First day in Taipei City

We landed early in the morning, around 6.30 am, on Taipei Airport. Our choice for Taiwan was questioned a few times, because it's not a very well known place to go for Europeans on a holiday, instead of for example Vietnam or Thailand. We love trips to SE Asia, and after reading up on this and seeing a few pictures we decided to go.

Anyway we landed very early. So early that the rooms in the hotel weren't ready yet. They would be ready around 3 pm. First stop was Lin An Tai Old House. Long ago it was the house of a wealthy family and it is now open to visitors and a sort of museum. It is a very decorated beautiful old house with an immense garden and a pond and a teahouse next to it. It also has a very nice terrace behind it.

Next we went to the botanical garden in Taipei. It is a very nice, huge, beautiful park with different 'sections', there is a lotus pond, but sadly we were too late too see the lotuses, we only saw a few, and there is a part with flowers that respond to the chinese zodiac signs, a bamboo garden and so on.

Next stop was Xingtian (or Hsing Tian Kong) Temple, one of the larger temple complexes in Taipei. It is build in honor of Guan Di, a famous general. It is a beautiful temple where a lot of people still visit every day. A lot of decorations, on the walls and ceilings as well as the roofs and rooftops. There are two doors, the dragon door and the tiger door. A long time ago important people went in through the dragon door and came out through the tiger door. For other people it was the other way.

After this visit we stopped somewhere for lunch and had our first Taiwanese meal. It was different kinds of vegetables, meat and fish.

After that it was on to the hotel as the rooms were finally ready. After a short stop it was on to probably the most well known building in Taipei (at least internationally), Taipei101. The building is 101 floors high, and has shops, offices, restaurants and an observation platform outside and one inside. You can't always go to the outside observation platform (on the 91st floor), it depends on the wind. If it's too windy the platform is closed. We were lucky. The inside observation floor is on the 89th. There is a superspeedy elevator to get you there.

Needless to say the view is amazing. You can see all over Taipei. There also is a short film about how the tower was built etc, and more information. Don't miss the massive gold-colored iron wind damper that keeps the tower stable through typhoons and earthquakes. After that we went to Xinzhuang Old Street Night Market. There also was a temple near the market. The Night market itself is one of the smaller ones in Taipei but still very nice and lovely to see and walk through. We had our dinner there, made up from sausages, black pepper pork buns, a wrap with veggies and veggie dumplings. Besides that there were different stalls with fresh fruits and fresh fruit shakes, gadget stalls, souvenirs, clothing, everything. A good end of the day.