Our First Encounter with Taipei

It was in the late 90’s and early 2000’s when Taiwan variety shows permeated our cable TV and captivated many Singaporeans’ hearts. Everyone I knew seemed to want to travel to Taiwan, most wanting particularly to experience their vibrant night markets.

The hubs and I would have loved to join the bandwagon and satiate our curiosity, except that we never did find time to do that. That opportunity arose at the end of the year in 2006 – we grabbed it and made an impromptu decision to make a short trip to Taipei over the Christmas holiday, with lil sis in tow. It ended up being a trip of several firsts: our first time flying with a budget airline, our first trip to Taipei, and the first time lil sis took charge of the itinerary.

In the day when the legendary night markets were still not in operation, we visited the major tourist spots in Taipei. Our first destination was National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國立國父紀念館). We managed to catch the change-of-guards ceremony and were quite enthralled, unlike the locals who were going about their own business in the park – either relaxing or exercising.

There was an art exhibition going on in the premise, but we didn’t enter to take a look. Unfortunately, none of us three were familiar with Chinese paintings or calligraphy and can’t quite appreciate the exhibits.

It was a cloudy day. and with the sun hidden, we were feeling the chills. We brisk walked quickly to our next destination, Taipei 101 (台北101) where we could take refuge indoors. Completed in 2003, Taipei 101 building stands at 508m and comprises 101 storeys (thereby the name) and 5 storeys of basement. And between 2004 and 2010, it was lauded as the tallest building in the world, only to be surpassed by Burj Khalifa in 2010. Not that I think that this superfluous title means anything, to be honest. The title won’t stick anyway; there is bound to be another tallest building being constructed elsewhere. Makes me kinda wonder by the time I die, what’s the height of the tallest building in the world.

We bought the entrance tickets and took the elevator to the observatory on the 89th storey. Apparently we could climb to 91st storey for the open-air observatory but it was closed on the day we visited, possibly due to strong winds. Really would have loved to experience how strong the winds could get at around 400m in height.

After Taipei 101, we walked around and came by this Van Gogh inspired mural of Cafe Terrace at Night. That wasn’t the only mural we came about as we ambled around the city. I loved how Taipei seems to exude this artistic aura everywhere we go. It took many years for Singapore to catch on and embrace our artistic talent.

Keeping up with the rhythm of lil sis’ hectic itinerary, we next made our way to The National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine (國民革命忠烈祠) located in Yuanshan (圓山), located very nearby the famous Grand Hotel (圓山大飯店).

On hindsight, I’m truly not so certain why we decided to go ahead to this shrine because it was quite a bitch to get to, not to mention we didn’t know how to proceed to our next location after our visit. Sure, the hourly change-of-guards ceremony was really impressive, and it’s a beautiful place. However, this shrine is actually dedicated to some 400k Kuomintang soldiers who fell during the civil war against Chinese communists in mainland China. So if you think about it, this shrine has very little to do with Taiwan.

Anyways, the history between People’s Republic of China and Republic of China is complicated and people take different sides. I’m not here to discuss anything remotely close to this issue. Just reflecting on how difficult it was to leave this shrine. We couldn’t flag any taxi (there were none!) and even contemplated hiking up to Grand Hotel so that we could leave the area.

Suffice it to say that we were extremely grateful when a taxi finally pulled over and stopped to pick us up. By then we were famished and so tired from the walking our first foray into Taipei’s night market scene was nothing short of amazing. No pictures because it was simply impossible to even lift my camera given how jam-packed the night markets were. I marvel bloggers who can do that. It’s a skill I will never be able to pick up!

---

The next morning we continued on to another yet another memorial site – National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正纪念堂), erected in memory of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the former President of the Republic of China.

It was a beautiful winter morning, with not a shred of cloud cover in the sky. I’m not a huge fan of the sun, but it’s winter… so the heat was actually welcoming.

In comparison to National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, there were far less locals about at the CKS Memorial Hall. I’m guessing that’s because there is hardly any shady spot to be found at the latter location, leaving visitors very much at the mercy of the elements. Have to admit that we didn’t spend much time there before we left for shopping.

If there was anything really memorable from this short, first trip to Taipei, it was their bookstores. I love Eslite, especially their lovely 24-hr Dunnan store. We spent a lot of time browsing books there and I didn’t want to leave. [Update: Eslite Dunnan Store has ceased operations as of May 2020.] As e-books gain traction and online shopping making life more convenient, physical bookstores are feeling the heat. I hope Eslite keeps their physical stores – bookstore browsing is high on my list whenever i travel.