What would you do with once-in-a-lifetime, one week of vacation in Taiwan?

[laurenth]

Geiko (and everybody else), thanks so much for the very detailed advice. I'm flying away tomorrow from Amsterdam and, though recent news are a  bit scary, I'm impatient and delighted to discover the island. I'll try to post some information when I'm back.

[GordonYG]

I've lived in TW for a year (near Taoyuan) and I would have to say that my favourite part was having a scooter and riding it through the mountains or along the east coast, alone or with friends. Technically you need a license, but shops will rent it to you for 500 NT a day if you say you can ride one. 

 

There's a great surf shop/hostel/beach area called wai ao 外澳, that's about a couple of hours east of Taipei by train. Great for relaxing and some cheap surfing. 

 

The usual tourist spots are nice too but those things I mentioned above are what made TW special for me.  

[laurenth]

In case someone refers back to this thread in the future while searching for ideas for a 1-week touristic stint in Taiwan, here's some feedback about my own experience. Sorry it's a bit messy and full of digressions but I'm in a hurry and, if I don't do it now and without thinking too much, I'll never do it.

 

Day 1

 

I arrived in Taipei in the late afternoon. It was dusk and pouring rain. Piece of advice #1: bring an umbrella or buy one as soon as you've arrived. After registering at my hotel (piece of advice #2: as mentioned in the thread, walking distances between underground stations can be quite long; an hotel closer to the underground would have been more practical), I bought an Easy Card (you add money to it as needed), took the MRT brown line and sat in front with all the kids so I could get a first look on the city. After that, as it was late and I had taken nothing to read, I wanted to go to an Eslite bookstore, but the travel  guide I'd brought was crap - I have had a number of opportunities to see that first-hand - gave a wrong address and drove me into a gigantic mall resembling the inside of the Death Star (on 八德东路四端). It was worth viewing for the vertigo-inducing architecture and the shear size of it.

 

Day 2

 

It seems quite a lot of public places are closed on Monday but, hey, there's a wonderful morning sun, so let's climb the 象山。 Very nice walk, with fantastic views on the city. But do yourself a favour, also climb the 拇指山, which is just behind. It's much less crowded, and there are a few Taoist and Buddhist temples scattered around in the forest which are well worth a look, including a huge, white Guanyin statue. Also, do yourself another favour: if you go hiking, don't trust the morning sun, do take your hat and your umbrella or you'll end up like me: soaked as if you had taken a shower with your clothes on. In such circumstances, taking an air-conditioned bus to your far away hotel is a torture. Anyway, I decided I'd rather walk in the warm rain, buy another umbrella and wait in a random Starbuck until I was a bit drier. While waiting to dry, I came across the biggest Eslite bookstore in town, between 台北 101 and 市政府. Holy awe! For a book lover, this must be paradise.

 

In the evening I visited places nobody had mentioned in this thread, I think, including the 保安宫, a beautifully restored temple. On the other side of the street, there's a small, pleasant park and the Ningxia night market is just around the corner. Yummy!

 

Day 3

 

I like Chinese gardens, so I took Geiko's advice and headed to the lovely 林本源園邸. The whole area is very lively, I liked it a lot.

 

In the afternoon, I took the high speed train to Taichung. As I'm writing that word, I'm reminded that I was suprised by the strange mix of translitteration systems used in Taiwan: often it's pinyin (I thought pinyin was used on the continent only), sometimes it's Wades-Giles (I suppose), sometimes it's.. it's what？ Like "Tamsui" for 淡水, could it be a transliteration of 台语 instead of mandarin? And, strangely, I've seen very few indications in zhuyin, while it seems everybody's using zhuyin on their phone. Anyway, back to Taichung. Once there, I was surprised and disoriented by the hugeness of the city and, once again, misguided by my travel guide, walked for hours in the "wrong" part of the city while there was an interesting part of town next to my hotel, as I discovered the day after. But I tried papaya milk (what a treat!) and various delicious snacks, including green onion pancakes with broiled egg, and balls of fried dough containing a bit of fish. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down the names of all the delicious snacks I ate.

 

Day 4

 

Took the early morning bus to 日月潭. In front of the station of Taichung, turn left and walk for 5 minutes to find the bus station you need. Interesting drive to the lake, as I was outside of cities for the first time. Once there, I hired a bike and off I went, planning to bike from 水社 to Yidashao and than take the boat back to Shuishe. It's a wonderful biking trail. Yet, climbing all the way up yo the Ci'en pagoda under a blazing sun is not for the faint of heart. Reaching the 慈恩塔, climbing all the stairs and contemplating the surrounding mountains from the top of the pagoda was one of the high points (also literally) of my trip to Taiwan. Even if you're not a fan of the sponsor of that building (蔣介石), I thought it was moving someone like him would order such a construction for his deceased mother. I rang the bell thrice while chanting the name of 阿弥陀佛 before leaving. After having some delicious snacks in Yidashao (spicy 山猪 on some sort of pancake), I took the boat to Shuishe and then the bus back to Taichung.

 

While in the bus, I had a brilliant idea: Hey, it's still early. Why not go down at the Taichung HSR station, outside of town, and ride a local bus to 鹿港? It's supposed to be a nice little town, so I could spend the evening there and come back to my hotel at night? I had planned to go there the day after but going tonight suddenly seemed so clever. Not so. Going to Lukang on the local bus during peak hours takes about two hours. And the last bus from Lukang to Taichung leaves quite early (like 8:30 pm), so I had about one hour to visit the town. As the town is indeed very interesting, I felt silly. But once there, I had no choice but to take the last bus to Taichung. So I had spent like 3 and a half hours in the bus for 1 hour on the spot. And on the day after, I did not feel like riding a bus again.

 

Day 5

 

Back to Taipei, visited the Lin An Tai mansion (林安泰古厝) which is perhaps even better than the 林本源園邸. It's much more spacious - in comparison the Lin family mansion feels a bit cramped. The Lin An Tai gardens contains many universes and winding paths to connect them, with strangely-shaped doors creating delightful scenes and ever-changing perspectives. A must see. One can only imagine how wonderfully quiet this place was before it was surrounded by an airport and a 8-lane highway.

 

After that, I headed for the puppet museum. It's small, it's cramped, but it's a gem. I was fortunate to watch a puppet handling lesson and I bought puppets for the 2 little kids. Afterwards, I discovered that it seems there's another puppet museum on 八德东路, but I didn't get to see it.

 

And to finish the day, I went to the Chinese Handicraft Market (徐州路) to buy souvenirs for the rest of the family.

 

Day 6

 

Let's hike in 陽明山! After a steep climb to the top of the 七星山, as the weather was clear, I had an exceptional view on Taipei on one side and the sea on the other. After that, I went down to 小油坑 to see (and smell) the sulfur fumaroles, climbed back to 七星山 (phew...) and went down to 冷水坑. Αt this point I should mention that, until that day, I'd been rather lonely. I'd thought that, maybe, when sitting in a Starbuck, tea house, train or restaurant, the simple fact of ostensibly using Pleco and Skritter on my phone would arouse curiosity, invite questions and create opportunities to talk, but such was not the case. Probably there are so many foreigners in Taiwan that Pleco/Skritter/whatever users have become a common sight. I'd had an interesting talk about 台语 with a lady while waiting for the bus in Shuishe, but that was it. On the other hand, when hiking in 陽明山, suddenly, everybody wanted to talk with me: the very friendly people at the visitor center not only provided me with explanations and recommendations but also asked questions; on the way up, I talked with a Shanghai guy; on the way down, with a tour guide and afterwards with a young guy who offered to accompany me to the hot springs and show me how to go about it. It was very friendly and welcome as, on my own, I probably would not have dared to intermingle with naked locals. That was another interesting moment of my stay. After the relaxing bath, I walked further to the 擎天崗 grasslands and took a small, overcrowded bus on the winding road leading back to the visitor center.

 

In the evening, I decided to spend whatever money I'd left on books. Back to Eslite, I bought mainly books from the "Young adults", "Comics" and "Wuxia sections".

 

I only bought two comics, among which 我的青春、我的FORMOSA by 林莉菁, as recommended by Geiko. Only vol. 1 of two was available, unfortunately. I've already read it and it sure helped me understand the situation of Taiwan, including in the light of the conversation I'd had in Shuishe with the Taiwanese speaking lady. In another life, I studied sociolinguistics, in particular language conflicts and endangered languages, and the sociolinguistics/political/psychological situation so vividly described in the book corresponds entirely to other situations I'd had the opportunity to study  - with Chinese characteristics of course.

 

Yet another side note: until now I've studied simplified characters only. Before going to Taiwan, I'd started cramming traditional characters and read vol. 1 (Beginning) and half of vol. 2 (Intermediate) of the De Francis series. I found that the transition was not that hard though, obviously, some characters have proved tougher to chew than others. But on the whole, that change has been interesting and has breathed a new life in my studies. In fact, reading from top to bottom/right to left is strangely fascinating. Now that I'm back, I've switched Pleco to traditional characters. We'll see what happens.

 

One concrete problem I sometimes have is that my sight has been worsening and, sometimes, I can't even make out the smaller components of some overcrowded hanzi. In such cases, scribbling an approximate shape in Pleco often helps. Pleco is forgiving and will often make the appropriate suggestion.

 

Day 7

 

I wanted to devote most of one day to the National museum. I was not disappointed. Granted, I did not get to see the pork and cabbage All the rest was just fascinating: among other things, there was a special exhibition about paintings and calligraphies on folding fans; an exhibition about the European-turned-Chinese painter Castiglione, aka 郎世寧, a breath-taking choice of Chinese paintings, including some by Jin Kun, which I particularly enjoyed, etc.

 

One more stupid piece of advice: on that particular day, it was extremely hot outside, I'd say over 35°C. Inside, it was much colder, which was pleasant at first but rapidly became uncomfortable. Take long sleeves.

 

The museum was crowded, but it was very seldom bothersome. Maybe I was lucky.

 

In the evening, one last dish of beef and noodles and I had to go back to Taiyuan to catch the midnight plane. (In which, by the way, I saw the first half of a *very* good Chinese movie called 老炮儿 / Mr. Six. Can't wait to find it on DVD and watch the second half).

 

One more digression, about my level of Chinese. It was very disappointing, ranging from the woefully inadequate to the embarrassing. After reflecting about the question, I thought that it was a normal situation: after all, it's been years since I've had a proper conversation class and I have few opportunities to talk. My listening comprehension has remained as bad as I had feared, which was also a disapointment. I suppose that's the price to pay when you study mainly for reading comprehension. On the other hand, I had the impression the situation was improving slightly towards the end of my stay, but perhaps I'm trying to reassure myself

 

All in all, it was a great experience. It was much too short of course: I could only scratch the outer layer of the surface of the tip of the iceberg - but it's better than nothing.

 

Again, thanks to all of you for helping with the organisation of my 1-week holiday in Taiwan.

[abcdefg]

Glad you had such a good time. Thanks for writing it up. You mentioned your guidebook a couple times as not being reliable. Which one was it?

 

One more stupid piece of advice: on that particular day, it was extremely hot outside, I'd say over 35°C. Inside, it was much colder, which was pleasant at first but rapidly became uncomfortable. Take long sleeves.

 

Not stupid at all! I do the same thing in Hong Kong and Macau.

[laurenth]

@abcdefg, "Le petit futé". I did not mention the non-existing restaurants or cafés in non-existing streets or streets that have nothing to do, etc. Also, the guide refers to some places that  no longer exist, I think (like the "Page One" bookshop in Taipei 101). To be fair, no guidebook can be up to date at all time; and this one was cheap at least.

[Lu]

Thanks for the write-up, it looks like you made the most of it and had a good time. Also nice to see that you followed so many of the suggestions made in this thread :-) I'm hoping to go to Taiwan again next spring and will refer back to this perhaps, it's been a while and I've forgotten many of the good spots.

[Shelley]

You certainly crammed a lot in to your week. I suspect you enjoyed yourself immensely and will not forget it in a hurry. Did you take many pictures?

[laurenth]

Yes Shelley, I took a few dozen pictures. But I'm not a good photographer, not to mention that I'm the only one in my family who's interested in China, and it's become an in-joke with my daughters that, when I'm back, everybody will have to suffer through a photo presentation evening.

[Shelley]

I would be interested , why not post a few here, the views you described sound amazing.

[laurenth]

I'll do it, but it will have to wait 10 days or so, as I will be without computer as from tonight and for over a week.

[Shelley]

No problem, will enjoy them when they arrive.

[Geiko]

I like Chinese gardens, so I took Geiko's advice and headed to the lovely 林本源園邸. The whole area is very lively, I liked it a lot. (...) Back to Taipei, visited the Lin An Tai mansion (林安泰古厝) which is perhaps even better than the 林本源園邸. It's much more spacious - in comparison the Lin family mansion feels a bit cramped. The Lin An Tai gardens contains many universes and winding paths to connect them, with strangely-shaped doors creating delightful scenes and ever-changing perspectives. A must see. One can only imagine how wonderfully quiet this place was before it was surrounded by an airport and a 8-lane highway.

 

I was fascinated by those doors and windows too. I realised that some of them had the shape of auspicious things, for example a bat (蝙蝠 sounds like 福) or a peach (it represents longevity) (see photos attached). But there were many other shapes which I can't explain -maybe there's no explanation, they're just beautiful. Oh, and my boyfriend also said that Lin An Tai is nicer than the Lin family mansion. 

 

I only bought two comics, among which 我的青春、我的FORMOSA by 林莉菁, as recommended by Geiko. Only vol. 1 of two was available, unfortunately. I've already read it and it sure helped me understand the situation of Taiwan, including in the light of the conversation I'd had in Shuishe with the Taiwanese speaking lady. In another life, I studied sociolinguistics, in particular language conflicts and endangered languages, and the sociolinguistics/political/psychological situation so vividly described in the book corresponds entirely to other situations I'd had the opportunity to study  - with Chinese characteristics of course.

 

I wasn't able to find volume 2 of that book, either. The best solution I could find was to buy the ebook online. However, in this bookstore, ebooks are not downloadable, either you read them on the computer or through their mobile app, but well. I'm glad that you liked the comic, I still haven't read it, but your positive feedback really makes me want to read it asap.

 

Yet another side note: until now I've studied simplified characters only. Before going to Taiwan, I'd started cramming traditional characters and read vol. 1 (Beginning) and half of vol. 2 (Intermediate) of the De Francis series. I found that the transition was not that hard though, obviously, some characters have proved tougher to chew than others. But on the whole, that change has been interesting and has breathed a new life in my studies. In fact, reading from top to bottom/right to left is strangely fascinating. Now that I'm back, I've switched Pleco to traditional characters. We'll see what happens.

Totally agree with the whole paragraph, and especially the part about reading from top to bottom!

 

Thanks for the write-up, it was great to see the island through somebody else's eyes!

[laurenth]

As promised, here are a few pictures taken in Taiwan. I would have liked to edit post #23 and paste the pictures where they belong, but I have no idea how to do that, so here they are in a new post.

 

Day 2: Taipei seen from 象山

 

 

保安宫

 

 

Day 3: 林本源園邸

 

 

Day 4: 日月潭

 

 

and the view from the top of the 慈恩塔

 

 

Day 5: 林安泰古厝 

 

 

 

And an interesting puppet in the puppet museum

 

Day 6: Taipei seen from 陽明山

 

 

Hiking the 陽明山

 

 

In  the hope you'll enjoy them.

[Shelley]

They are absolutely magnificent. Thank you for sharing, I really like the old architecture. It looks like you had a great time and saw all the best sites.

 

For the future to edit a post you can click on the word Edit that is in pale grey in the bottom right corner of the reply box, when you hover over it, it turns darker.

Make the changes/additions and then click save changes. To add pictures you probably need to use the full editor.

 

Obviously you can only edit your own posts.

[winterpromise31]

Gorgeous!! I really want to go back!