Saturday, June 25, 2016

Staying Around Longshan MRT Area, Taipei

Longshan Temple (龙山寺) and its surrounding area, according to some tourism websites, was dull, not lively, lack of night life, and full with older citizens. Well, we found a more appropriate description- it was more traditional and peaceful. And, we couldn't deny an important fact- it is still in the heart of Taipei. 

We stayed in Longshan Hotel (龙山商旅) located right behind Longshan Temple. It was small, but clean, tidy and nicely decorated room, filled with enough amenity for a comfortable stay. The staff were friendly, talkative, and indeed resourceful. Their information were very useful, from food to weather.

The hotel is just 5 minutes away from Longshan MRT Station by foot, and 10 minutes away from Wanhua Train Station. Plus, 3 minutes away from night markets at Mengxia area, one MRT station away from Ximending, it is indeed a good place to stay. By the way, there is a small garden in front of Longshan Temple where senior citizens gather to play chess, drink tea, chit chat, and sometimes, to take a nap. We had been staying in the same hotel for 6 days and 5 nights.

We visited Mengxia Night Market and Huaxi Night Market nearby our hotel on the first day. Day 2, we visited Taipei Zoo, Maokong Mountain via Maokong Gondola, and Rauhe Night Market . Day 3, Yehliu Geopark, Sun-Yatsen Memorial Hall, Taipei 101, and Ximending. Day 4, Yangming Shan National Park, Shilin Night Market and National Palace Museum. Day 5, Jinguashi, Jiufen, and Zhongzheng Memorial Hall, and Day 6, we strolled around Longshan area before we departed to Taoyuan International Airport.

Longshan Hotel can be reached through the alley between Longshan Temple (wall on the right) and shop lot.

The entrance of Longshan Hotel (upper left) leads to the small lobby (upper right). The room is small with comfortable bed, kettle, complementary coffee and tea, hair drier (lower right), LCD flatscreen, mini fridge, and water heater in the bathroom.

This is what we can see from our window.

Longshan Temple is the center of the area. It is an old temple built around 270 years ago by settlers from China. It is a very popular place of worship in that area, but for us, it is just an old temple, without much significant attraction.
 
Longshan Temple attracts many visitors, but the night markets beside Longshan Temple are stronger tourist magnets. Mengxia Night Market and Huaxi Night Market are just at the opposite site of the road, left to the temple (if you are facing the temple).

Facing the temple, turn right and walk for 100 meters along Guangzhou Street, we will see a few rows of old shop lots, named Bo-Pi-Liao (剥皮僚) (Upper row). These are the old buildings built in Qing Dynasty. The area around Longshan Temple are peaceful (lower row). 

Food, souvenirs, clothes, local delicacies are the main items sold at the pedestrian streets around the area.

For food, we have plenty of choices- from giant international fast food chain (upper left), hundreds of choices along the pedestrian streets and night markets (upper right and lower right), to the delicacies available in convenient shops and supermarkets. We really need not worry about what or where to eat. By the way, we bought some local delicacies with really bargained price at Carrefour Hypermarket, which by foot, just 15 minutes away from our hotel. For the market and stalls, the food were mostly sold at NTD 50 - 150 per portion, while the food sold in the shops were more expensive (could up to NTD 300 per portion). 

 Nice street food are aplenty during the day time, but we need to get them in the street away from the main roads.

Another advantage of staying in Longshan area- less people in MRT station. This photo was taken at rush hour, and we can see the station was quite empty. Longshan MRT Station is located on Blue Line.

Staying at Longshan MRT area doesn't mean we are staying at old men's land in Taipei. Instead, it is a nice place to stay if we don't really wish to feel the hustle-bustle of this metropolitan right outside of our hotel. With MRT, it is indeed easy for us to travel around Taipei. Located on Blue Line, the interchange stations to Green Line (Taipei Main Station) and Brown Line (Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT Station) are just a few stations away. The fare for the public transportation in Taipei was cheap, while taxi charge was reasonable as well. However, due to the good coverage and high frequency, we used the public transports all the time in Taipei (even to Yehliu Geopark, Yangmingshan National Park, and Ruifang).

6-day-5-night trip to Taipei promises great experiences. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our friends and family, including our parents, Chin Yee, Boon Ling, Lian Huai, Livien, Bryant, Katty, Jenny, Kelly, LS's colleagues Dr. Chong, Ms. Chong, and many more who had shared their precious experience with us. We would like to thank Hui Hwa for bringing us for a night of food hunting in Taipei. Last but not least, all the good staff at Longshan Hotel for their advices from locals' perspective. You all had made our trip a wonderful and memorable one.

More about our experience in Taipei: 

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Zhongzheng Memorial Hall (Taipei Trip Day 5)

Back to Taipei from Jiufen and Jinguashi at Ruifang, we headed to our next destination- Zhongzheng Memorial Hall (中正纪念堂). Zhongzheng Memorial Hall or Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall was built to commemorate Chiang Kai-shek, former president of the Republic of China. He was the first president of Taiwan as well. The memorial hall is much more larger than Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall that we visited few days ago.

The memorial hall was build with octagonal shape, representing prosperity, while staircase with 89 steps represent the age of the leader. The memorial hall is located at Zhongzheng area in Taipei. We took MRT to Zhongzheng Memorial Station, gate 5 led us right to the compound of the memorial hall. The entrance was free, but we need to climb the stairs to the hall installed a huge bronze Chiang Kai-Shek statue at the top level. Several exhibition halls were located at the lower levels. The honour guards changing ceremony was held hourly. During our visit, the last round of ceremony was held around 4:55 till 5:05 pm. Many visitors were there, but it was not squeezy as the hall was large.

The arch in front of the memorial hall was previously named Dazhong Zhizheng (大中至正) or Impartial and Rightous. However, the name was changed to Ziyou Guangchang (自由广场) or Liberty Square in 2007 by the government led by Chenshuibien. We took this photo at the middle of the square, with the memorial hall behind us.

 Zhongzheng Memorial Hall is a big white square building with blue octagonal roof. 
 We need to conquer stairs before reaching the main hall.

The Liberty Square from Zhongzheng Memorial Hall. We can see the National Concert Hall on the right and the National Theater on the left.

A closer look on the National Concert Hall.


National Theater looks similar in design as National Concert Hall.
 The honour guards changing ceremony was more interesting compared to the one in Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.

We took a quick tour to the lower levels of the memorial hall, which a series of exhibitions were housed. Some of the personal items used by Chiang Kai-Shek was displayed. These exhibition halls had more items to display compared to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.

No doubt, Zhongzheng Memorial Hall was the biggest Memorial Hall that we had ever visited. It is a big structure, with beautiful garden within the compound. It will make our visit more interesting if we can do some research and prior reading on Chiang Kai-shek, the person who this big-white structure was built for. The guard changing ceremony was interesting, and we believed the ceremony and performance were the main attraction there. Is it a must visit site in Taipei? No, unless you know Chiang Kai-shek and the history of China-Taiwan. If you wish to watch the guard changing ceremony, then Zhongzheng Memorial Hall is a right place for you. 

We stayed in the hall for around 1 hour. We then went down town to Eslite 24 Hour Bookstore before having dinner at Du Xiao Yue Restaurant with our friend. Both Eslite Bookstore and Du Xiao Yue Restaurant were not far away from Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT Station.

Du Xiao Yue was famous with Southern Taiwanese food (upper left). We tried several dishes, including the famous noodle (upper right), the oyster (lower right), and some fried snacks. The food there was nice with reasonable price. The restaurant was popular and we had to queue for a while to get an empty table.

After dinner, we went to Dong Qu Fen Yuan for dessert. Fen yuan is made by tapioca, red bean, pumpkin and other plant-based ingredients, prepared in chewable way. It was special and tasted good.

We strolled around Mengxia Night Market again before we went back to our hotel. We took our opportunity to try onion pancake, and the taste was like roti canai in Malaysia and roti prata in Singapore. On day 6, we strolled around Mengxia streets and found a good place to buy souvenirs. Stay with us.

More about our experience in Taipei:


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Sunday, June 19, 2016

Jiufen and Jinguashi, Two Old Mining Towns Near Taipei (Taipei Trip Day 5)

Jiufen (九份) is a little town in Ruifang (瑞芳) District. "Jiufen" means "nine portion". During Qing Dynasty, there were only nine families stayed in the village. Whenever the shipment arrived, the representative would request for "nine portion" to be brought back to the village. That's how Jiufen got her name.

Located on mountainous area, Jiufen developed into a mining town due to the gold rush in 1890s, and reached its peak during Japanese occupation. After the gold mining operation stopped in 1971, the town declined. The town again becoming the focus of tourists because of the movie "A City of Sadness" and anime "Spirit Away". We couldn't tell how true it was, but what we knew for sure- Jiufen was a small old town jammed by massive tourists.

Day 5 in Taipei, we departed to Ruifang from Wanhua Train Station. We were lucky to stay in a hotel around Longshan Temple in Taipei, where Wanhua Train Station was just 10 minutes away by foot. It was 8:30 am. Early trip promised comfort, quiet, and most importantly, plenty of seats. The train trip to Ruifang took around 60 minutes. After breakfast at Ruifang, we decided to visit Jinguashi (金瓜石) first. The taxi from Ruifang to Jinguashi took 20 minutes with fixed fare of NTD 270. The traffic was light in the morning.

Jinguashi is another old mining town developed during the gold rush era. We had only one place in our must visit list there- The Gold Mine Museum (黄金博物馆). The entrance to the museum was free, but we had to spend NTD 50 to enter Benshan （本山） mining tunnel 5. The museum opens from 9:30 am till 5 pm, and will be extended to 6 pm on holiday.

Wanhua Station was quiet on early Sunday morning (upper left). There were plenty of seat in the train (upper right). The train system is a bit different from the MRT. We can see there is no screen between the platform and the railway (lower right). We knew Ruifang Station was old by just looking at the buidling style of the station.

Looking out from the main entrance of Ruifang Station, we could see a line of yellow taxis awaiting for the customers (upper left). The taxi was running with fixed fare. In case of travelling by bus, we need to cross the road in front of the station (upper right), turned left and walked straight for a few minutes to reach the bus stop. We took our breakfast at one of the coffee shop nearby the taxi station- Yonghe Soybean Milk (永和豆浆）(lower right). The soybean milk was concentrated, while the tangbao (汤包) or the bun with soup inside was one of the best we had ever tried.

The old (upper left) and the new bus stop of Jinguashi (upper right) is located side by side to each other. The building of the old bus stop is now used as the tourist information center of the museum (lower right). The staff in the tourist information center were friendly and gave us a short briefing on what to see around the area.

Located beside the tourist information center, siliandong (四连栋) was the first building that we visited. It was in fact a terrace of four houses built in Japanese style. It was the old quarter for the high rank officers.

The terrace house was restored according to its original plan. The yard (upper left), underground tunnel (upper right), dining room (lower right), and bedroom were rebuilt according to the Japanese design.

Next to the terrace house is a square. The square is surrounded by the museum administration office, an old gold refining building, and a cafe. There is a staircase that lead to the second level of the museum- the Gold Building and mining tunnel 5.

The statue at the second level of the museum.

There are several gigantic air compressors exhibited around the 2nd level area (upper left), used to provide fresh air to the miners deep under the ground. The 200 kg gold bar exhibited in the Gold Building (upper right). It is the highlight and the main attraction of the museum. We had the opportunity to walk into a mining tunnel (lower right), with some models placed to reflect the working condition inside the tunnel.

For a better experience, visit the Gold Building first before jump into the mining tunnel. The exit of the mining tunnel is a distance away from the entrance, so try not to leave anything behind at the entrance. The museum is unique as the exhibits are scattered across a wide area. The visitors are exposed to natural elements. We would advise to bring an umbrella with you, just in case of raining. We need to walk a lot in the museum area, and the tunnel walk is very slippery, thus non-slippery footwear is the best. Food and drinks can be purchased in the museum area. We spent around 1 hour and 30 minutes in the museum. 

There are more places in Jinguashi such as the Japanese shrine at the third level of the museum, the Golden Waterfall, and the POW Memorial. All these places are not far from the Gold Museum, so you may visit them if you have time to spare. More information about Jinguashi can be found at Formosa Guide.

We were hinted by the taxi driver to return to Jiufen by bus. He told us that all the buses that going towards Ruifang direction would reach Jiufen. The frequency of bus was high, so it was not worth to take taxi from Jinguashi to Jiufen. We waited for less than 1 minute for the bus and 10 minutes we took to reach Jiufen.
Jiufen bus stop is located near to the Jiufen Old Street (upper left). The main road was narrow and it required experienced driver to drive the big bulky bus through the sharp corners (upper right). The entrance of the old street can be easily located by the gathering visitors (lower right). The old street is in fact a few feet wide walking path with stalls and shops on both sides.

This is the entrance of the old street.

We can see from here that the old street is narrow, and can be stuffy and squeezy with many people moving around the area.

We tried some food which were highly recommended by several food bloggers- the meat balls with soup (upper row), and the yam and beans dessert (lower row). Frankly, we tried the meatballs at two different stalls and found nothing special about the meatballs. Yam and beans dessert was special, but taste wise, just average.

We found the ice-cream wrap (upper row) and the red fermented meat wrap (lower row) were special, and tasted good.

The deeper we went into the street, the lesser the visitors we found on the street. 

Nice view over the small town can be seen at a few locations along the old street.

End of the old street marks the beginning of another journey into another part of the town. We could see a few beautiful coffee houses afar.

Jiufen no doubt is a peaceful old town. The terrace of houses built along the sloppy green mountain promises stunning view. We can choose to squeeze around with hundreds of visitors at the old street, or to escape into a quiet and peaceful zone far away from the old street. For us, we found the old street was indeed another version of night market in Taipei- food, drinks, souvenirs, clothes, and massive crowd. There were lack of attraction that we could really see the life of the people during the gold rush era (or maybe we didn't notice their presence). Claimed as a settlement since Qing Dynasty, the relics from Qing Dynasty could not be found as well. Personally, we found Jinguashi was more attractive than Jiufen, and we should have spend more time there.

We went back to Ruifang Train Station by taxi with fixed fare NTD 205. 3:30 pm, we hooped onto the train to Taipei. Our next stop- Zhongzhen Memorial Hall. Stay with us.

More about our experience in Taipei: 


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