"Taipei" a Taipei Travel Page by Kurtdhis

Taipei is not a relaxing city but a big, bustling city with approximately 6 million residents living in or around it. Taiwan's capital, it is the centre With something like six million people living in and around Taipei, it is a big, bustling city and Taiwan's centre for business, commerce and government.

While it may not be everyone's cup of tea, Taipei's people are friendly, the food is excellent and it has some wonderful attractions including the National Palace Museum and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

A visit of about three days is sufficient time to see what Taipei has to offer.

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Taipei:

National Palace Museum is the world's largest collection of Chinese art treasures. The immense collection of jade, porcelain, and paintings, is regularly rotated to making each visit unique. English-language tours are given at 10:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M.

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall has beautiful gardens, graceful pavilions, and placid ponds. The National Theater and the National Concert Hall both are classical Chinese buildings that located in the hall's north and south.

The Lungshan Temple is the city's oldest and most famous temple, and it is one of Taiwan's finest examples of temple architecture. The stone columns come alive with historical figures dancing on the backs of intricately carved dragons, and the roof is adorned with more of the cavorting figures.

World of Yesterday offers visitors a guildline of Chinese history and culture with displays of mythology, ancient toys and games, traditional handicrafts, and folk culture. On Sundays and holidays, Chinese opera, folk arts and live demonstrations of crafts are presented. The World of Yesterday is located across from the Taipei Fine Arts Museum on Chung Shan North Road.

Yangmingshan National Park, where visitors can find pristine waterfalls, volcanic craters, picturesque lakes, steaming hot springs and, in the springtime, cherry and azalea blossoms. Well-maintained walkways and trails lead to the park's main scenic spots, and offer ideal hiking for a couple of hours or a full day. Major scenic spots in the park have picnic and recreation areas.

Other areas of northern Taiwan beyond the borders of Taipei municipality are rich in countryside beauty. The natural rock formations at Yehliu "wild willows," on the north coast west of Keelung, are an example: Weather, erosion, and other natural forces have etched the volcanic rocks into many artistic shapes.

The coastline east of Keelung, set aside as the Northeast Coast National Scenic Area, is one of the loveliest regions on the island. A drive through this scenic area offers land- and seascapes of enchanting beauty, an experience enhanced by tranquil, charming rural towns along the route.

A notable feature of this area is the magnificent sandstone promontory that rises from the sea at Lungtung. Pure white sand and azure waters make the Fulung Seaside Park one of Taiwan's best beaches. A system of wooden pavilions and walkways lends an intensely Chinese character to the new Yenliao Seaside Park, which boasts the island's finest seashore leisure facilities. The scenic area also has limestone reefs, steppes, sand dunes, creeks and rivers, terraced rice paddies, rolling green hills, two lighthouses, and a Ch'ing dynasty footpath overlooking the area. Sailing, surfing, camping, and fishing equipment can be rented in places.

Taiwan's largest camping area opened toward the end of 1991 in the most beautiful part of the Northeast Coast National Scenic Area. Lungmen Riverside Park, a short distance from Yenliao and Fulung, provides sightseeing, water sports, camping, and bicycling. Equipment rentals and first aid are available at the service center.

An old fort, fresh seafood, and beautiful sunsets make the quaint seaside town of Tamsui a popular day trip from Taipei. Old-fashioned shops along the main road give visitors a feel for the town's history. Two colleges and a hospital built in the late 1800s by Western missionaries remain to this day. Tamsui has many fine seafood restaurants with large selections of fresh delicacies on display. Some of the restaurants are built along the Tamsui River to provide diners a riverside view of Tamsui's spectacular sunset.

Fort San Domingo, known in Chinese as the Fort of the Red-haired Barbarians, was built by the Spanish in 1629, occupied by the Dutch in 1642, leased to the British in 1867, and bombarded by the French in 1884.

Wulai, just south of Taipei, is an aborigine enclave where visitors can witness the traditional dances and ceremonies of Taiwan's Atayal tribe or savor the sight of a powerful waterfall cascading through lush vegetation.

An hour south of Taipei, you can take a one-stop tour of China's Great Wall, as well as Peking's Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven. The place is Window on China, which captures in miniature 90 of the best-known structures in both Taiwan and the Chinese mainland. A recently added section features famous buildings from all over the world. The careful attention to detail includes thousands of living trees and shrubs which were carefully shaped and grown to the correct sizes to complement the various buildings. Window on China also has a classical Chinese garden, restaurants, snack bars, a tea house, and souvenir shops.

Buddhist temples, shrines, and monasteries, evoking the flavor of ancient China, are perched on the cool, verdant hills of Lion's Head Mountain, about halfway between Taipei and Taichung.

A short trip through the lush countryside southwest of Taipei brings you to a small town that produces hand-painted replicas of elegant Ming (1368-1644) and Ch'ing (1644-1911) vases like those that once graced the palaces in Peking. Yingke is Taiwan's pottery center, and the narrow streets are lined with shops selling an endless variety of porcelain, from simple earthenware tea sets to delicate statues. Some of the factories allow tours where visitors can watch potters working the clay and artists painting vases. One factory that welcomes individual visitors without prior arrangement and provides English-speaking guides is the China Art Ceramic Co., at 19 Lane 223, Chung Cheng 1st Road 22319. The information desk at the Yingke Town Hall can help arrange tours of other factories as well. Call (02) 679-2102.

For tourists who enjoy shopping and savory Taiwanese snacks, night markets are a good choice. The markets offer fun, bargains, and a lot of local color, and generally sell a variety of traditional products, casual clothes, fruit, snacks, and novelty items. Most vendors speak only Chinese, so pen and paper are needed for bargaining. Vendors generally accept only local cash and unsatisfactory products cannot be exchanged.

Night markets with the best bargains on food, fashions, and curios in the Taipei area include the Shihlin night market, north of the Grand Hotel; the Kungkuan night market, near National Taiwan University; the Shihta night market, on Shihta Road, off Hoping East Road; Huahsi Street, also known as Snake Alley; Tunghua Street, near the World Trade Center; Jaoho night market, in the Sungshan district; and Chingkuang market, off Chungshan North Road.