This is going to be one looooong post, so bear with me.
Taipei Train Station
This is where you'd come if you're the average consumer. Behind the Taipei Train Station is one of the best places to just browse. There are two underground shopping streets, lots of departmental stores, and stationery stores (my favourite!)
I only had an hour (which was NOT enough at all) so I really only went to a couple of stores. Daiso, a Japanese discount store, that's basically the equivalent to our Dollarama. The line at the cashier was just too long and there were too much pink/cuteness.
Right across from Daiso was this two-metered Gundam model. I believe the coolness factor just went up. There were actually three of them, but I liked this one the best. So much so I risked looking like a total tourist and snapped pictures.
I also went into Muji. It's a high caliber Japanese store known for their "no name" branding. They are supposed to be all about design. While I find the lack of colour in their stuff a little uncomfortable, I am in love with their "organization" section. Look at that wall with containers/organizers of every size imaginable all stacked up so nice and neat. Isn't it just a beautiful sight?
Sidenote: Since convenience stores like 7-11 are everywhere in Taiwan, there's always some sort of promotion going on, which usually involve collecting limited figurines/toys. To get the toy, you have to first collect an x number of stickers. And you can get a sticker for an x amount of dollars spent. Spend=>stickers=>toy. Get it?
People can get pretty crazy with the collecting especially since you can't ask the store for a specific toy to complete your collection. So there's a huge black market trading these stuff.
I actually started collecting during the trip not because I wanted the toy (it would have been nice, but highly unlikely since you need 30 stickers to get a toy and I only had three after two weeks), but rather the stickers. There were five available and each is a character from Doraemon, a Japanese comic I loved when I was younger. You really don't need to spend a lot of money to get a sticker. A $2 Cdn purchase would get you a sticker. I just didn't buy stuff from the convenience store on a regular basis. All I wanted was a complete set, and this is why I was so mad at my dad. He had a TON of stickers and he gave them all away while I, his own flesh and blood, just needed two more to complete my set!!!
Yep, that collection frenzy really gets you when you least expect it. Bravo, advertising company that thought up this scheme, bravo!
P.S. by the very end of my trip, I was still one shy of a full set, but I guess that's life.
CKS Memorial
This is one of the "it" tourist spots in Taiwan. CKS (short for "Chiang Kai-shek") was Taiwan's first president.
Left: one of the side entrances.
Right: the main entrance is in the distance. The two adjacent buildings are the National Theatre and the National Concert Hall. Gloomy day, hence the lack of tourists.
I think this is the National Theatre. Truth be told, I've never been in it, but if the inside is anything like the outside, it should be pretty spectacular.
The park surrounding the theatre. One of my favourite things to do as a kid was to come here and feed the fish.
They have special vending machines that sell carp food (even the machine is shaped like a carp). These tended to break a lot when I was young. I think people liked to mess with them.
Look at all those fat-looking carp. On average, they're about the size of a large loaf of French bread. These fish are super spoiled. Unfortunately, the park people have to replenish the carp every now and then because people tend to release other fish (the blackish looking ones in the picture) in the pond that out-competes and eventually, wipe out the carp.
National Palace MuseumAnother "must see" destination. It houses so much historical artifacts and artwork that only a small fraction is displayed at a single time.
Things that I found to be really awesome:
1. The Qing-dynasty ceramic work. Because Qing was the very last dynasty, the cermaic techniques at that point is extremely refined. The details of the craftsmanship, unbelievable! There are vases with hundreds of painted birds, deer, butterflies, no two are even the same.
2. Curio cabinets. It's what royalty kept their treasures and collections. It's common for them to have secret compartments and neat little mechanisms to unlock certain features. Really ingenious work.
3. Miniature tusk carvings. The things the artisans made using elephant tusks. Balls that have moving layers but no seams. Miniature food baskets no bigger than a stack of 5 pennies complete with meals inside and utensils.
On the way out, I came across a stamping station, something that's really common in tourist destinations. Basically, stamps are available for your perusal as a form of keepsake. The stamps are unique per destination. I had a lot of fun tracking them down and adding to my little book. I wish we have something similar here.
"Gold Melon Rock" and JiuFen
When I read that the spirit town in Miyazaki's "Spirit Away" was based on an actual town in Taiwan, of course I had to go there. To get there, we had to take a special express bus. Look at my seat pass. Cute, no? Only in Taiwan.
The bus took us by the sea into the moutains.
We went to "Gold Melon Rock" first, which is a little further than JiuFen. It used to be a gold mine back in the Japanese colonial days. So lots of Japanese influences in the buildings.
We visited a renovated Japanese-styled duplex. Meant for three families, the renovation knocked through the walls, connecting all three units. This way, they allowed us to see what it was like inside when the Japanese were residing versus the nationalists later on.
 |
| Japanese-styled interior. | | |
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| Nationalists-styled interior. |
Left: pathway leading up to the gold museum.
Right: gold grasshoppers exhibit.
I got to touch a 220 kg gold brick (worth about $8 million Cdn, crazy)
Lovely pictures from JiuFen. The winding roads and steps past all the busy vendors, the red lanterns. They do make you feel like you're in another time. At night, once the lanterns are lit, I bet it's another scene altogether. It might even be a little spooky when the fog start to come in. Perfect setting for a ghost story.
Right across from Daiso was this two-metered Gundam model. I believe the coolness factor just went up. There were actually three of them, but I liked this one the best. So much so I risked looking like a total tourist and snapped pictures. 
This is one of the "it" tourist spots in Taiwan. CKS (short for "Chiang Kai-shek") was Taiwan's first president.
I think this is the National Theatre. Truth be told, I've never been in it, but if the inside is anything like the outside, it should be pretty spectacular.
They have special vending machines that sell carp food (even the machine is shaped like a carp). These tended to break a lot when I was young. I think people liked to mess with them. 
National Palace Museum
1. The Qing-dynasty ceramic work. Because Qing was the very last dynasty, the cermaic techniques at that point is extremely refined. The details of the craftsmanship, unbelievable! There are vases with hundreds of painted birds, deer, butterflies, no two are even the same.
3. Miniature tusk carvings. The things the artisans made using elephant tusks. Balls that have moving layers but no seams. Miniature food baskets no bigger than a stack of 5 pennies complete with meals inside and utensils.
"Gold Melon Rock" and JiuFen
When I read that the spirit town in Miyazaki's "Spirit Away" was based on an actual town in Taiwan, of course I had to go there. To get there, we had to take a special express bus. Look at my seat pass. Cute, no? Only in Taiwan.
We visited a renovated Japanese-styled duplex. Meant for three families, the renovation knocked through the walls, connecting all three units. This way, they allowed us to see what it was like inside when the Japanese were residing versus the nationalists later on. 
Left: pathway leading up to the gold museum.
These bell-shaped cakes were all the rage once-upon-a-time in Taiwan. They were so popular that people were issued pagers to let them know when their order would be ready. They're filled with custardy-goodness. Supposedly even better when frozen but every single of of them was eaten so I didn't get a chance to test that rumour (okay, I confess that I ate two while everyone else just ate one. They were just so warm and delicious, I couldn't help myself).
The most famous dumplings store in Taiwan/East Asia (It has its own Wiki page!!!). I mean, look at the picture, the dumpling is the store mascot, for goodness' sake!
More pictures of what we ordered.
Maokong is a really popular destination for night-crawlers. It's best known for its tea and great view of the Taipei city at night. It's one of those experiences every Taipei person should have had in their younger days. Because it's in the mountains, the easiest way up nowadays is to take the gondola. After the gondola ride in Zhangjiajie, this ride was a breeze. 
But I can see what everyone is talking about. Even during the day, the view was great. You can even see Taipei101 in the really far distance. The nightscape, I imagine, should be pretty spectacular.
And then, 10 steps away, I bumped into this guy - the largest "beckoning cat" I've ever seen. Of course I had to take another picture. 
Taipei 101
So, here's something really neat that my parents pointed out to me. To wish for good fortune (i.e. customers), all the stores burn paper money to the gods on a specific day (I want to say the 15th?) every month. It's all based on the lunar calendar, of course. It was strange seeing a table full of offerings, incense, and whatnots right in front of an advertisement for Gucci. Well, I'm glad there are people who are still keeping these traditions alive. 
A ceramic town turned tourist destination. The entire old ceramic district has been renovated since the last time I visited. The roads are nicer and the storefronts more uniformed, all without losing that old town charm.
All I can say is that the pictures here are not really doing it justice. It's like a forested Grand Canyon.
We took the elevator down the mountain. 300 stories, according to the elevator display. Because there were so many people waiting, they really squeezed as many people as possible per elevator. As a result, I wasn't too scared on the way down simply because the whole thing was just too funny. Or maybe it was because the oxygen was running out. Either way, we landed safe and sound.
This tower is also a member of the Four Towers of China. I don't know too much about it except that it was built as a vantage point in a time of war back in the Three Kingdom period. The three stories represent the sky, the person, and the earth. The "tomb" (quotation marks because it doesn't hold the actual body) of a well-known beauty of that period is located near this tower. 
