TomCworld Blog

Taipei is amazing! Food is cheap, Fashion is very trendy, the locals are friendly, why not move here?

I took a little trip with Cody to Taipei while she was here in Hong Kong and it was loads of fun. Having flown from Hong Kong, we landed at Taipei international airport, which was an hour or so from the downtown city area. Just a side note, Taipei is not very much developed outside its city area. The international airport looked like a local bus station from Binghamton (a small town in NY State where I attended UG). On the long bus ride from the airport to the city all I saw was small villages, stripper clubs, and Cops patrolling with a digital camera (that’s right a point and shoot digi cam).

The downtown city area of Taipei is however, very beautiful. With its mix of traditional (very very old) and modern architectures, you get to see a glimpse of Taipei’s history as well as their revolution with influences from the western world. It is without a doubt one of the finest cities I have ever visited. The only problem that I came across in Taipei was the language. English is not widely used there, thus if you can’t speak mandarin or Taiwanese forget about negotiating a good deal at any of the night markets (I am lucky I had my Cody with me).

Here’s a list of some of the places that I visited and recommend:

• Shi-Ling Market (aka the night market) - cheap food and cloths
• Xei Men - a very young environment, a hip & trendy hang spot, full of trendy shops
• Taipei 101 - the tallest building in the world (as of 2007), home to the world’s coolest lift and shopping centre
• Chiang Kai-Shek memorial Hall - an extremely large monument, you have to see it to believe it
• Long Shan Temple - a very old temple in Taipei that is still being used
• Wufenpu – fashion district with a large wholesale market
• Dan Shui River Cycle Path - a very romantic river side path

Here’s a list of some of the places that I ate and recommend:

• Din Tai Feng - (Zhong Xiao)- Famous Shang Hi buns
• Mister Donut - (Fusing S. Rd / throughout the city) – very famous Japanese donut shop
• Shi-Ling Market – hundreds of street vendor with food carts (ground pork meat bun, oyster omelet, deep fried spicy chicken cutlet, frog egg bubble drink)

Click here to the picture from Taipei: Day 1 l Day 2 l Day 3