Taipei Taiwan September 2011 - 63 photos - 509 views

Taiwan is known for its towering mountains, and is reputable as a "Mountainous Island". Our first stop was Jiufen, which is a little town nestled on a mountain in Rueifang Township of Taipei Country near Keelung. We walked along the winding lanes, tea houses, shops and enjoyed taste testing the different food/delicacies that was there. We also ended up buying some herbal cakes and taro balls to bring home as souvenirs. Our next stop was the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall or the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall, which was built to commemorate the former Taiwan President Chiang Kai-Shek. There are preserved photographs, vehicles, uniform, old commodities used by the former president. We also went to Shen-Keng, a rural township in southern Taipei County. This place is famous for its tofu gourmets because the best tofu is made here and the restaurants here use a distinctive cooking method. There're all kinds of tofu such as regular tofu, stinky tofu (臭豆腐), dessert tofu, fried stinky tofu, BBQ stinky tofu, tofu cheese, tofu cake, sweet tofu drink, dried tofu, and tofu ice cream. There are also loads of other snacks to try, such as chewy peanut candy, Brown Sugar Mochi (黑糖麻糬), steam cake, milky candy, egg roll, winter melon candy and many more.  
 
One of the must visit place in Taipei is the National Palace Museumm also known as “the treasure house of Chinese culture”. This place contains the world's largest collection (around seven hundred thousand items) of Chinese artifacts, with artifacts made from jade, bronze, porcelain, lacquerware and enamel. There is also tapestry and embroidery, and many priceless documents and books containing examples of ancient Chinese calligraphy. The most famous treasures at the museum are Jadeite cabbage, Meat-Shaped Stone, Agate Finger Citrons, White Jade Branch of Elegant Lychee, T’ien-huang Stone Miniature Mountain, and Jadeite Screen Insert. The vast majority of these art objects are from the private collection of China's emperors, some oldest artifacts are over 5,000 years old.  
 
We also went to the Shilin Night Market which is Taipei’s largest and best-known night market in Shilin district. We tried the Sausage Wrapped in Glutinous Rice (大腸包小腸), Oyster Omelet (蚵仔煎), Fried Chicken Fillet (雞排) and Bubble Tea (珍珠奶茶). All tasted delicious. The next day, we took the subway and went to Danshui Fisherman's Wharf, which is one of the popular scenic spots since it has opened in 2001. The Lover’s Bridge is another must-see spot of the wharf. We took the ferry ride to Danshui Old Street. We tried some really good Taiwanese snacks there, including the Lemon Jelly Fig (檸檬愛玉), Iron Egg (鐵蛋), fried fish crackers, etc. Just like all the night markets we went to, this place opened till late night; so we just kept eating all day and all night long.