey to Taipei City Hall (市政府站) to reach Taipei 101, currently the world's tallest building.
The building itself is quite catching though perhaps not entirely aesthetically-pleasing if concrete and glass jungles do nothing for you. Inside, we found a range of shops and restaurants, each more expensive than the last one. We grabbed a quick lunch in the food court in the basement level...some good old sushi! After saying sayonara to the sushi, we made our way into the sea of consumers and stopped by the breathtaking Page One bookstore where we spent about an hour or so browsing through the vast selection of English and Chinese-language books that lay within. I ended up buying part 3 of Practical Audio-Visual Chinese, a good English-Chinese dictionary, China Through the Ages by Franz Michael and 2 magazines. Plenty of text to keep me busy until at least my next visit to Taipei...
After wandering around some of the other shops, we planned on going up to the observation deck and after queueing for a little while, the lady at the ticket desk told us that the weather was not very good, so we decided to postpone it for another day since we would have seen very little with the cloud cover.
Getting a little bored with 101, we headed out to the malls surrounding 101 and spent some time looking around Toys'R'Us (at Sander's request) and grabbed some snacks from a nearby supermarket. We watched people walk past us while nibbling on some Doritos and white chocolate-covered macademia nuts...
By then, our feet were beginning to protest and we decided to make our way back to Hsinchu. We jumped aboard a very crowded metro train back to the main train station (spending a few minutes curiously watching two albino Taiwanese twins who got on the train about midway) and proceeded to get a little lost in that underground mall. We finally found our way out onto the streets and tracked down the bus stop we needed. Luckily, there was a bus already waiting there and less than two hours, and some napping, later, we were back in the heart of Hsinchu and buying some food from a Seven-Eleven for our supper, before making our way back to the hotel.
We wonder what tomorrow will bring. Being the island's 'national day', we might be lucky enough to catch some sort of celebrations in the city centre so we'll see what comes our way.