Taiwan Day 6: Taipei

Our last day in Taiwan was as jam packed as the rest of our trip. We had another delicious breakfast at John and Julie's apartment. We ate pork buns that Julie had purchased the night before at a convenience store in the freezer department. I wish they had the selection of filled buns in the U.S. that they do in Taiwan. We also had guava juice, wax apples, tangerines, and custard apples/Buddha's head, my favorite fruit (although the passionfruit I had at lunch (see below) is almost as good but tastes entirely different).


L-R: Pork Buns, Tangerines, Asian Pears, Custard Apple/Buddha's Head, Jujubes, Wax Apples

We headed to the National Palace Museum for the English-speaking group tour at 10 AM. The National Palace Museum holds many items from the Sung, Yuan, Ming, and Ch'ing dynasties. The items were sent from China to Taiwan in 1948 when the political instability caused by the Communists made the museum's directors fear for the items' safety. The items range in date from thousands of years old to 100-200 years old. It is clear that the ancient Chinese were far more advanced than Westerners by looking at the items. One interesting item was a cauldron made around 1000 B.C. In the basin is about 500 characters; they have been very useful to scholars as an example of ancient writing. Also interesting is the Tsung-Chou Bell, made around 1000 B.C. It is a large bell with no ball inside. It was rung by hitting it with some external mallet. It also has numerous knobs on the front which was apparently used to produce different sounds. Our guide said that the bell can produce two different sounds. Modern scholars have been unable to reproduce a bell that can make the same sounds. During the Ch'ing dyansty (1644-1911), jade was carved into a piece of bok choy cabbage with two grasshoppers on to. It is believed that the piece was carved as a dowry gift for Consort Chin to symbolize her purity and offer blessings for many children. Scott's favorite piece in the museum's collection is the Carved Olive-Stone Boat. In 1737, Ch'en Tsu-Chang used a tiny olive pit, not more than an inch and a half long to carve a boat. The boat is unbelievably detailed, with eight detailed people carved onto the boat. Also, the entire text of a poem with more than 300 characters is carved onto the olive pit in miniscule print. A magnifying glass is provded to look at the olive pit. We stayed at the museum for about 2 hours. We easily could have stayed there all day and not seen everything, but there was much else we wanted to do.


Mao-Kung Ting Cauldron (Picture From NPM)

Tsung-Chou Bell (Picture From NPM)

Jade Bok Choy & Insects (Picture From NPM)

Carved Olive Pit (Picture From NPM)

Front of National Palace Museum


We left the museum and drove into downtown Taipei. This is a thoroughly urban area with many tall buildings. It is filled with fancy department stores. We walked through a Japanese department store, Mitsukoshi, that seemed to fill an entire block, although I'm sure it wasn't really that large. We headed toward the restaurant where John had made reservations for lunch. Jogoya is a buffet restaurant with numerous locations around Taiwan; this one located in a mall near Taipei 101. It has a vast array of Chinese and Japanese food. Like most buffets, I doubt the dishes were the quintessential versions of Chinese cuisine, but I thought the food tasted very good. Most importantly, it enabled me to try a lot of different varieties of food. I liked nearly all the dishes. The following are pictures of most of the food we ate.


L-R: Lamp Chop w/Black Pepper Sauce, Southeast Asian Pork, Miso Baked Fish, Thai Style Scallops, Pumpkin Seafood Tofu Stew (Delicious), Garlic Crab, Burning Paste Shrimp

L-R: Fried Shrimp Roll, Turnip Cake, Fried Chinese Yam, Fried Gold Durian (a smelly fruit), Salmon Nigiri

Crab Soup - Really good.

Fried Shrimp Balls - Cute, but not much flavor

Grilled Bamboo - Kind of bitter

Hand Roll w/Shrimp & Asparagus

Tuna Sashimi, Salmon Sashimi, Tomatoes, Pickled Fruit

Pork Filled Dumplings

Clay Pot w/Pork, Beef, and Squid

Open-Mouthed Sea Bass - Very good

Dessert: Chocolate Fondue w/ Marshmallows, Fruit, Macadamia Nut & Chocolate Ice Cream, Japanese Pancake W/ Cream & Red Bean Paste Filling (Yum!); Passionfruit; Rock Chocolate (Chocolate w/cornflakes, I think)

Passion Fruit - Delicious!

At the fondue area, they offered three items to dip in the chocolate: marshmallows, red grapes, and cherry tomatoes! Of all the different dishes I saw at Jogoya, the only thing that I could not get my head around was dipping cherry tomatoes in chocolate. Fish chin, I happily ate...but I could not eat cherry tomatoes and chocolate. It may actually taste good, but the two just don't seem to go together.

After our enormous lunch we walked over to the mall at the base of Taipei 101. On the way, I was excited to see a large sign for Coldstone Creamery. I went inside to see if it was any different. Other than featuring less chocolate-themed ice cream creations, it was basically the same. Even the offered toppings were the same. There was also a cute Snoopy Metlife ferris wheel and a replica of the Statue of Liberty. The Taipei 101 mall was lots of fun. We spent a few hours looking around. It was largely filled with designer shops that were prohibitively expensive. There was Tiffany's, DKNY, D&G, Prada, Gucci, Escada, Louis Vuitton, etc. I think clothes were more expensive there than in the U.S. (based on a comparison of a shirt from Armani Exchange). They also had a large English/Chinese bookstore that I happily looked around. We spent so much time in the mall both because I love looking at expensive clothes and purses (and books of course), but also because Scott wanted to wait until dark to go to the observatory.








Taipei 101

After dark, we ascended to the 89th floor of Taipei 101 to see the sights of Taipei in the interior observatory. Taipei 101 is a 101-floor skyscraper opened in 2004. It is currently the tallest building in the world, but will be eclipsed by a 141-floor building in Dubai in September 2009. It was the first building to be taller than a half-kilometer. Its height is listed as 1,667 feet (Comparison: There are 5,280 feet in a mile). It is designed to resist wind gusts of 60 miles/second and the strongest earthquake in a 2,500 year pattern. The building has a 728 ton tuned mass damper suspended from the 88th floor to the 92 floor designed to offset building movements caused by wind gusts. It is the largest damper in the world. Taipei 101 capitalizes on the damper by having its own mascot, the "Damper Baby." The elevator to the observatory is the fastest in the world. It took us from the 5th floor to the 89th floor in only 37 seconds. We spent a lot of time walking around the observatory listening to free audio guides that told us about the sights of Taipei that we were seeing. I was sad that we couldn't really see the city due to the darkness.










The Mass Tuned Damper

Me and Julie with the Damper Baby

Scott and John with the Damper Baby


To leave the observatory, we had to pass through numerous shops, selling food gifts and jewelry. We fell prey. Scott bought several boxes of cakes to take to work - they had samples of all the different flavors - quite good. And I found a gorgeous necklace of pink coral with a little jade. Taiwan is apparently known for its coral - the shop made sure we were aware of this. I was just happy to find a pretty necklace that ended up being inexpensive with the exchange rate and a little bargaining by John. After spending a long time in the jewelry shops, we headed back down to the main floors and left Taipei 101.

It was getting late by this point, but I really wanted to do one more thing in Taiwan - go to a big grocery store. So we went to one of their large supermarkets called Carrefour. Essentially a combination of a grocery store and a Walmart, this had everything a household could need. We bought a few pairs of house shoes and sandals for about $3 US each. Scott found a backpack for about $5 US. I also found a packet of chopsticks as well as a portable pair of chopsticks that I can fold up in put in my lunchbox for less than $2 each. We did not get to the grocery store portion of the supermarket until just before it closed at 11 PM, so many things had been removed, but I saw the vast array of fruits and vegetables in the produce section. Not surprisingly, they also had a much larger selection of fish than any store in the U.S. After finishing our shopping, we headed back to Julie and John's apartment for the night.

Hong Kong

Our flight to Hong Kong left at 7:40 AM. We got up at 4:30 AM to get to the airport on time. We didn't go to bed until about 1 AM the night before, so we were all quite tired. Our final Taiwanese breakfast was something John put together quickly, but was still delicious: wheat buns eaten with dried fish powder, buns with taro filling, wax apples, jujubes, tangerines, and Asian pears.
Our flight to Hong Kong was uneventful. I slept most of the way. The only high point was breakfast. We had fruit juice, a warm roll, and noodles with egg and ham. It was quite tasty. From the Hong Kong airport, we took a shuttle to our hotel, the Marriott Hong Kong Sky City hotel. The hotel was practically within walking distance of the airport. It just opened the week before. One of the benefits of a newly opened hotel is that the staff are falling over themselves to help you. We checked in early - around 10 AM, so they did not have the room we'd reserved available. To "help" us, the staffer put us into a deluxe suite on the top floor. Our suite had two rooms and two bathrooms! The bathroom in the living room had a toilet and sink - a powder room. The living room had a couch and some comfortable chairs with a flat screen TV. The bedroom had a king-sized bed and another flat screen TV. The bathroom had a bathtub and a shower. The shower had two heads: one conventional shower-head and one located on the ceiling above the shower. Everything in the room was high quality furnishings. The room also had a beautiful view of the harbor.

After freshening up, we took the MTR to Hong Kong station. Directly next to the station is the International Financial Center (IFC). The IFC consists of two skyscrapers and a mall filled with designer shops. The 2IFC is the tallest building in Hong Kong and the seventh-tallest building in the world. It is 415 meters tall and has 88 stories. In the IFC mall, we saw my favorite London sandwich shop, Pret a Manger. I insisted that we eat lunch there. I had a smoked salmon & rocket (arugula) sandwich and Scott had a Swedish meatball wrap. We also had a mango/passion-fruit smoothie and a package of chocolate chunk cookies. We both thought it was a good lunch. Scott approved of my love for Pret a Manger.



After lunch, we walked from the IFC to the Peak Tram station. We walked through Hong Kong's financial district. Next to the IFC is Exchange Square, home to the Hong Kong stock exchange and an impressive-looking building. Down the street is the HSBC building. Built in the 1980s, it is notable, because it has no internal support structure. It is supported by five exterior steel modules. Inside it is very open. You can see to the top of the building from the base.

L: The Exchange Building on the left, 2IFC on the right; R: HSBC Building

The Peak Tram station has a large cable car that takes passengers to Victoria Peak. The Peak is the highest mountain on Hong Kong island, at 1,810 feet. In the late 1800s, the Peak area became a popular place for wealthy British residents to build their homes. The path up the peak was so steep, that it could only be traversed by sedan chairs carried by local Chinese residents. The Peak Tram opened in 1888. It is a large cable car, holding up to 120 people, that runs on a 1300 meter track. The track is very steep - at some points it seems almost vertical - although the steepest part is really only 27 degrees. It takes about 7 minutes to reach Victoria Peak. At the Peak, are two shopping malls, mostly filled with cheap tourist junk.

The Peak Tram Car

We walked around the Peak Galleria for awhile and bought some cheap souvenirs. Then we walked up Mount Austin Road to the Victoria Gardens. Many expensive apartments are located along Mount Austin Road. We saw numerous Mercedes, Lexus, Audi, and BMW cars in the apartment garages. We even saw a Maserati. The Victoria Gardens were not particularly impressive. There were some pretty flower gardens and many people were there with their families and dogs. What made the Gardens impressive were the views - simply incredible. There were fabulous views of the harbor, of Hong Kong's Central district and the entire city.


R: 2IFC Tower

Tsing Ma Bridge

After taking lots of pictures of the view, we walked back to the shopping area and looked around the mall. We had a light meal of clam chowder, garlic bread, and a chocolate chip cookie sundae at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. I was a bit embarrassed to eat at a very American chain restaurant in Hong Kong, but the view made it worthwhile. We had a table next to a window that directly overlooked the city. It was gorgeous. We also spent a lot of the meal talking to two British tourists who were sitting next to us. They were on the first leg of a month-long trip that was taking them to Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, and Los Angeles. After dinner, we went up to the Sky Tower, located outdoors on the roof of the Peak Tower. The view was fabulous. Hong Kong at night is gorgeous. I took many pictures and a few turned out well. It was very windy and uncomfortable on top of the Tower, but I so enjoyed the view that we stayed longer than we would have otherwise.


There was a long line of people waiting to go down the tram. To prepare for the cold and windy wait, we bought hot chocolates from Starbucks. It helped some. We had planned on checking out some of the areas of Hong Kong known for nightlife, but were too tired. Instead we took the bus back to Hong Kong station and went back to our hotel. We had also planned on staying up most of the night to help prevent jet lag, but the hotel room bed looked far too comfortable. We slept from about 1 AM till 7 AM. I think we both fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. In the morning, we worked out at the hotel's fabulous exercise room. Each piece of exercise equipment had a TV attached to it. I walked the Phoenix (FBR) Open on TV while listening to my iPod.


Hong Kong Airport from window of hotel gym

We arrived at the Hong Kong airport around 9:30 AM. It was not crowded, so we passed through security and customs quickly. We ate breakfast at one of the restaurant in the food court. I had a delicious glutinous rice ball wrapped in a large leaf and filled with chicken and pork. Scott had a macaroni soup with ham and egg (he didn't think it was that great). And we split a pork/seafood congee dish.


Our plane left at 11:30 AM. Due to a tail wind, the flight was an hour shorter than our flight to Asia, about 14 hours. They showed four movies, Night in Rodanthe, The Duchess, Flash of Genius, and The Secret Life of Bees. I watched The Secret Life of Bees - quite good. The food was not very good. Our first meal was a roll, salad w/1000-Island Dressing, beef and potatoes, and some kind of berry/chocolate cake. Our "snack" was a ramen bowl with a lemon cookie. Our second meal was teriyaki chicken noodles (the chicken was awful) with a stale pastry/danish. Both Scott and I intended to sleep through much of the flight, but after our excellent sleep the night before, neither of us were very tired. Scott slept 5 or 6 hours, but I only got about 1 hour of sleep. As a result, once we got back to Minnesota, I was very tired. We went to bed around 8 PM.

Our trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong was absolutely fabulous. I can't wait to go back.