Taipei – Home of the Neon God

Taipei has a dual-personality disorder. A city that is wet and moldy, quite smelly, and filled with few old people during the day, it turns into breezy, young and crowded neon-lit Mecca during the evenings. Teens and yuppies come out of work and schools, street vendors set up their stalls, store signs light up and Taipei becomes the city that I’ve grown quite fond of.

Anyone visiting Taipei should plan on visiting some of the numerous night markets here. Taipei Hwahsi Tourist Night Market (known affectionately as the Snake Alley) is a good starting point, but there are countless others you can drop by.

Also, no visit to Taiwan would be complete without visiting some temples: Lungshan and Shantao temples are some of the more famous temples in Taipei, but often the small, not so famous ones would contain some of the most striking architecture and paintings.

A few tourist spots worth mentioning are the Chang Khai Shek and Sun Yat Sen Memorials, Taiwan National Palace Museum and Martyr’s Shrine.

Quick Tips:

Number one tip for Taipei: BRING AN UMBRELLA. The city can be wet… really wet! And stay away from the street, unless you’re trying to sport the "mud pit" look. Cars will zoom by you going at some inhuman speed and leave you covered in a spray of muddy water in colors that Grateful Dead fans would easily recognize.

You can exchange money at any bank and in fact you will get a very good rate (usually within 1% of the official exchange rate). The only drawback: you have to fill out rather lengthy forms and go through two, sometimes three windows at the bank, before you have a fistful of Taiwanese dollars.

Try stinky tofu, one of the Taiwanese culinary secrets: this stuff smells unbearably bad (thoughts of barbequing in a sewer come to mind), but once you bite into it, it’s sweet, crunchy and delicious!

Also, instead of wasting your money at overpriced Starbucks, try the local alternative nai ca (milk tea). The little shops selling it are everywhere, and you can get it in every flavour (from almond to papaya) with or without pearl (now, we’re not talking jewels here, but sweet and chewy tapioca bits).

Best Way To Get Around:

Taipei has a well-developed metro / light rail system that can get you to most destinations within the city center. Metro maps are both in Mandarin and English so you shouldn’t have any trouble getting to your destination. Remember: NO FOOD OR DRINK inside of metro stations or trains.

For out of the way spots, taxi would be the first choice. There are plenty and not too expensive (70 NTD for the first 1650 meters (1 mile) and 5 NTD for each 350 meters additional = it all comes up to meter drop and 75 cents per mile).

There are also plenty of buses around, but the signs are all in Mandarin and bus drivers usually don’t speak any English. So unless you can speak the local tongue, or feeling adventurous, stick to metro and cabs.

You can find details on the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC), including metro routes and maps and ticket prices at their homepage at: http://www.trtc.com.tw/englishnew/index.htm

East Dragon Hotel (Dong Long Da Fan Dian), is located in central Taipei, very close to the famed ‘Jail’ café. It is quite easy to miss the hotel, as the building numbers there are not very well marked and the signs are way above the eye level. Taipei TRTC and train stations are about 10 minute walk from the hotel.

The hotel itself was quite unremarkable. Our room was clean and pleasant, but rather small and without windows. Bathroom was quite nice, and as in most Taiwanese hotels, was provided with a shaving set, toothbrush and a toothpaste.

The rate (I believe of 2400 NTD for our double room) included breakfast, which was also unexceptional. Over-easy eggs, ham and toast (all a bit too greasy), juice and coffee or tea.

Taipei hotels tend to be on the expensive side, so this was not a bad deal, but I’m sure if you look around a bit, you can find something more memorable in a similar price range.

Sean’s Irish Pub is located in the first floor of the Taipei Westin. In a typical Irish pub style it has a cozy, dark atmosphere and is open until the wee hours. If you get in early enough (before 9pm, I believe) there is no cover charge.

The pub has live music that just didn’t seem very Irish to me (Aretha’s Respect? It’s Raining Men??), but was nonetheless very enjoyable. Watch out though: if you get too jolly and distracted, you might be entrapped by band’s lead singer and made to sing karaoke style. It’s not easy after a few pints!

Beer? Thank God for Guinness! But in all honesty, the selection was rather pathetic: narrowed down to Harp, Killian’s and our favourite Irish stout. Food? Well… like any other Irish pub, enough said. One unusual thing about Sean’s was the special glasses they had for your beer. You can get the smaller 0.7 liter or the larger 1.4 liter stein filled with your favourite cold one. All I can say is, you’ll pray that the bathroom was closer after downing the 1.4 liter monstrosity (builds up your biceps quite a bit).

Warning: booze is rather expensive in Taiwan (well… pub booze), so bring loads of NTD (New Taiwanese Dollars… Hello? You still don’t know?) I suppose being an Irish pub aficionado, I could see myself spending my weekend evenings here.

Night markets are a very enjoyable experience for a tourist and a part of everyday life for the Taiwanese. You can get everything here: great food, cheap clothing, trinkets, souvenirs, electronics, etc. They usually open around dusk and close up shop at around midnight. Don’t be surprised if you see stalls with no vendor around (usually with music CD’s or DVD’s). Some of the vendors operate illegally, and quickly disappear when cops show up.

Hwahsi Jie a.k.a. Hwahsi Tourist Night Market or as it is affectionately known as Snake Alley is a good bet for starters. You can dine on barbequed rattlesnake here, have turtle soup or munch on a stir-fried mouse (or two). Funny enough, this type of food will most likely nauseate your Taiwanese friends, and if you dare to eat it, they’ll look at you like the alien that you are. It seems that most of the stalls offering these "exotic" foods are for the benefit of the tourists. Keep in mind, that if you really want to try "authentic" Taiwanese food, you should concentrate on the street vendors selling a variety of steamed buns or dumplings floating in broth. If you’re feeling VERY adventurous, you can order a set of alcoholic drinks in any snake restaurant which are various snake fluids like blood, bile or sperm (yes… you’ve read it right) mixed with a local liquor called gao liang. As unappetizing as it sounds, I’m sure the snake additives only improve the flavour of the liquor (which by itself has a flavour reminiscent of kerosene or bug repellant).

Nonetheless, Snake Alley is great place to load up on souvenirs, music and videos and a variety of other trinkets. It once used to be notorious for prostitution, but in the last few years Taiwan’s government cracked down and cleaned up the place. To access Snake Alley take the metro to the Lungshan Temple station.

There are plenty of other night markets to be found in Taipei. Location information can be found on Taipei City Government’s homepage at http://www.dot.taipei.gov.tw/travel/english/info/info2/food10.html.

I’ve always believed that if you really want to know a country and its people, you need to learn about three things: food, sex and religion (in no particular order either). Temples fall very much into the third category. But before we go on, here is some background on religion in Taiwan.

The two main religions in Taiwan are Buddhism and Taoism, but Christianity and native folk beliefs are present as well. One goddess who is particularly venerated is Matsu, the Goddess of the Sea (I suppose she has a very special meaning to the locals, since Taiwan is surrounded by the sea).

Religion plays a very important part in daily life of the Taiwanese; worshipping one’s ancestors, praying for good luck or rather to ward off bad luck, paying respect to deities are all intertwined with daily living activities. We visited Taipei during the festival of the dead (Grave Sweeping or Tomb Cleaning Day), and you could see street vendors burning incense and offerings to the dead, while tending shop. If you’re interested in reading up more check out: http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/taiwan/pro-religion.htm for some additional information.

There are literally thousands of temples all over Taiwan. In stark contrast to Japan where you can easily distinguish between a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple, in Taiwan the temples are rarely mono-religious (if there is such a phrase), but rather a place where mixture of Buddhist, Taoist and folk deities are all being worshipped under a single roof. People come in, light up incense sticks (always in odd numbers) and pray to the gods. Temples’ architecture varies widely and no two are alike. In fact, you can see some of the most striking temples on the side of a road, or hidden deep within some shopping district.

Taipei’s most famous temple, Mengchia Lungshan Temple, is located in the Wanhua district (211 Kuangchou Street: you can take the metro to the Lungshan Temple station – Snake Alley is also in the vicinity). The temple was built in honor of Goddess of Mercy, Kuanyin. Wonderful architecture and sculptures, although due to its crowded design, it is extremely difficult to take photographs here.
Taipei’s largest temple, Shantao Temple is located at 23 Chunghsiao East Road, Section 1 (you can also get here by metro). It has a very modern, seven-story design, and is primarily used to pray to and worship the dead (translation: do not take your Taiwanese date here).
There are lots of other interesting temples around, so you can pick and chose depending on how much time you have. Check out http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/taiwan/taipei_temples.htm for more information.

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is located in downtown Taipei across from the National Central Library. It is a large, white, octagonal structure with a blue roof that houses a statue of Chian Kai-shek ( http://www.bartleby.com/65/ch/ChiangKa.html): Taiwan’s first leader. There is also a gallery and an exhibition center inside of the hall. Like in many places of honor around the world, you can watch a ceremonial changing of the guards here during the holidays, or a regular guard change during the rest of the year. Don’t get too close to the guards or step on the red carpet though: the guards will startle you by raising their guns and banging them loudly on the floor, and you will be asked to move or leave by the plain-clothes security guards.

The hall is surrounded by acres of Chinese-style gardens with ponds, and there is a long promenade, with a great three-door gate (which is color coordinated with the hall) leading up to the main building.

You can get to CKS Memorial Hall by metro (CKS Memorial station) as well as by several different busses (check the TRANSPORT link on CKS Memorial Hall’s web-site). It is open everyday from 9 am until 5 pm.

Martyr’s Shrine, which is a wonderful example of Ming dynasty architecture was built in 1969, to honor the memory of people who lost their lives during the establishment of the Republic of China (the capitalist China, as it once used to be). The site is composed of several structures while the central building houses the actual memorial with plaques around the building describing the history of the Republic of China. Spend a few hours at this site, and you will be getting a pretty thorough lesson in Taiwan’s history.

The changing of the guards is performed hourly at the main entrance of the shrine, with a more ceremonial one happening on Sundays and national holidays. The parade starts at the main gate to the site, and the guards march towards the main building where the changing ceremony occurs. Tourists are kept away from the marching guards by plain-clothes security guards. Be warned: Taiwanese are very protective of their places of honor. They will order people to take off their hats, and escort tourists out of the restricted areas without looking too apologetic.

The shrine is located close to the Grand Hotel (if you can afford to stay there): it is less than 1 km east of the hotel along the Peian Road. It’s impossible to get here by metro, so from other parts of Taipei take a cab, or any one of the buses: 208, 247, 267, 287.

If you’re going to see only one museum in Taipei then see the National Palace Museum. It is by far the most worthwhile. The museum has several permanent exhibitions on Chinese paintings, bronze artifacts, Buddhist sculpture, pottery and porcelain, jade jewelry, curio cabinets and history of Chinese calligraphy. It is not very large (at least compared to Paris' Louvre or Moscow's Hermitage) and it's varied enough, not to make you fall asleep.

Entrance fee is 100NTD and the museum is open between 9AM and 5PM everyday. There is a wonderful Chinese garden next to the museum (entrance fee is nominal, I believe it was 10NTD) in which you can relax and enjoy feeding carp or let your kids (if you have any) run wild.

To get to the National Palace Museum, you’re once again doomed to take a bus or a taxi cab. MRT, Taipei’s metro system, does not have a line anywhere close to the museum. Take the Tamsui Line to the Shih-lin station and transfer to bus 304 or 255.