Taipei Travel Guide

Introduction To Taipei, The Capital City Of Taiwan
Taipei, capital of Taiwan, admirably strikes the perfect yin yang balance. Night markets, arts, opera and music proliferate despite its opulent condominiums and modern department stores, but the city still remains Chinese at heart.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Taipei, capital of Taiwan, an island off China’s mainland, is a city on the move. The high-tech industry and commercial center, for which it is known worldwide, balances nicely with contemporary restaurants, parks, and the wonderful Asian sense of yin and yang, an antidote to the rush of commerce prevalent in all busy, prosperous cities. From Rice Paddies To High Rise Buildings Thirty years ago, rice paddies stretched for miles. Now, they’ve been replaced by glass-faced, high-rise office buildings, luxury condominiums and modern department stores that tower majestically over serene, tree-lined boulevards where the movers and groovers frequent the top names in couture. Portuguese Seafarer Discovery Of Taiwan A 16th-century Portuguese seafarer discovered the beautiful island of Taiwan with its towering peaks and verdant forests and named it Ilha

Formosathe beautiful isle. A mainland Chinese farmer first settled here in the 18th century. Large-scale migration with armed clashes over control of the regions followed, and people settled on the banks of the Tamsui River. A prosperous community led by trade in tea and camphor, developed, and the infant city of Taipei emerged with the river as its commercial artery.

Japanese Occupation Of Taiwan
The Japanese occupied Taiwan for 50 years from 1895 when Chiang Kai Shek, Taiwan’s hero, liberated it and shaped its future. Chinese geomancy influenced the design of early Taipei with walls to the west and east, a body of water in front and the city still purrs with Eastern charms. Beginning at dawn, from the Chiang Kai-shek or Sun Yat-sen memorial halls to the city parkswhen the air, so Chinese believe, is densely charged with vital energy, chithousands of Taiwanese practice tai chi, the ancient art of balancing their energies. At sundown fitness enthusiasts crowd gymnasiums and health centers.

Traditional Tea Ceremonies
In between, in many quiet teahouses across town, and away from people busily going about their day, traditional tea ceremonies are in progress, where some make time to savor the flavors of this ancient act and honor assembled guests. People pause from their work to make a time to measure tealeaves, develop flavors and literally stop and inhale the aroma.

Taiwanese Daily Lifestyle, Taiwan Arts, Opera And Music
Arts, opera and music also proliferate, handed down for thousands of years but still a living, vital, part of Taiwanese daily life. In the National Taiwan Junior College of Performing Arts, Taipei, groups of children learn to do acrobatics that steal your breath. Girls balance dozens of teacups on the ends of sticks held in their mouths, and cyclists make human pyramids that dash around the stage in circles, leaving everyone gasping in amazement.

Neon Signs Lighting The City
Neon signs light up the city like artwork while underneath them warrens of tiny street stalls sell every computer component invented, and this hardware spills onto pavement where torn vendors and waffle makers do a roaring trade to those passing by.

Shilin Night Market

Taipei Night Markets The night markets at Shilin, and Gungguan, and at Huashi and Tunghua streets, prove popular for visitors and locals alike. Much more interesting than typical shopping malls, they are vibrant, social places, where bargaining is fierce but fun, and with an enormous range of goods for sale. Vendors hawk fashions and curios, as well as bicycles, mobile phones and radar scanners. If you need a snack, try the delicious toffee-coated tomatoes or fried bananas, and if you feel adventurous for something not usually on your culinary agenda, boiled chicken feet, snake blood, or sugar coated scorpions offer something to tell the folks about back home.

Taipei Nighttime Show
Try swinging with the youngsters to the hip-hop music streaming from stalls selling CD players, while enterprising, entertaining vendors liven the nighttime show with shouts of goods on offer and hilarious showmanship.

Shuangchen Street And Pubs And Clubs, Taipei Nightlife
Shuangchen Street, close to the Ching Kuang Night Market, has many pubs and clubs. Why not wander the streets and just pop into a few that take your fancy?

Getting Around Taipei, Taxi and MRT
Taxi drivers know the city like the back of their hands, so sit back and enjoy the ride to your destination far more quickly than you could drive yourselfunless you can read Chinese characters on road signs. The impressive, new Mass Rapid Transit offers a fast, functional public train for efficient cross-city travel. Signs are in English, fares are low and speeding across town gives a wonderful view of the residential areas.

Proud, Helpful, Friendly And Hospitable Taiwanese People
Underneath Taiwan’s pulse, lives a religious, cultural and social soul. Taiwanese are proud, helpful, friendly and very hospitable, and most go out of their way to assist in every way they can.

The Lung Shan Temple,Taipei’s Oldest Temple
The Lung Shan Temple, the city’s oldest and the most revered in the land, affords one of Taiwan’s finest examples of temple design. Devotees worship various gods as women and children buy bristles of incense, red candles and lotus flower offerings to the Goddess of Mercy, the Goddess of the Sea, or the God of War and Business. It’s a wonderful place to sit back, relax and watch the Taiwanese doing what they love most.

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial
The majestic Chiang Kai-shek Memorial honors a great Taiwanese hero. The National Theatre and the National Concert Hall flank it, and on special festive days, the square between fills with people dancing and performing. Festivals embellish the soul of Taipei and offer a time for fun. The most popular, the Lantern Festival, features thousands of elaborate lantern, dragon and lion dances, and folk-art demonstrations. This festival coincides with the Tourism Festival, an excellent time to tour the island since many hotels offer discounts.

Festivals In Taipei
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festival when everyone pays their debts, buys new clothes and gives each other money in red envelopes. The Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the failed rescue attempt of poet Chu Yuan, and today people throw bamboo stuffed with rice into the water to feed his spirit. The Moon Festival is marked by family reunions, moon gazing and eating delicious moon cakes.

Yangmingshan National Park
A short drive from the city, Yangmingshan National Park is renowned for its beauty, wealth of unusual volcanic features and topography. Cool, green and clean, with rolling hills, great views and hot springs, the Japanese colonizers made it fashionable. Archeological evidence shows it was inhabited in prehistoric times.

Taipei Political Leaders
In the company of Castro, Mao Zedong and Tito, Chiang Kai-shek proved one of the longest surviving political leaders, and his contribution to Taiwan is remarkable. He brought thousands of containers of astounding Chinese arts and artifacts from China’s Forbidden City during Mao’s cultural revolution. The National Palace Museum that ranks with the Smithsonian, the Louvre, and the British Museum now houses these objets d’art. The collection of porcelain, bronzes, glass and jade is formidable and should not be missed.

National Palace Museum In Taipei

The Grand Hotel In Taipei
The Grand Hotel is arguably the most stunning hotel in Taiwan, rising like a red pagoda from the streets below. Chiang Kai-shek’s wife, Mei-ling, designed it in the opulent Chinese style. Many red columns decorate the foyer with its ceilings carved in oriental motifs, and enormous floral extravaganzas are arranged in precious ceramics. Chinese musicians play ancient instruments while guests take tea in the English manner.

Ritz Landis Hotel In Taipei
In the city center, the refined Ritz Landis Hotel caters to illustrious guests such as Pavarotti, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, the Prince and Princess of Liechtenstein, Placido Domingo and others including Presidents, Ministers and company heads. It’s the gastronomic stomping ground of Taiwan’s best.

Food In Taipei, Chinese Food And Cuisine
Taipei residents boast that their Chinese cuisine is the best on earth, and the entire range of China’s regional cuisine came from the mainland in the late 1940’s. Taste preferences, cooking abilities and traditions combined with modern techniques and ingredients offer an adventure in taste for any food lover.

Taipei’s Small Museums
Taipei’s cultural landscape is changing with the growth of small museums and galleries. They are privately owned and operated collections of a lifetime.

SuHo Memorial Paper Museum
Nearest MRT stop is Chunghsiao-Hsinsheng station on the Pan Nan line, on Jungshiau E Road Sec 3. Or Bus 49 from Taipei Main Station and get off at the Jungshan Niujung stop.

For the Chinese, who invented paper 2,000 years ago, and consider calligraphy one of the highest forms of art, high-quality paper is of great cultural significance. The children of Mr Chen Su-ho, the founder of the Chang-Chuen Cotton Paper Factory, created this museum after he was killed in a plane crash. Visitors can see the four processes of traditional papermaking and make their own.

Miniatures Museum of Taiwan
Basement of Phillips Building at 96, Jianguo N. Rd, Sec 1.
Collecting miniature “dollhouses” is the retirement hobby of Taipei light bulb manufacturer Lin Wen-jen. There are more than 200 pieces from eight countries, with styles from 19th century London, 1950’s America and even Aiice in Wonderland.

Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines
Near National Palace Museum – 282 Jrshan Road, Sec 2.
This museum offers tours for those interested in Taiwan’s earliest settlers. Pottery, wickerwork, houses, hunting tools and weaving, as well as traditional clothing displays, facial tattooing, weapons and armour used against spirits, and an Atayal warrior’s jacket, decorated with more than 80,000 handmade shell beads, can be seen. There are touch-screen computers with 50,000 words of background information.