Taipei is Waiting for You

When you visit Taiwan, Taipei is likely the first place you’ll go because you’ll fly into it. Take my advice, and spend a few days there.

You might fly into the Taoyuan airport. It’s stunning!

As I wrote in a previous post, this is a great time to go to Taiwan. Tourism is down a bit because of tension with China, so they’ll be happy to see you. Public transportation and infrastructure are great. People are nice, and if they don’t speak English they’ll still be friendly and try to guess what you’re pantomiming. Taiwan has a rich history and beautiful scenery, so even though you might not have considered it before, give me a chance to persuade you!

First, go to the National Palace Museum. In 1949, when the Nationalists saw that they were about to lose China’s Civil War to the Communists, they did what anybody who’s running for their life would do: they took the good silver and fled. To Taiwan. All those goodies are now in the National Palace Museum. There are paintings, tapestries, pottery, snuff boxes, musical instruments, and more. Sentimental art fools watch out: unless you are Chinese or otherwise emotionally invested in these artifacts, this is not the kind of art that makes you weep with the realization of humanity’s inhumanity. You will not look at these works like I looked at Picasso’s Guernica in the Reina Sofia in Madrid and ponder how it’s always the most vulnerable who suffer the most, how we are our own worst enemy, and how Picasso summed up the tensions of the age with his simple but intricate rendering of people and animals getting blown up. You probably won’t cry in the National Palace Museum. You’ll have thoughts like, wow they made ax heads out of jade, why would you carve words inside a cauldron, that’s a cool wine pitcher where the wine comes out of the duck’s mouth, that hair pin looks like the one in the Sherlock episode. That kind of stuff. But it’s totally worth the visit.

The 100-deer design denotes prosperity.

Qing dynasty snuff boxes. Snuff boxes!

Taiwan has great bookstores. Yes, with English books. (I don’t know of anything more frustrating than a store full of books I can’t read. It just makes me regret everything.) Anyway, you can start with the Eslite chain. Just because it’s a chain doesn’t mean it’s not lovely. ​

Then go to VVG Something. Yes, that’s its name. The VVG label has several different stores and cafes in Taipei, all cute as a button. VVG Something is a one-room shop with books on cuisine, design, fashion, and art. It also has unique and adorable gifts.

Get out of town. There are many day trips that you can take outside the city. I suggest you go to Yehliu, a seaside village with freaky attached island full of stone monoliths.

This crabbing gramma just walked past the No Fishing sign and got to work. Maybe she had a special deal going with the game warden.

Then you might see the sunset.

And the moon come up (this was the supermoon).

Food. Oh, my word, the food. You can eat happy in Taiwan in many different ways, but the number one way I recommend is Din Tai Fung. They have locations worldwide, but I’ve only eaten at their Taiwan locations so I can’t vouch for the others. They really take care of you in Taipei, though! First, they seat you and give you a little basket to put your purse in.

Then, if you look like someone who’s not in-the-know, they give you a card that describes how to eat their number one dish--xiao long bao (dumplings filled with hot soup and other delicious stuff). Read it and follow directions or you’ll burn your tongue and ruin your shirt.

Xiao long bao

Take home the leftovers in cute bags.

If you get sick or hurt, don’t fret, just go to the hospital. Kid 3 got a nasty cold and fever while we were there. Sam’s cousin, a lovely woman, took us to the hospital (no clinic, you just go to the hospital). They examined Kid 3, took some blood, pronounced a bacterial infection, and gave us a little bag full of medicine and a lecture on chest care, all in the hospital. For $42. Yes, $42 American dollars total. You’ll be ok. Kid 3 was up and running in no time.

Night markets are terrific in Taiwan! If you haven’t been to a Chinese night market, it’s sort of a street fair/food truck/bargain sale/farmer’s market affair that happens every evening.

Here’s a video of me eating fried squid:

They had a snake soup stall. Snake soup has medicinal purposes, according to Chinese medicine. I just think that you get so grossed out eating snake soup that all your other problems pale in comparison. The snakes were right there by the cook, waiting patiently in their aquarium. I tried to post a picture of the snakes here, but I kept gagging so sorry but you’ll just have to imagine those long, thick, green snakes coiled around each other in their cage. Hurk.

They sell small pets like rabbits, guinea pigs, and mice. This porcupine was sleeping in his dish! Upside down!

Go up in what was for a while the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101. Every time we go to a new place, the locals want to take us up in their tallest building. Every time I yawn with the monotony of it all, but every time I am amazed at the different perspective I get from up there.

When I went to Taiwan, after visiting China, I got the same feeling that I, as an American, get when visiting Canada. We are all the same people, we look the same and speak the same language, but we got separated a while back and have grown apart. We are each other’s dystopia. As a visitor, you can appreciate both sides.

So, did I convince you? Will you go to Taiwan? Let me know!

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