If you are preparing a trip to Taiwan for the 1st time, there are numerous spots truly worth visiting to make the most of your journey. While there are multiple gorgeous, historic spots, the subsequent are my particular favorites for Taipei journey. You should experience totally free to use this as a form of personalized Taipei travel information when planning your Taipei family vacation.
- Taipei 101
We start out our Taipei tour at Taipei 101. This is a skyscraper positioned in the Xinyi District. In 2004, it was listed as the world’s tallest building at 1,671 feet. It held that title for 6 decades till the Burj Khalifa in Dubai eclipsed Taipei 101 in 2010. The tower boasts 101 tales and characteristics an outdoor observation deck on the 91st ground like the Empire Condition Building in New York Town in which you can see attractive sights of the encompassing parts.
The bottom 5 flooring of Taipei 101 attribute a luxurious procuring shopping mall with upscale retailers such as Burberry and Louis Vuitton. On the 88th flooring indoor observatory, you can see the 730-ton mass damper, essentially a huge ball that acts like a pendulum to counteract the structures sway throughout higher winds. Devoid of this damper, persons on high flooring can really experience from movement illness from the continuous swaying of the developing! Taipei 101 is a metropolis icon that is seen for miles throughout the city. Every New Year’s, Taipei 101 appeals to tens of thousands of readers to see its breathtaking fireworks show.
- Ximending Shopping
If you are into procuring, you are unable to go mistaken with Ximending. This is the purchasing place in the Wanhua district of Taipei and is regarded to be the trend cash of Taiwan. On weekends, Ximending streets are shut to targeted traffic and becomes a pedestrian buying mall. The region is well known with avenue performers of all sorts and, since it is a hotspot, you can capture celebs internet hosting smaller outdoor concerts, album launches, and other situations.
Ximending is also popular for its “Theater Street” exactly where there is a focus of numerous film together Wuchang Road. For history buffs, even though, the most famous theater in the district is the Purple House Theater which was designed in 1908 all through Japanese occupation and is nonetheless an operational theater with regular performances.
- Yangmingshan Countrywide Park
If wonderful sights are what you look forward to when travelling, then I are not able to propose Yangmingshan plenty of. It is the most significant normal park in Taipei. Yangmingshan is excellent for hiking and has numerous trails that can last an overall working day or just a pair of several hours. Well-known trails include things like 7 Stars Peak which will choose you to the best peak in Taipei at 1120 meters (3600 ft) or see the gorgeous waterfall of the Juansi Waterfall Path.
Every February via March, Yangmingshan is the web-site of the Yangmingshan Flower Festival when numerous varieties of flowers this kind of as azaleas, camellias, and particularly cherry blossoms access their peak bloom. Each and every night of the pageant, cherry blossom trees are illuminated for a specially romantic sight. Site visitors can also have lunch and evening meal at 1 of numerous restaurants these as The Best or Grass Mountain Chateau for impressive vistas of Taipei beneath.
In between the attractiveness of the cherry blossoms and the sights of the city, Yangmingshan is a effectively-recognized passionate place for lovers all about Taipei. From April to May perhaps, when calla lilies arrive at comprehensive bloom, you can select your individual lily flowers for only a several dollars at just one of many flower farms.
Lastly, never skip out on Yangming Shuwu, also recognized as Yangming Villa, the stunning summer months retreat of the late president Chiang Kai-shek. Yangming Villa household and gardens are managed as they were being when occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Chiang. The house is a two-tale conventional Chinese house, with reception rooms and offices on the very first floor and the Chiang’s own home on the 2nd floor wherever their paintings and private pictures are nonetheless shown. The gardens are specially wonderful in the Spring when the flowers are in bloom. As a bit of trivia, it is been observed that numerous bushes are planted in bunches of 5 – to symbolize the “5-star” rank of General Chiang.
- Countrywide Palace Museum
Next, we discover ourselves at the Nationwide Palace Museum which opened in 1965. If you really like heritage, this is the area to be! Nationwide Palace Museum has a humongous selection of 700,000 long-lasting displays of Chinese Imperial background and artwork that spans over 2000 many years moreover prehistoric Chinese artifacts and artwork that dates to the Neolithic era, or superior acknowledged as the “Stone Age”.
The most well known merchandise in its selection is the Jadeite Cabbage. Carved through the 19th century, it is a piece of jadeite that has been shaped to resemble a head of Chinese cabbage and has a locust and a grasshopper camouflaged in its leaves. Legend suggests the sculpture is a metaphor for woman fertility, with the white cabbage stalk symbolizing purity, the inexperienced leaves of the cabbage representing fertility, and the insects symbolizing small children.
- Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Corridor
Another historically sizeable landmark on our trek to discover about the record of Taiwan is the Chiang Kia-shek Memorial Hall. This is a national monument that was developed in honor of former Republic of China President Chiang Kia-shek. The memorial marks the geographic and cultural center of Taipei. It is the most visited attraction by international visitors. The pagoda model memorial hall has a presidential library and museum on the ground amount.
The key hall attributes a huge, seated statue of Chiang Kai-shek, a great deal like the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The memorial corridor and its surrounding Liberty Sq. plaza encompasses 60 acres and incorporates quite a few ponds and yard spaces. The plaza also properties two of Taipei’s overall performance art structures, the Nationwide Theater and the Countrywide Live performance Corridor.
- Beitou Scorching Springs and Community Library
My most loved location to check out when in Taiwan is an area known as Beitou. Beitou is a mountainous district north of Taipei Metropolis and is most known for its very hot springs and its outstanding community library. The mineral waters from the lots of normal geothermal vents in Beitou are well-known for their therapeutic and therapeutic homes. An complete industry of hot springs bathhouses and accommodations have sprung up in Beitou giving aroma remedy, massages, and hydrotherapy. There are a large amount of sites in which travelers can soak their toes in the sizzling springs stream. Be absolutely sure to pay a visit to the Hot Springs Museum. When it was built in 1913, it was the most significant general public bathhouse in Asia at that time. These days, the museum gives a glimpse at its bathhouse facilities and Beitou’s background.
Next, visit the Beitou community library. Its wood structure that matches seamlessly into its Beitou Park placing. Through use of eco-pleasant features and design and style, the library is Taiwan’s initial “inexperienced” developing. The library opened in 2006 and was developed to minimize the utilization of h2o and electric power. To do this, architects used significant home windows to allowing in purely natural light and a solar panel roof to supply the electric power wanted for operation. Also, the library collects rain drinking water to be stored and employed to flush its toilets.
- Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf
Our remaining stopping place is Tamsui. Tamsui is found on the western tip of Taipei and our favored place was the Fisherman’s Wharf. We discovered that not only do the restaurants that dot the Fisherman’s Wharf boardwalk deliver the freshest seafood accessible, it also offers spectacular sunset views. Fisherman’s Wharf continue to capabilities as a harbor for regional fishermen and they proudly deliver harbor for 150 vessels! Our favorite walk is across the “Lover’s Bridge” pedestrian bridge, named as this kind of due to the fact it opened on Valentine’s Working day 2003.
Its architecture resembles a sailing ship’s masts. It was about a 3-minute stroll across the bridge, which at sunset is spectacular. Lover’s Bridge is also a excellent place to catch the yearly fireworks display and live performance that the town hosts just about every year to rejoice Chinese Valentine’s Day (which takes place in August and not February 14th). A different way to practical experience Tamsui is to take a ferry from the Tamsui Ferry Pier and disembark at the Fisherman’s Wharf. The ferry is a low-cost way to see fantastic views of the Tamsui waterfront. A 1-way fare costs only $2 USD and usually takes only about 15 minutes.
While our Taiwan trip seems to have been about in the blink of an eye, it was remarkable! While there is so significantly additional to see, we come to feel we built the most of our travels in Taipei. I hope that your journey proves to be just as instructional and encompassing as ours.