Taiwan: Taipei City Day

During our time in Taiwan, we spent one full day alone in the capital city: Taipei. We were lucky enough to be accompanied by family during the rest of our trip. It was fun exploring the city, and we only ran across a few challenges with the language barrier.

We used the subway as our main mode of transportation, which was very easy to navigate and extremely convenient. We visited Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall, Nan Men Market, National Taiwan University (my dad's alma mater), Gong Guan, Taipei 101, and rounded off the day at Din Tai Fung.  Here are some pictures to help tell the story of our day:

We woke up around 7am (hallelujah for jet lag not waking us up any earlier than that!), and were treated with a delicious breakfast at our uncle's apartment. We had soy bean milk and buns with different fillings.

A couple hours later, we set out on our adventure.

First stop, more food. Really, a mid morning snack. On our way to the subway, we stumbled across this little eatery, and decided to sit down and order. We also asked directions, because we were totally walking in the wrong direction to the subway station. Win-Win! It's hard to tell, but it felt about 100 degrees here. We came prepared with extra clothing. Let's be real. After walking around for an hour, we were already dripping with sweat, so we knew by the end of the day, it was going to be bad.

In retrospect, Taiwan heat in early June does not compare to August in Texas. Either way, drink water, people! :)

Turnip cake (one of my FAVORITES!), and some kind of green onion pancake tortilla with egg and turkey.

The first of many selfies of the day.

We successfully made it to the subway and got on the right train. 

First stop, Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall. We visited the memorial grounds and watched the changing of the guards.

Afterwards, we walked a few blocks to Nan Men market, an indoor market that sold produce, meat, as well as prepared food.

For lunch, we knew we wanted to go to a restaurant that my uncle recommended. Most anything that is worth eating here is served at an open air restaurant. They serve no drinks, and there is no AC. 

This place was known for their braised pork rice. Basically, very fatty pork pieces with the most delicious gravy and rice. Yes, I picked off all the fat pieces, and just ate the rice, but that just left more for Aaron. 

It was packed with people, and we shared a long table with 5 other guests. We sat down and were handed this:

No, Aaron and I don't read Chinese. At least, not really. On this piece of paper I recognize the characters big, middle, small, people.  I can also read the numbers. I think Aaron could read vegetable and meat, but we used as many context clues as we could before we gave in and asked the sweet girl sitting in front of us to help us. She was wearing a student uniform, so she was probably there on her lunch break. We successfully ordered exactly what we wanted, so our mission was accomplished.

We shared everything along the way, so we could eat more of a variety of food.

Our next stop of the day was National Taiwan University and Gong Guan (the neighborhood surrounding the school). First, we walked around Gong Guan looking for the sweet icy frog drink, and also stopping for a quick snack. Then we rented bikes and rode around the campus. U Bikes are all around the city, and super easy to rent. It is incredibly inexpensive, and truly a steal. 

Eventually, we consulted a map and went to look for my dad's old chemical engineering building. We walked around inside, and it reminded me a lot of the buildings at LSU. Overall, the campus was great. It was very bike and pedestrian friendly. Lots of 7-11s and places to eat.

Our next to last stop of the day was at Taipei 101. Taipei 101 stood as the world's tallest building from 2004-2010, and it has 101 stories. The first 5 floors consists of a luxurious retail mall, and the rest are offices, some restaurants, and observatory decks. We have been to the mall before, but this time, we decided to go all the way up to the top floor observatory deck. The area reminded me of the Space Needle in Seattle. We spent the next hour exploring and taking photos.

This is a wind dapper, also known as a tuned mass dapper. It hangs from the 92nd to the 87th floor, and it keeps the building balanced. It shifts and sways when there are heavy gusts of wind or typhoons. The idea is to keep the building upright and prevent structural damage.

Finally-our last stop of the day. The original Din Tai Fung. Home of the soup dumpling. We met my mom's best friend, our Aunt Tammy, and her son for dinner and dessert. It was fun to catch up, and it was a nice way to finish our day.

Mango shaved ice. Very delicious!

Very thankful we had such a great day exploring Taipei. I have 3 more days of stories and pictures to share from Taiwan. Thank ya'll for sticking with me through this long debriefing session!