Friday, June 10, 2016

Ximending, a Good Place for an Evening Stroll (Taipei Trip Day 3)

Ximending (or Xi Meng-Ding) is located in Wanhua District. It is the first pedestrian shopping zone assigned in Taipei. We continued our trip to Ximending after Taipei 101. Ximending MRT Station is located between Taipei Main Station and Longshan Temple Station. Gate 6 of Ximending MRT Station led us to the pedestrian street area on our right, while the Red House of Ximen (some refer it as Ximen Red Theater) could be seen on our left on the other side of the road. We decided to start with the Red House of Ximen.

The Red House was build in 1908 as a public market. It was the first public market of its kind in Taiwan. Interesting facts- the market was designed by a western architect, Kondo Juro, from the local government department. The building has a very strong European influence with the main structure resembling a cross, connects to an octagonal entrance that resembling "ba-gua" design with a balance of yin-yang.

The Red House is now built with a theater, a shopping area, an exhibition area, with food stalls and bars at the surrounding area. We spent around 15 minutes to walk through the exhibition area. The information was massive, but mostly in the form of photos and articles. The shopping and food areas were not interesting for us.

We went back to the pedestrian shopping zone- the main attraction of Ximending. The pedestrian zone consists of several main streets which crisscross each others, with smaller alleys branching in between. To avoid getting lost, we used KFC at the junction of Emei Street and Watson Store at the junction of Wuchang Street as reference points.  

Compared to the night markets that we had visited the nights before (Huaxi and Raohe Night Markets), Ximending is filled mostly with shops and boutiques selling clothes, bags, wallets, souvenirs, IT gadgets, and several cinemas. Restaurants are aplenty but with lesser road side stalls around the area. There were several street artists performing as well. There was only one issue there- many signage were written in Mandarin only. We were not shopping materials, but amazingly spent almost 3 hours at Ximending. We found a low price souvenir shop there and took our dinner at a western buffet restaurant.

 The Red House of Ximending.

 The shopping area in the Red House.

6:30 pm, crowd was gathering at Ximending. Photo taken from the Red House. The MRT entrance can be seen on the opposite side of the street.

A panorama view of Ximending from the Red House. The photo is a little bit blur due to the low shutter speed. Please click the photo for a larger view.

There were many people there, especially at the main entrance to the pedestrian street (upper left). The pedestrian street (upper right), smaller alley (lower right), and the junction at Ximending. We can use the shops at the junction as the references, to avoid getting lost in the area.

We took our dinner at Ba-Fei Restaurant (upper left). The food were nice with reasonable price (upper and lower right). Once we ordered the main dishes, the soup, appetizers, side dishes, and drinks were served as buffet. By the way, we couldn't find the retaurant's English name. 

We bought some souvenirs with bargained price at Pingi (upper row), and tried the bitter gourd drink at San Xiong Mei (lower row).

Queueing is inevitable for some famous eateries in Ximending, but we didn't waste our time there. We rather choose the same food from other shop with shorter queue.

We left Ximending at around 10 pm. The crowd was still huge, and shops were still opening. Yes, it was Friday night, TGIF! It was an enjoyable experience strolling around Ximending, and we could easily spend whole evening there. Combining good variety, clean environment and nice walkway, it is a must visit place in Taipei.

Coming up next in our forth day itinerary- Yangmingshan National Park, Gugong Museum and Shilin Night Market.

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Thursday, May 26, 2016

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall and Taipei 101 (Taipei Trip Day 3)

Our third day in Taipei. Coming back from Yehliu Geopark in Manli District, we got off the bus at Taipei Tourism Bureau bus stop. The whole trip from Yehliu Geopark back to Taipei City took us around 1 hour. We took a short break at Burger King and continued our way to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall (or referred as National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall). 

Sun Yat-Sen is a well-known Chinese revolutionist. He played the key role in overthrowing Qing Dynasty and founded the Republic of China. Died in 1925, he was respected by the people in China and Taiwan. Three memorial halls had been built to commemorate his contribution, one in Taipei, one in Guangzhou China, and one more in Singapore.

To go to the memorial hall from Taipei Tourism Bureau bus stop, walk along the main road towards Taipei 101 direction. The memorial is located around 300 meters away, on the same side with the tourism bureau. The entrance is free, and the opening hours are from 9 am to 6 pm. 

The biggest attraction of the memorial hall is the hourly guard exchange ceremony. During our visit, the ceremony started at 3:55 pm. The 10-minute ceremony was performed by the guards of honour. The best place to see the whole ceremony is at front of the statue. However, we need to make sure that we are standing behind the restriction line (the red line). What is the area that will be covered by the red line? We got the information from the staff stationed in the hall, and stood at the "hot spot"- in front of the statue, just behind the red line, some 15 minutes before the ceremony started. The ceremony was interesting but not impressive (we found that the ceremony at Zhongzhen Memorial was better).

The memorial hall is a big building, with a big center hall houses a gigantic bronze statue of Sun Yat-Sen. Flanking on both sides are two smaller exhibition halls, souvenir shops, and function rooms. The compound of the memorial hall itself is a beautiful garden in the city. It is a good location to see Taipei 101 from a distance. In our opinion, unless you are a big fan of Sun Yat-Sen, the memorial hall should be visited together with other place of interest, or else could be quite boring there. We stayed there for 40 minutes. Taipei 101 was our next destination.


Taipei 101 Tower can be seen on our way to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall (upper left). Both landmarks are close to each other. Along the walkway, we saw rows of motorbikes (upper right) and bicycles (lower right). Some part of the walkway were covered and nicely decorated.

We entered Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall's compund through the side entrance (upper left). The compound is well decorated with stele (upper right), statues (lower right), and a lake.

We took a short stroll around the compound and reached the main entrance of the hall.

The statue of Sun Yat-Sen, guarded by two guards of honour from Taiwan Air Force. We over heard a tourist claimed that the guards must be wax-made statues.

A closer look on the guard. He didn't move a single muscle for one solid hour.

When the time came, the "wax statues" suddenly moved and marched around. All the visitors were required to stand behind the red line.

After the ceremony, we took a quick tour through the exhibition halls and went out to take photos of Taipei 101 Tower.


Another view of Taipei 101 from the memorial hall.

Then, we took a 10-minute walk to Taipei 101 Tower. Basically, we won't get lost in between as the tower is just nearby, and it is too tall to be hidden from our view.

At the top floor of the shopping mall, a long queue of visitors were waiting to go up to the observatory of Taipei 101 Tower. The entrance fee was NTD 500. We planned to go up initially, but didn't make it due to the hazy weather.

Taipei 101 is the tallest building in Taiwan, 438 meters tall, with sophisticated engineering work. For us, the mall is a nice place to chill down and take a break from the hot weather outside. There is a food court at the lowest level of the shopping mall serving various types of food, while the shopping area is basically resided by branded outlets. Unless you like branded products, or else it is not more than a tall buiding with a shopping mall in it like KLCC.

From Taipei 101 Station, we took MRT to Ximending and reached there at around 6 pm. We spend a few hours there and took a nice buffet dinner there. Follow us to Ximending now.

More about our experience in Taipei: 

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Friday, May 20, 2016

Yehliu Geopark (Taipei Trip Day 3)

Third day in Taipei, we visited Yehliu Geopark, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial, Taipei 101, and Ximending. You might be interested to read our experiences in Taipei Zoo, Maokong Mountain, and Raohe Night Market for our second day in Taipei.

Yehliu is located in Wanli District, around 40 km away from Taipei City. Going to Yehliu by bus is convenient. We reached ZhongXiao DunHua MRT Station at 9:15 am to catch the connecting bus (no 1815) to Yehliu.The bus stop is located a few steps away from exit 4. Well, with less than 5 minutes of waiting time plus 1 hour of road trip, we reached Yehliu bus stop. Pedestrian lane was prepared so it took us 10 minutes to get to the ticket counter of Yehliu Geopark.

Yehliu Geopark is well-known with strange-looking rocks formed by marine erosion. The special thing is, over millions of years, some of the rocks were actually shaped in the way that they resembled some objects, such as the queen rock, sandal rock (which is called as the fairy's shoe by locals), candle rock, ginger rock, dragon rock, and marine bird rock. Some of the rocks can be easily recognized by the distinct shapes, while others, strong imagination required.

The park entrance fee was NTD 80, opens from 8 am - 5 pm. Unlinke Yuntai Mountain Geopark in China with a lot of stairs to climb, it is easier to move around relatively flat Yehliu Geopark. The park is clean with clear signage, the wind was strong, and the view around the park is stunning. Restrooms and a food shack are available beside marine bird rock. 

Our advices, be early. The place can be very warm under blazing sun. There might be a long queue to take photo with the queen rock. Want to beat the queue? We can take photo at the other side of the rock, which looks about the same. Can't find the special rock? We can always ask the guard there (the guys with whistles with them), and they are more than happy to show us the location of the rock. The higher ground offers stunning view around the area, so do take some effort to climb up to the observatory platforms there. We strolled around the park from 11 am until 12:45 pm. We were lucky that day as the weather was not too warm.
Zhongxiao Dunhua Bus Stop is located a few steps away from gate 4 of the MRT station (upper left). The bus no. 1815 brought us from Taipei City (upper right) to sub-urban area (lower right). The bus was air-conditioned with LCD flatscreens providing entertainment to passengers.  The programme however was in Mandarin only.

Once get off the bus, what we need to do is to look for the signages and follow the pedestrian lane to Yehliu Geopark.

To return to Taipei City, we need to wait for the bus at the bus stop opposite of the road (upper left). The pedestrian walkway was painted in green (upper right). We passed by the harbor stuffed with fishing boats (lower right) before we reached the ticketing counter.

Souvenir shop, food corner, and restrooms are available in the visitor center (upper left). We can get a free copy of geopark map there. The walkway in front of the the visitor center leads to the park (upper right), and we can see the crowd moving around the cape (lower right). There is a stone garden on the right side of the entrance. All the stones exhibit are replicas. One of them is the replica of the panther rock, which was damaged by waves. Our advice, go straight to see the authentic stones first. Leave the replicas to the last as we are going to walk pass the garden on our way out of the park.

The mushroom stones from the observatory platform.

Most of the 1.7 km long cape of Yehliu is flat except a hill at the tip of the cape.

There were many visitors roaming around the area (upper left). The information about some special stones are provided in the park (upper right). Visitors are not supposed to go beyond the red line (lower left). Lifebuoy is prepared, just in case someone steps too far beyond the red line.

The layers of limestone can be clearly seen.

Candle rock (upper left), queen rock (upper right), ginger rock (lower right), and elephant rock are several famous rocks there.

Sandal rock or fairy's shoe rock (upper left), dragon rock (upper right), and bird rock (lower right) can be easily identified. Fossils are not difficult to be found on the ground.

The food shack marks the end of the flat land (upper left). Then, we need to climb stairs (upper and lower right) to the hill.

The tip of the cape can be clearly seen from the hill.

Town view from the hill. 

There is a hawker center beside the park (upper left and right). We bought some dried fish (lower right) and took our lunch at one of the eatery there. The price was reasonable.

After lunch with pork rice, unagi soup (eel), and fried oyster with egg, we went back to Taipei by bus. Again, we waited for 5 minutes only to get onto the right bus. Yehliu Geopark is a must visit place if you ever visit Taipei. You can find more information about Yeliu Geopark at the official website of the park. Next, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall and Taipei 101. 

More about our experience in Taipei: 



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