Tag: photos

Taipei metro (MRT)

I can definitely see how Taipei would have been a nightmare to travel around in before the MRT was built. The first line opened in 1996, with most of the current system open by 2000 (though they keep expanding it – see their expansion plans). About 4 years ago the metro was flooded after a tsunami; the Taipei Main Station was under 2m of water and it took 3 months to restore the system to normal.

The MRT is very user- (and tourist-) friendly:

  • It’s fast, clean, safe and orderly
  • Virtually all signs have English below the Mandarin
  • Station names are listed in Mandarin and Pinyin (i.e. western letters) everywhere
  • Announcements are made in Mandarin (and Taiwanese and Hakka) and English
  • Fares are distance-based, ranging from NT$20/US$0.70 to NT$65/US$2.25
  • The EasyCard is a smart-chip credit-card sized (but thin) pass you buy at vending machines, for either NT$300/US$10 or NT$500/$17, of which NT$100/US$3.50 is a deposit on the card.
  • You can use machines to check the balance and add cash value to the card
  • At the end of your trip, you return the card to a kiosk or attendant and get back your NT$100 deposit plus any remaining unused value
  • Using an EasyCard gives a discount (20% I think) on the normal fares – so a short NT$20/US$0.70 ride is only NT$16/US$0.55!
  • To pay for a ride, you tap the card on a reader when entering the station, and again on exit; both times it shows you your balance, and on exit it shows the fare that was calculated. No need to figure out yourself how much to pay
  • The EasyCard is much easier than the token, where you figure out your fare, put your money in a machine, and get a token that you then use on entry/exit (and it keeps the token on exit)
  • They even have break-a-bill machines (e.g. for an NT$1000/US$35 bill from the ATM, you get 3 choices, of which the most convenient for me was 1xNT$500, 4xNT$100 and 2xNT$50 coins
  • The washrooms are very clean, and are often both inside and outside the paid zone
  • There is no eating or drinking in the paid zone (though water bottles seem ok)
  • The subway car door locations are painted on the platform, sometimes with form-a-line here indicators at busier stations
  • Transfers between subway lines have easy to follow signs (again, in Mandarin and English)
  • They are still expanding the system, eventually all the way to Taoyuan (airport TPE, which was almost an hour away by bus)
  • Exits are lettered/numbered for convenience (some larger multi-line stations can have 20 exits!)
  • Nice big area maps by the exits (only thing missing was a scale!)
  • You can also use your EasyCard at some retailers, like 7-11

Another useful feature of the metro is the nearly-free sightseeing provided by the above ground portions (a trick I’ve used in other cities like Bangkok):

  • The entire brown line (except around the local Songshan airport station)
  • The red line north of Yuanshan (inc. the Shilin night market and all the way to Danshui/Tamshui)
  • Spur line Beitou – Xinbeitou (“new Beitou”) i.e. for the hot springs
  • Spur line Qizang – Xiaobitan (near the southern end of the green line, a few stops before Xindian)

In particular, you see different neighbourhoods, and various jungly hills right on the edge of town.
I did in fact pass through every single station on the network (though I may have forgotten some minor above ground portion).

Taipei: Food – some meals I enjoyed

Here are some of the meals I enjoyed in Taipei.

Regarding the traditional breakfast, it was at Fu Hong Dou Jiang, a busy morning-only place on the 2nd floor across from Shandou Temple (blue metro line), a place I found online from other traveller’s posts
The couple in line behind me, who spoke English well, helped me order as there was no English and nothing to really point at.
The salted soy milk (shen dou jiang) was better than expected – the couple warned me against it, thinking it would be too unusual for westerners.
The bread (shao bing) is thick and made in a tandoori-like oven. I had folded into the middle of mine, though you can also have deep fried bread put in there.

Scooters built into the plan

They take their scooters seriously as a form of transportation here. And yes, they all wear helmets.

To wit:

  • Dedicated scooter parking (with lines) on the sidewalk
  • Dedicated scooter pay parking lots, with its own gated entrance (separate from car entrance) and electronic reader board of #spaces left
  • Some dedicated scooter lanes and off-ramps from elevated roads (i.e. too narrow for cars)
  • Left turn areas without making a left turn across traffic
  • Scooter repair shops in regular shop spaces

Funny signs pt 2

Remember you can click on images to see a larger version.

Obligatory currency photos: Taiwan New Dollar

Here are my obligatory photos of local currency (at least the common ones, that passed through my hands).
There were lots of ATMs in Taipei which took foreign cards (Visa and/or Cirrus networks), including at the airport, so getting cash was not a problem.

San Francisco to Vancouver (third leg)

SFO-YVR flight (2hr15min)
Enjoyed a nice meal in “first” class (thanks to my status upgrade) consisting of asparagus soup, Asian chicken salad and a warm cookie. Also the little bowl of warmed mixed nuts is always tasty.

The one downside was the plane was super cold – I put on my socks, zip pant legs and Icebreaker merino wool cardigan.

YVR airport
Walking from the plane (I think 90% of flights arrive at the 2-3 gates at the very far end of the terminal wings) to immigration, I passed through a First Nations display that included a water feature, and then next to the stairs/escalators down to the immigration hall itself, there was a pebbly-bottomed waterfall.
Breezed through immigration using the Nexus kiosk, then waited and for bags again.

So far, from wake-up alarm, this was from 2 pm Thu until 1:30pm Fri (both Pacific Times), or almost 24 hours.

But wait, there’s more!

After taking the SkyTrain downtown-ish to meet my friend Steve, he kindly drove me to the train station for my 4hr10min Amtrak train to Seattle…

 

 

In Vancouver for a few hours

Actual waterfall next to stairs and escalator when going down to immigration hall

Yes, I know it’s insane, but my cheap Taipei flight required me to return to Canada, so I flew to Vancouver and am taking the Amtrak train to Seattle in a few hours, after I visit with my friend Steve.

In short, my Toronto-Seattle one way flight, with a detour to Tapei, turned into:
YYZ-ORD-NRT-TPE followed by TPE-NRT-SFO-YVR-train_to_Seattle
Which also means I passed through US Customs & Immigration each way despite connecting through (unlike Japan where you could transfer through without immigration)

:-)

So what I have I seen so far in Taipei?

A quick summary, more details to follow

Day 1 (Sat):

  • Area around Taipei Main Station
  • Ximen (hip youth hotspot, sort of like Tokyo)
  • Longshan Temple
  • Huaxi St Night Market

Day 2 (Sun):

  • Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall (founder of Taiwan)
  • Taipei 101 (2nd tallest building in world)
  • Core Pacific City (quick peek – it’s a mall that looks a little like the Death Star from Star Wars, i.e. what was the architect smoking?)
  • Raohe St Night Market
  • Rainbow Bridge

Day 3 (Mon):

  • Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (big statue of another Taiwan founder)
  • Da’an Park (likened to Central Park but smaller and somewhat disappointing)
  • Rode a gondola up into the mountains at the south end of town (also reachable by metro!)
  • Hiked a paved trail with a very long set of stairs straight up the hill to a nice lookout (unlike the crowds at the gondola top station, I only saw 6 people at the top of the mountain), and did a bit of a hike through unpaved narrow paths in the forest up there
  • Had a 40-minute foot/leg massage (NT$400=US$14) – note I didn’t say I “enjoyed” it because it was downright painful during it (I wanted to cry uncle a few times but didn’t!) though I did feel better afterwards (to be ruined by the next day’s walking of course)

Day 4 (Tue) – see attached photos

  • Danshui aka Tamsui (confusing name change on the train station!) – a fishing port located on the estuary (i.e. just about on the Taiwan Strait but still reachable by metro)
  • Beitou Public Hot Springs – natural hot springs for under US$2 (I spent 1.5 hours), within a 5 minute walk from a metro station!
  • Confucius Temple (what, he lived around 550 BC, are you kidding me?)
  • Baoan Temple (also got to see a ceremony to help protect the island from harsh water (typhoon, mudslides etc.))
  • Shilin Night Market – the king of them in Taipei (disappointing food though)

Overview thoughts on Taipei

Having wandered around for 3 days now, I must say that I am enjoying Taipei, with its mix of modern and old.
After doing laundry last night, and still not being adjusted to the 12 hour timezone change, here are some thoughts:

Likes:

  • English on many signs (esp in metro (subway)) and a little spoken by many people
  • Great modern metro (opened in 1999) which apparently has improved air quality significantly, as well as making travel around the city and suburbs a breeze
  • Technology
  • Cheap tasty (maybe not so healthy) food
  • Weird food (cola flavored Mentos anyone?)
  • Funny/interesting signs
  • Polite, orderly conduct
  • Scooters taken into consideration on roads (and parking)
  • A surprising amount of greenery – mountains right next to the city (or should I say, the city expanded right to the neighbouring mountains)
  • Few westerners – at big tourist sites, I see maybe a dozen foreigners; otherwise, I see less than a dozen a day around town
  • Taipei 101 – 2nd tallest building in world, designed to look like bamboo

Dislikes:

  • Sudden wafts of sewer smell (I noticed it frequently the first day, but it hasn’t hit me as frequently the past 2 days – maybe it depends on the area)
  • Humidity (as Taipei isn’t on the coast, you don’t get a refreshing breeze nor can you just hop in for a swim)
  • Hard to find cheap healthy food
  • Too many rules (can’t take my coffee on the metro!)
  • Crowded

Many of the points above could use their own post and accompanying photos, more to come…