Adventures in Asia: Taipei, Taiwan

Today the Sapphire Princess docked at Keelung, Taiwan's second biggest port (about 30 kilometres northeast of Taipei).

We changed money at the port and then walked to the Keelung train station, which is pretty close to the cruise terminal.  From there a $41 (~$1.60 Canadian) train ticket got us on the train to Taipei Main Station, about 50 minutes away.  We arrived in Taipei just after 9:00, then caught the MRT to Taipei 101.  

Taipei 101 was once the tallest building in the world, but has fallen down the list several spots over the last few years.  It stands over 500 metres tall.  Since the MRT stop is more or less directly below the tower, the view was not especially impressive.  We could not appreciate its height relative to the rest of Taipei, and it certainly is not as striking as the Petronas twins.  Still, its design is distinctive, and definitely required neck craning to see to the top.

We were very worried about there being a long queue to ascend to the observatory, especially after the long wait in Hong Kong for the Peak; so we were pleasantly surprised when the wait was less than 15 minutes.  The passenger elevator from the fifth to the 88th floor is the fastest passenger elevator in the world, reaching a speed of 1,000 metres/minute.  I think it took 38 seconds total to get up, a bit longer to get down (although we descended to the first floor, not fifth).

The 88th floor observatory provides a 360 degree view from Taipei 101, with floor to ceiling windows, and even a glass floor in places.  As in Hong Kong, cloud cover frequently prevents seeing a long way, and today we were more or less limited to seeing Taipei and its outskirts, and no further.  We could not, for example, see as far as Keelung, but I would assume this would be possible on a clear day.

From the observatory, Taipei 101's height relative to everything else is much more apparent; there is simply no building close.  In fact, I'm not even sure Taipei really has a skyline.  Unlike Hong Kong (which I believe has 80-some buildings higher than 14 storeys), it seems like this one extremely tall building may be Taipei's only skyscraper.   

From the 88th floor, you can climb a staircase to the 91st, which has an outdoor viewing platform.  However, because of vulnerability to winds, some or all of this floor is frequently closed.  Today, only the quarter viewing east was open.  Anyway, it's so enclosed with fencing that it's difficult to appreciate the view from here, unlike on the 88th floor. 

Although it was only 11:00 by the time we were back down on Taipei 101's main floor, we were hungry, and so decided to eat an early lunch.  I was nearly giddy with glee at the food options available in the Taipei 101 food court.  I ended up getting a skillet of squid (a whole one, head to tail, at least eight inches long), pork, vegetables, and egg, along with a bowl of soup and another of rice all for $180 (~$7 Canadian).  

After lunch we took the MRT over to the Taiwan Democracy Memorial Park, a large public space with facilities such as performing arts venues.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall dominates the Democracy Memorial Park (ironic, as it is dedicated to a dictator).

We arrived here just in time to watch the 12:00 changing of the guard ceremony.  CKS Memorial Hall reminded me of the Washington D.C. Lincoln Memorial, with a statue of a revered man sitting on a throne with a massive building surrounding him.

While the CKS statue is less imposing than that of Lincoln, I did like the roof more here in Taipei.

This was the view back down the steps across the square.  They seemed to be setting up for some graduation ceremony.

Below CKS Hall there is a free museum, which we strolled through.  We learned a lot about Chinese/Taiwanese history, and CKS himself, as well as Taiwan's/China's relationship with Japan because there was a special exhibit on the Sino-Japanese War, which mostly consisted of paintings of battle scenes and so on.  It was interesting for its historical value, but intrigued me more for its tone of propaganda.  "The race" (i.e., China) "rallied itself," for example; or, "the pilot sought a glorious death" (as he dove and crashed into a Japanese naval vessel).  

En route back to the MRT we walked through a garden area of the park.

It was a lovely little spot, very secluded.  These birds were especially interesting.  They stood so still that at first we thought they were fake!

Our next stop was Longshan Temple station.  We came here to see the Longshan Temple, but we realized the neighborhood seemed interesting, so we stopped in a cafe for coffee, and then walked some of the nearby blocks, visiting markets and different shops. 

Once we actually went inside the temple we were very impressed.  

It is dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy, and while I think it is a Buddhist temple, it was not obvious to me.  Much of what was going on was similar to practices we had observed, for example, in Yangon, but with a enough differences that for all I know this temple could have been Confucian.  There were many long tables covered with offerings of fruit, other food, drinks, flowers, and so on.  

Countless people (most people there were not tourists) waved lit incense sticks, prayed, or emptied bags onto these tables. 

We wrapped up our time in Taipei back around Taipei Main Station, window shopping and watching the Taiwanese world go by.

I also tried a matcha powder, red bean sundae from McDonald's:

Eventually we caught another Taiwanese Railway train back to Keelung, and meandered back to the ship from there. 

Sailing away from Taiwan was among the more interesting departures on Sapphire Princess, because we had to sail down a narrow inlet for quite awhile, and it was still daylight, so there was lots of things to see as we made our way back out to the East China Sea and towards Japan.