Thoughts on Taipei, Taiwan
Look, I know I haven’t posted in over a month – my apologies for that neglect! Right now, I am in Taipei, Taiwan for a week long vacation. I want to share some thoughts on the city though this is more of a bullet point list than anything else.
- February is rainy! I know it was going to rain while I visited, but I am sure glad I brought my rain jacket. It has been a lifesaver.
- Many museums are closed on Mondays Looking at my Lonely Planet – there must have been at least six museums that were closed on Mondays. This is good and bad in that you can really use Mondays as a R&R day or do a ton of walking around the city like I did.
- The MRT is clean and efficient I can’t believe how clean and quick the MRT is. You can pretty much reach anywhere in the city by subway or bus. I have taken a couple cab rides, but the cab rides seem more expensive than the ones I took in China.
- The Taiwanese love to shop I noticed this trend in Shanghai as well (much less so in Beijing), but there are a ton of malls in major sites like Taipei 101. It seems to me that shopping is a national past time. This doesn’t even factor in the many night markets that are in the city where you can buy almost anything.
- Lots of hiking and biking in and around Taipei I would definitely call Taipei a very bike friendly city. There are multiple places where bikes can be rented and marked lanes for bikes. Additionally, there are hiking trails within the city and national parks just outside Taipei. I found a trail near Taipei 101 called xiangshan. This led to excellent views of Taipei 101 and the city itself.
- Taipei is very tourist friendly The city has many maps which you can refer to find tourist attractions near the MRT station. Additionally, announcements are done in English, Mandarin, and Taiwanese. Many times I found signs which directed me to tourist attractions. It was very easy to walk around.
I am sure there are things that I could include with this post, but for now, I would say Taipei is an interesting city with a unique vibe to it – it’s not as fast as NYC or as gritty as Chicago, but the vibe of the city is one that is OK by me.
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