To Taiwan Taipei 台湾 台北 Day 1 第一天

To: Taiwan,Taipei!!!台湾台北 DAY 1

25th February 2013. I embarked on a trip to Taiwan with my polytechnic classmates. This is my very first time flying to Taiwan. We flew with Scoot and by comparing it with my all time favourite Tiger-airways, I prefer the Scoot as their seats provides more legroom than Tiger's. We touched down at Taiwan's Taoyuan airport (臺灣桃園國際機場) very early at 05:45 am.

*Do look out for maps provided by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau. We saw their counter at the arrival area after we cleared the customs.

We hired a car from the airport to our hostel. Price the driver quote us is a NT$1000, divide that by 23 it is approximately SGD 43. Take SGD 43 shared among 6 people it amounts to SGD 7 each.

I was reluctant to hire the car, as I had experienced with con-drivers in China where they take advantage of you being a tourist and offer you packages that are too good to be true and later drop you off at some deserted places or charge you extra for  travelling on mountain roads (Yun Nan 云南). But in Taiwan, that sort of thing is quite rare.

We stayed in ' The BackPackers Hostel ' (TBPH). It is located near Xiemending (西门町)  the source of Taiwan's fashion, subculture and to all Otakus out there, a source for Japanese culture (animes, maids, etc).

If you are planning on booking a hostel during your stay in Taipei (台北).
TBPH website: http://www.taipei-backpackers.com/hostel/index.php
TBPH address: 113 Kūnmíng Street, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan

Our check-in time is 1:00pm, which is a couple of hours away. So we left our luggages at the hostel's counter and went out for a walk.

Checking out the map that we got at the airport.

Crossing the road happily as this is our first time in Taiwan.

The streets are starting to become lively, breakfast food stands are busy preparing breakfast to serve customers who are going to work early or tourist like us, who just have some free time to kill. We made our way towards Ximen street (西门街).

The first 7-eleven store we entered in Taiwan.

On our way, we stopped by a 7-eleven store to get some tea leaf eggs (茶叶蛋 cha ye dan). The 7-eleven store is in a brick-red building and the store's entrance is directly below the Starbucks's logo. Nearby this red-brick building, is Ximending's UNI-QLO store. This is one of the landmarks I used to navigate through the Ximen area.

Welcome to UNI-QLO !

After we had our tea leaf eggs, we carried on walking down the street towards Ximen Mrt station (西门站). Early in the morning, there are some stands selling some light food or breakfast you call it.
If you are up early in the morning in 西门町, you will get to see some breakfast stands set up along side the streets.

Smile!

This particular breakfast stand (right photo) sells omelete (蛋饼 dan bing) and soy-bean drink (豆花水 dou hua shui).

Good Boy.

From one food to another, but this time we tried the all famous AY-CHUNG FLOUR-RICE NOODLE
( 阿宗麵線). I do apologise for not taking any pictures of the noodles, as I was too busy eating it. It is delicious. I was captivated by the noodles aroma when it was served. I never regretted it. By the way, if you are in Taipei(台北) Ximending(西门町) area, I highly recommend you guys to try them out. Here is a link on splendid review on AY-CHUNG's Mee Sua: http://reviews.noobcook.com/ay-chung-taipei/.

Official website: www.ay-chung.com

Xi-Meng-Ting Headquarter/西門町總店：
Address: No.8-1, Emei St., Wanhua District, Taipei City
Walking Directions: 5 minutes walk from Ximen MRT station, exit 6
地址: 台北市峨嵋街8號之1
Opening Hours: 11:00 to 22:30 (Mon – Thu); 11:00 to 23:00 (Fri – Sun)
Tel: 02-2388-8808

AY-CHUNG Main Store in Ximen. 

Moving on, we proceeded to walk to the Ximending's Mrt station. I call this place the Ximen Square (not the official name -.-||). I used the police station as another landmark to find my way around Ximending, if I got lost.

The Ximen's Town Square. Directly opposite is the Ximending's Police Station. 

We explored the Ximen's Station, gathering information like how much does a single trip ticket cost, what are metro lines, which are metro station is located at a tourist hot spot and also directions.

My friends gathering information from the station master.

After discussing amongst ourselves, we decided to each purchase their electronic card known as the 悠游卡 aka Easy Card. You can top it up at the station's control box or you can do it at the ticketing machine.

Easy Card for Easy people like us.

Station soon to be flooded with commuters.

After purchasing our cards, we went back up to the surface to continue killing our time. We took a break at a store that sells 刨冰 (tsua-bing). This ice-based dessert is similar to the Malaysian's Ice-kacang, the Japanese かき氷 (Kakigōri), the Filipinos Halo-halo, the Korean's 팥빙수 (Patbingsu) and the Italian's Granita. The 刨冰 (tsua-bing) have a gentle soft texture when you tasted it. Goes well with fruits too, unlike the usual ice-kacang I have, the ice in served in the ice-kacang are a little crunchy. The 刨冰 (tsua-bing) texture varies around Taiwan, some prefer to shaved the ice by hand while others prefer to use a machine.

刨冰 or Baobing

Stores that sells 刨冰 (tsua-bing) are quite unique. They are the only stores in Taiwan that allows you to draw/write on their walls. Here is a picture of the interior of this particular store we stopped by. From the picture below, there are tons of writings on the wall behind my friends.

SH Soh? (If I am not mistaken) was here on the 17/11/2011 from Singapore.

More writings by other customers who dropped by.

AKB48!!! They are quite popular in Taipei too.

And for all those into Japanese pop culture, I give you AKB48 writing. I believe this was written by some fans. AKB48 are quite the buzz amongst the local Taiwanese otakus too. I think AKB48 have become an international otaku idol group? They seemed to be popular not only in Akihabara in Japan but in Taiwan Taipei, Indonesia Jakarta and even Singapore.

We proceeded with our time killing walk all the way to the Taipei Railway Station (台北车站) *车 = 車 both pronounced as che they are the same except this 车 is simplified.  For those Japanese pop culture fans or otakus who have been reading Danny Choo's blog, he did mentioned on his blog that underneath it is the Taipei City Mall (台北地下街).

Taipei Railway Station.

Based on Danny's blog, the Taipei City Mall is a heaven for most Otakus. I got three books from Mag Freak. There are many other anime stores in that area. They also have stores ranging from selling apparels, musical instruments and also a store that sells Taiwan's famous Sun cake (太阳饼).

Taipei City Mall

Apparel Stores

The Cube Store. One of the many popular stores in Taipei.
Where you can rent a cube to sell your merchandise.

The Sun Cake packaging some of my friends bought.
The stores name reads 李仪饼店 (li yi bing dian).

Jubeat machines lined up neatly.

Like any other shopping mall, there are arcades as well. Except that their arcades have more Japanese gaming machines like Jubeat, Hatsune Miku, Dance evolution, Initial D, Wangan Midnight aka Maximum Tune and lots more.

A guy playing a Japanese rhythm game.

Hatsune Miku figures in the UFO catcher.

Cute ^_^

My friends decided to try their luck. 

They got one!!!

Adam is very happy to have luka in his collection.

Some decos for your home?

You can find all sorts of things in this underground shopping district, from decorations to massaging tools and even a maid agency. Certain parts of the shopping district have much less people than compared to other parts that are located near the metro exit gantry.

R section of the shopping district. Not bustling with people.

Us fooling around.

If you walked around section R of the Taipei City Mall, you might come across a large space with mirrors on the left side walls. Apparently they are for the locals to practice cheer-leading or dance moves. Here is us just fooling around in front of the mirror.

Time passed and we made our way back to the hostel via metro.We walked till 双连 (Shuang Lian) Station located on the red line, one stop north of Taipei Railway Station. 

Waiting for train towards Taipei Railway Station.

Waiting...

Boarded the train towards Taipei Railway Station.

Once at Taipei Railway Station (台北车站), we had to switch to the blue line to get to Ximending Station (西门站). You might want to reference the metro map and identify interchange stations like Taipei Railway Station (台北车站).

Waiting..

Steps leading to the mattresses located on the second level. 

We finally checked into our hostel, at 2:30 pm. We were taken to our room by the hostel staff. She briefed us on what to do and what not to do in the room. For instance, she briefed us that the room is a non-smoking room, the wifi-password and when you are taking a dump, please dispose your toilet papers into the bin. If you happen to be attending an important business in the public restrooms in Taiwan, please remember to dispose your toilet papers in the bin provided at the side of the toilet bowl.

Our room's common area.

Honestly, I am not used to dispose my toilet papers into the bin, normally we just dispose them by flushing it along with our manure. But in Taiwan, if I were to do that, it will just choke the toilet bowl. From this, I learnt that Taiwanese are quite the ECO-people than compared to the Singaporean majority.

I am satisfied with our room overall, though the bathroom is small and the water taps felt as though they were going to fall apart any moment. If you are planning to visit Taipei on a budget, TBPH is one of the many hostels you might want to consider.

After we rest in our hostel, we had lunch at a a random food store. We ordered some bowls of beef rice (牛肉饭) along with some other dishes. (I do apologise as I forgotten what other dishes we ordered) For all beef lovers, do try out their beef rice (牛肉饭). I really like the texture of the meat. I think the Taipei's beef rice (牛肉饭) is like our Singapore's Hainanese Chicken Rice. Its is popular with the Taipei locals like how Chicken Rice is popular with Singaporeans.

The food shop with had our lunch at.

Dishes that we ordered. The rice bowl at the bottom of the picture is the 牛肉饭.

Waiting to cross the street at Xinyi district

We then took the blue metro line down to 市政府站 (Taipei City Hall Station) located within the Xinyi district (信义区). Xinyi district (信义区) is the seat of the Taipei's mayor office and the Taipei City Government. It is arguably the premier shopping area in Taipei, as it consists various shopping malls and entertainment venues which makes it the most modern cosmopolitan district of Taipei. It is also considered as the financial district of Taipei. Key buildings in the district include the Taipei's City Council, Taipei International Convention Centre, Taipei World Trade Centre.

Taipei's City Government Building

A premier shopping mall

Taipei 101

The Xinyi district (信义区) is also home to the world's second tallest skyscraper in the world. The Taipei 101 (台北 101). Formally known as the Taipei's World Financial Centre, this 101 floor skyscraper was ranked as the world's tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010. The iconic tower is served to portray the image of a modern Taiwan. If you happen to be in Taipei during the New Year's Eve every 31 December, you will get to see fireworks being launched from the structure after the count down. The fireworks display is prominently featured in international New Year's Eve broadcasts and the tower is often used in travel literature and international media.

Luxurious shopping stores

We made our way towards Taipei 101. As an islander, I have never seen anything like it here in Singapore. It is truly an engineering marvel, given that this giant stands right beside an earthquake fault line and in one of the world's most active typhoon zones. Taipei 101 is always under extreme threat from tropical storms and seismic activity, and it is strong enough to withstand the forces of a seismic shock and also flexible enough to withstand the effects of a seismic shock. Everything that has got to do with the Taipei 101 is big. So big that is houses one of Taipei's largest premier shopping malls. Enter and you will find yourself in a luxurious environment.

Classy interior and lighting

We made our way to observatory entrance. Tickets are sold at NT$400 each, there you will find a souvenir store that sells everything from Taipei 101 key-chains to Taipei 101 models.

Taipei 101 merchandise on sale in a gift shop

Unfortunately, we did not went up to the observatory as there were too many tourist queueing and only one elevator in service. Speaking of tourist, there are a lot of Japanese tourist here in Taipei. So we made our journey back to Taipei City Hall station. I got a picture of my friends with the giant structure, its not bad I think though I could not

Taipei 101! smile guys.

Samantha Thavasa with Hello Kitty on the glass

Us resting outside a Prada boutique

Taipei 101 the Pride of the Taiwanese standing tall

A cool colonial looking hotel

Reflect it circular

The sun is setting and night came when we got back to Ximending. After we exited the station, I noticed a AKB48 Cafe located in the second level of the building directly outside the metro exit. The building is which housed the AKB48 Cafe is located in the Ximen's square (near the Ximen's police station). For those of you who do not know what AKB48 is, basically AKB48 is a all girl Japanese idol group consisting of 87 members. Girls are grouped into three groups A,K and B. If you are interested into listening one of their hits, here is one called heavy rotation. For more information on AKB48 click here to read it on wikipedia.

AKB48!

So for all AKB48 fanatics, there is a place for you to mingle and perhaps make some Taiwanese AKB48 fans too. Adam and I went and check out the cafe.

AKB's albums and singles

Tons of AKB merchandise

The shop/cafe sells tons of AKB merchandise. From AKB iPhone covers to mugs,towels,shirts,stickers,badges and many more. Though I am not really a fan of AKB48, I just happen to know them through my sister and Otaku friends. They are very popular in the Otaku industry (or Anime industry). So if you are crazy about AKB and want to get more AKB merchandise, all the more reason to visit Taipei Ximending ( 台北 西门町) as Japanese products like anime PVC figures and other Japanese or anime related merchandise are cheap here due the shorter shipping distance between Japan and Taiwan. (Japan is like at the north of Taipei? very close). Plus the locals here consume anime and manga as if its like their daily life.

Moving on, we explore the night life of the Ximen street (西门街). When night came, the entire Ximen Street came to live. Shops selling apparels and food are found everywhere, cinemas packed with couples buying tickets to a movie, full of activity. As for dinner, we tried Taiwan's most famous fried chicken chop (鸡排). I recommend you try the fried chicken chop or 鸡排 (ji pai) it is mouth-watering and absolutely irresistible.

Us ordering some fried chicken chop

We ordered some fries too.

Lit up signs brighten the streets

Scooters are really popular here in Taipei.

Ximending is also the place where the young gather. At times you can see students still in their school uniforms hanging out in this area. We did tried lots of other food, but I did not take any pictures as my mood was affected by a call that I received. I do apologise for not taking any pictures, but overall that marks the end of Day 1. I will try to post Day 2 as soon as possible. Do comment on my posts. And from the bottom of my heart, Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Tan Jun Ming (陈俊铭), Dennis