"Taipei 2007" Taipei by chatterley

I first visited Taiwan in 1992, as part of a 21-day student-exchange and cultural immersion programme. I remembered Taipei as an exciting, vibrant city with noisy and busy night markets (Shih Lin Night Market!). It's always been a wish of mine to re-visit Taiwan and Taipei, and I finally booked the tickets for a 7-day trip last year.

Taipei has not changed (in my opinion), the people are still friendly, the street food is still heavenly, the sightseeing is still exciting... and the book stores still offer a good variety of books and publications (think Eslite). Browsing through books and magazines in Eslite at 2 am is really the highlight of the trip for my "bookish" husband, I suspect!

Taipei 101

A visit to Taipei in these couple of years would be incomplete without seeing the super-tall skyscraper - Taipei 101. I think it looks even better at night, with the lights on.

Enjoying his steamboat hotpot...

Lots of good food can be found in Taipei. During our stay, we tried all kinds of different food: the famous Ah Zong rice noodles, Ya Rou Bian duck noodles, the (in)famous and very yummy smelly beancurd, oyster omelette, the hot and spicy steamboat hotpot, "shui jian bao", chicken chop etc etc.... our verdict: the food makes it well worth to visit Taiwan again!

• Pros:good food, good transport public system, good bookstores
• Cons:nothing I can think of...