Taipei - the center of Taiwan

The museums, the parks, the temples, and especially the night markets.

Quick Tips:

When in Asia, bargain, bargain, bargain at most places, unless the industry is regulated like taxis with meters in Taipei.

Best Way To Get Around:

Take public transportation or walk to get acquainted with the city. If you are feeling adventurous, drive (see entry below).

Yangmingshan park is one of the most picturesque places within the Taipei city limits. The park is especially beautiful in spring, when its renowned cherry trees yield enormous cherry blossoms. The park is on a mountain slope, and is the location of choice of wealthy Chinese and westerners. The park itself has many trails that offer escape from Taipei's chaos (I guess a charm of Taipei is definitely its ability to offer many such oases). Beware that sometimes the park does get invaded by people seeking the same thing you are, so do try to avoid it on Sundays. But maybe people watching is what you are after, in that case, a slice of life is there for you to see.

You can go to Yangmishan to just hang around and get your bearing back, or you can use a number of facilities offered there. There are hot springs resorts that open late into the evening, and are awfully inviting after a long day hiking. There are thermal areas worth visiting. For those of you interested in a long hike, you can climb Seven Star Mountain, where you can look down one side of the mountain and see Taipei, and the ocean on the opposite side. There are organized camping areas, or you can opt for the more expensive hotels in the area.

Taipei's National Palace Museum ranks up there among the top world class museums. It holds the world's largest collection of Chinese artifacts, around 700,000 in all, although at any given time, only a fraction of these is on display. The exhibits include priceless documents and books, priceless prehistoric artifacts, as well as treasures in bronze, porcelain, lacquerware, gold, previous jewels, and the most treasured stone of all China, jade. According to my friend, who is a Taiwanese native, only 60,000 pieces are in display in any given year, and that requires a complete rotation every three months. Which means that it takes almost 12 years for the entire collection to be displayed. In addition, the collection grows with time as donations and acquisitions continue to come in. What is most amazing is that many of these artifacts were once in the possession of Chiang Kai Shek, who as the spokesperson of the Kuomingtan appropriated these and took them out of China when it lost to the Communist revolution. It wasn't until much later when the protests of the people finally convinced him to put these national treasures into the museum. This tale is a little bit different from that written in many tour books, where the KMT supposedly did not want to open a museum because they dreamed of first reuniting China under their own rule before opening a Chinese Museum. So believe what you would, but whatever the story, there is a bright spot. Without Chiang Kai Shek, many of these artifacts would probably have been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, so I guess there are blessings in everything. There is also a Chang Foundation Museum displaying his own private collection.

The markets in Taipei, especially the night markets, are a real treat. No trip to Taipei can be complete without visiting these colorful markets. They are most lively during the weekends, and they are great places to eat, drink, shop, and people watch. The markets have everything--you can sample basic street foods, which in many instances, are the highlights of visiting a strange city, and if you are lucky, the food is so much better than what they can offer in highly priced Taiwanese restaurants. That's something to be careful about--a typical Taiwanese restaurant can set you back substantially, as they tend to offer exotic seafood priced by the Chinese but can be fairly strange, and inexplacably expensive, to anyone who did not grow up in that culture. You can buy anything there, from clothing to perfume to tacky souvenirs to kitchen tools. The most well-known, and frequently visited market is of course in the Wanhua areas near the Lungshan Temple, famed for Snake Alley.

Finally, if you are much too careless, a great place to get your pocket picked. Consider this a warning: do be more careful when traveling overseas. I have noticed that tourists, especially Americans, tend to walk the streets of most countries totally unaware, with a purse careless slung over their shoulders. This is fine in a small mid-west town, but these are sure targets in large cities like New York and Washington D.C., not to mention large Asian cities where the population density makes pickpocketing an easy feat, and careless tourists a target as easy as saying abc.

Temples are a must-see wherever you go in Asia, be they Buddhist, Hindi, or Muslim. Depending on what you are searching for, you have to do a bit of research. Some temples are calm and befits the typical Western image of a place fit for meditation. Other temples can be chaotic, as the crowd of worshippers stream in and out, mixed in with the sounds of gongs, the recitation of the Buddhist scriptures, and the sound of wooden sticks knocking against their containers, a popular fortune-telling device.

The Pishan (Green Mountain) temple falls into the first category. Perched on a side of the mountain with breathtaking view of Taipei, on a loop road through the mountains, the temple gets fewer than expected visitors, and therefore manage to maintain some sense of serenity and calm. The scenery is grand, and you can hike the many trails that lace through it, and imagine yourself, if you are a kung fu buff, in the confine of the Shaolin Temple. Maybe it does take a lot of imagination, for with Taipei in the distance, well, maybe not the Shaolin Temple.

I don't know whether to consider myself lucky or unlucky to have driven Taipei's roads. If you don't want to miss the sights and want to avoid unnecessary headaches, then please do take taxis or public transportation or just walk. But if you are into a thrill ride, well, then driving into Taipei does qualify as one such thrill. Basically, there are just no rules when the Taiwanese (I think this applies to most of Asia, but nowhere did I find it so flaunted as in Taipei) get behind the wheels of their cars or motorcycles. Nowhere have I found that demarcation in the road, i.e., lanes, had not meaning at all. On a three lane highway, I have counted as many as five cars lining up the road. On a two-way street, cars heading in one direction may take up all lanes. It does sound awful, but I think the Taiwanese have perfected the art of avoiding each other, though I believe they do have a high accident rate, and no wonder. Once you have gotten the hang of it, it's quite fun. Then, things are more complicated because motorcycles are not allowed to ride on car lanes, but cars are allowed to drive or park on motorcycle lanes, so figure that out. Then motorcycles are required to park on the pedestrian footpath, so the pedestrians have to, what else, walk in the motorcycle lanes. Go figure. This makes for what started out as a fairly dense city a complete chaos. I don't know whether things have improved, for it has been a while since I last visited. I think your spleen ? (in Chinese custom the spleen supposedly supplies you with courage), just got bigger in Taipei. Thankfully, it immeditely shrank back when I got back to the States, otherwise I would have been clamped in jail long ago.