When I arrived at the Taipei international airport, I immediately noticed that this country was too much warm than I expected. Even it was April, the temperature reached at 31 degrees. This temperature is the only possible temperature of the hottest July in Frankfurt. l had to wear the jacket and pullover yesterday and I am changing the short t-shirt and short pants now.
Wherever I traveled, I checked where to go just one day in advance or during the moving to the destination on the bus, airplane or train. I thought that 3 days are enough to see the city Taipei, but it was my big mistake. I had a lack of time, so I was able to see only the half of the attractions I wanted to see here. Among many attractions, the night view of the Jiufen attracted most to me.
Wherever I traveled, I checked where to go just one day in advance or during the moving to the destination on the bus, airplane or train. I thought that 3 days are enough to see the city Taipei, but it was my big mistake. I had a lack of time, so I was able to see only the half of the attractions I wanted to see here. Among many attractions, the night view of the Jiufen attracted most to me.
The most popular photo spot of Jiufen
The small town Jiufen is the well known town among Asian tourists due to the Japanese animation film ' Spirited Away'. The other biggest attraction in Taipei is food. There are a lot places to eat in Taipei and I think I need to stay here at least a month to visit all popular restaurants. Anyway, I planned to focus on the must eat food in my friend's tourist book. I think I tried almost all food in this book.
I arrived at the airport at 11 am and I had 3 hours before my Japanese friend arrived. I had a walk a bit near my hotel and I was surprised by the fact that Taiwanese really love Japan. The area was fully decorated by Japanese characters: Japanese shops, restaurants and advertisements. I noticed that later it was good and convenient because many people able to speak Japanese and some Korean too. There were always people who could speak English and Japanese.
I arrived at the airport at 11 am and I had 3 hours before my Japanese friend arrived. I had a walk a bit near my hotel and I was surprised by the fact that Taiwanese really love Japan. The area was fully decorated by Japanese characters: Japanese shops, restaurants and advertisements. I noticed that later it was good and convenient because many people able to speak Japanese and some Korean too. There were always people who could speak English and Japanese.
Noodle with the pork and shrimp
Stir fried beef, a bit sweet flavor
My friend safely arrived at the airport and then our food trip started. The first destination was 'dragon mountain temple'.
dragon mountain temple
The temple worships many different gods. The god of love and marriage(elder under the moon) is the most popular one among the hundreds and thousands gods in this temple. People either prayed in front of this god or threw away two blocks of the wooden half-moon shaped stuff. People believed that the god of love listen and make it wish when the different faces of the wood blocks are shown. It is possible to try 3 times to throw it until we could see the face and the tale, but unfortunately, I saw the 3 times same faces of the blocks. Well, it is just for fun, I will not take it seriously..
We had a small hunger, so we went to the street market near the temple. We tried the ball shaped food ba wan, one is the chestnut filled ball and the other one is the meat filled one. The taste was a bit sweet, but not that bad.
We went to the other temple where worships the elder under the moon again. This place might very popular to the Japanese tourists. A lot of Japanese people followed 7 or 8 steps to wish their needs. It was very interesting what they do, but do not exactly understand what it meant for.
We shortly stopped by the street food seller near the temple one the way to the night market. They sold the Lu rou fan, Taiwanese braised pork rice bowl. The fat of the pork was very soft and delicious and it will be obviously very unhealthy food.
Lu rou fan
So, it's time for the dinner. we arrived at the Shilin night market at around 9 pm, but the street was crowded by a huge number of people. I shared a couple of food with my friend. I would not eat that much if I were here alone.
enter the night market
fried stinky tofu
grilled beef skew
pork intestine soup
The 2nd day comes with the great weather. Our morning started with the typical Taiwanese breakfast. Having checked on internet, Taiwanese people eat the typical breakfast with the hot soybean milk, and the fried bread stick. We tried the one breakfast restaurant which is just near from the hotel. I really liked to dip the bread stick to the soybean milk. It absorbed the soybean milk and it became very tender.
Typical Taiwanese breakfast
After the big breakfast, we went to see the 101 building. It was too high, so I had to walk back a bit far to take the whole photo of the building.
We found the restaurant Din Tai Fung at the mall of the 101 building. I heard about this dim-sum restaurant from my Chinese friends a lot. It open at 11 am, but there were already long queue at 10:40. We could go in after some minutes waiting.
I noticed that people in the other side of my table made took a TV broadcast. I thought that the lady in the right side of the photo maybe a Taiwanese popular entertainer, but my Japanese friend told me that she is a Japanese entertainer Rena Tanaka.
We had a bit hunger, so we ordered 6 dishes. I think we ordered too much, but we managed to eat the most of them.
Shaoshing wine marinated chicken
Pork-shrimp wontons
Xiaolongbao
Grilled pork rip
Beef noodle
Next attraction to visit was the town Shifen. We went there by train and it took approximately 1 and a half hours. This town is popular throwing the Chinese lantern.
Each lanterns have different colors and the colors have different meaning of the wishes. I chose the 4 different color lanterns. After wrote 4 side wishes, I left it flying to the sky. I wish at least one of the wishes become true.
Flying lanterns
We had to wait for 20 minutes to catch the train to the Jiufen. During this time, I had another street food.
Having checked on internet, the stir fried rice filled chicken wing is the must try food in Shifen. I was really shocked by this delicious street food. I would keep remember this taste whenever I reminded my trip to Shifen.
Fried rice filled chicken wing
The shop of the chicken wing
The next stop was Jiufen. It was already 7 pm when we arrived at there. The red color lanterns made the atmosphere of Jiufen much more special.
Gaonasi??
It was really beautiful to see the dangling red lanterns at night
We stopped by the other night market in the Keelung city on the way back to the Taipei. I heard that the seafood in this night market is much cheaper than the other markets and very fresh too.
Krab soup
oyster omelet
I did not do much on the third day. I woke up a bit later and then went out to see my previous company colleague. He is currently working as an expat here in Taipei. It was already almost 10 years ago that I worked with him together. I was happy to see him again and glad to listen current status of him and other former colleagues we know in common.
Fried fish paste tian bu la
I really liked this shrimp dumpling
desert, red-bean pancake
Now it`s time flying to my home South Korea~~
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