Taiwan: Day 5

Our first day in Taipei began a bit late since none of us got to bed until after 3 AM. John went out and picked up breakfast at a nearby food stand. We had steamed vegetable and pork buns, fried pork potstickers, fried bread dough that we dipped into soy milk, and fruit. To drink, he bought soy milk and fried rice milk (which was an odd brown color). Scott liked both of them; I thought they merely tasted all right (but I don't like cow's milk either).


Fried Dumplings, Stuffed Buns, Fried Dough

Soy Milk and Fried Rice Milk

Vegetable and Pork Buns

After breakfast, we headed to Yangmingshan. This is a national park of mountains/hills and trials on the northeast edge of Taipei. It is very close to the Chinese Culture University where John and Julie work and live. Chiang Kai-Shek named the area after his favorite philosopher, Wang Yang-Ming. The park occupies about 44 square miles. The highest peak in the area is not very high at all, only about 3,675 feet - Yangmingshan looks like a gorgeous collection of large hills. The park is known for its hot springs, hiking trails, and venomous snakes.






We spent several hours walking on trails through the park. The cherry blossoms had started blooming, although it will be much prettier in a month or two. The park was also filled with azalea plants. I easily could have stayed much longer at the park. We only saw a very small portion of it. At certain points in the park, vendors set up stands with various snack items. Scott and I split a roasted purple yam - very tasty and very hot. I took pictures of some of the other offerings - fried, shredded yam pancakes, boiled sausages and fish balls, tea-soaked eggs, and corn on the cob.


Purple Yam

Fried, Shredded Yam Pancakes




We drove over to a nearby calla lily farm in Yangmingshan for lunch. We ate outside on a terrace overlooking fields of calla lilies. John and Julie helped us pick another fabulous lunch: wild boar w/mountain vegetables (tasty but a bit fatty), mountain fern vegetables (very good), fried pineapple shrimp (very sweet, like American Chinese food), fried tofu w/dipping sauce (hard to mess this up), yam soup (delicious - gingery and sweet).


Wild Boar with Mountain Vegetables

Mountain Fern Vegetable

The Fern We Ate Growing in the Garden

Pineapple Shrimp

Fried Tofu

Yam Soup





One of many Calla Lilies

Julie, John, Scott, and Me at the Calla Lily Farm

After lunch, we walked along the road by the farm which was filled with vendors hawking snacks, flowers, etc. We bought a box of strawberry mochi. Mochi is a tradition Japanese snack of glutinous rice flour made into a dough and often filled with bean pastes. Our mochi was filled with a fresh strawberry wrapped around red bean paste. Delicious. The vendor was also selling cups of fresh strawberries topped with sweetened condensed milk.


Strawberry-Filled Mochi

Vendor Cutting Up Strawberries

Vendor Making Strawberry-Filled Mochi

Leaving Yangmingshan, we drove to the Grand Hotel to take a few pictures of the exterior and lobby. Built in 1973, the Grand Hotel is on a hill overlooking Taipei City. It has the world's largest classical Chinese roof. The view from the hill was gorgeous, as was the hotel itself. The lobby was decorated for Chinese New Years, with many lanterns and glowing cows. Scott had wanted to stay here for a night at one point, but he was surprised to discover that it got a lot of poor reviews on Trip Advisor.


The Grand Hotel

Cow in the Grand Hotel Lobby

Next we drove into downtown Taipei to the Jade Market. Taipei has a well-known weekend jade market, but we went to a daily one located in a covered warehouse on a street corner. It was filled with probably a hundred individual vendors each wanting to sell you their jade items. Unfortunately, the market closed at 6 and we got there at 5:30, so our time was limited. I had a vision of what I wanted to buy, so quickly skimmed the tables to find it. Right around 6, I found a piece of jade that fit the necklace I envisioned. John and Julie spent about 10 minutes haggling with the seller. In Taiwan, shoppers bargain for everything. John is especially talented at it. He managed to get the price significantly reduced. We were very fortunate to have them with us. I'm sure we would have been massively ripped off if we had traveled without native speakers.

Our next destination was the Shilin Night Market. Taipei is known for its night markets. These are large shopping areas with cheap goods (both in price and quality), carnival games, and lots of snack foods. They typically open around 4pm, are most crowded between 8pm-11pm and close around 1am or 2am. Shilin is the largest and most famous market in Taipei City. It is located in several large buildings that resemble what you'd see at a fair. The surrounding stores stay open throughout the night and are essentially part of the night market as well. The market was unbelievable crowded. It is always busy, but many people had obviously taken advantage of the holiday week to visit the night market. It was too crowded to really look at anything in the buildings. The four of us had to hold onto one another as we wormed our way through the crowds. It was a solid wall of people. We found a table at one of the food stalls and decided to sit down for dinner. We had warm fried noodles with ham and cold noodles. We also had a dish with rice noodles. The Shilin Night Market is known for its cuttlefish stew and oyster omelet. We didn't try either. I was curious about the cuttlefish stew, but it didn't look fabulous. I'd tried the oyster omelet in Tainan and didn't like the ketchup-based sauce. With dinner, Scott had a mango-milk bubble tea and I had mango juice. For dessert, we had fried yam balls. Very tasty. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at the Night Market. It was just too crazy.

After dinner, we escaped from the crowded building and walked through the adjacent shopping streets. In the middle of the streets, obstructing the walkways, were vendors selling clothing, food, and trinkets all set up on wheeled racks. Julie told me that these vendors did not have licenses and would have to leave quickly if the police came. Sure enough, ten minutes later dozens of people wheeled long clothing racks and food stands into an alley to avoid the inspectors. It was a funny sight.

We left Shilin and drove to Miramar, a shopping mall in a recently re-developed area of Taipei filled with hi-tech companies. The shopping mall is home to the Miramar Ferris Wheel, one of the largest ferris wheels in Taiwan. It reminded me of the London Eye. Scott and I took a ride on the wheel. It took about 10 minutes to go around. It was fun...we could see lots of city lights, but since it was dark it was hard to distinguish anything. After finishing the ferris wheel, we headed back to John and Julie's apartment. We stopped at a convenience store to buy some frozen buns for breakfast. Nearby was a McDonalds. I went into the restaurant to see if it had any unique features. It was essentially the same as any other McDonalds. Scott said that the McDonalds in Japan used to have a teriyaki burger that was good, but they apparently don't make those anymore. It's always fun to see McDonalds around the world.