Taipei Taiwan Travel Guide for Very first Timers

If you are arranging a excursion to Taiwan for the to start with time, there are many areas really worth visiting to make the most of your trip. Although there are several lovely, historic places, the adhering to are my private favorites for Taipei vacation. Please experience no cost to use this as a sort of own Taipei travel guidebook when setting up your Taipei trip.

• Taipei 101

We commence our Taipei tour at Taipei 101. This is a skyscraper situated in the Xinyi District. In 2004, it was shown as the world’s tallest making at 1,671 feet. It held that title for 6 many years until eventually the Burj Khalifa in Dubai eclipsed Taipei 101 in 2010. The tower offers 101 stories and features an out of doors observation deck on the 91st ground like the Empire State Developing in New York Metropolis the place you can see lovely sights of the encompassing parts.

The bottom five flooring of Taipei 101 element a luxury shopping mall with upscale retailers this sort of as Burberry and Louis Vuitton. On the 88th flooring indoor observatory, you can see the 730-ton mass damper, generally a large ball that functions like a pendulum to counteract the buildings sway throughout high winds. Devoid of this damper, persons on superior flooring can in fact go through from movement sickness from the continuous swaying of the making! Taipei 101 is a city icon that is visible for miles across the metropolis. Every New Year’s, Taipei 101 attracts tens of 1000’s of guests to see its magnificent fireworks exhibit.

• Ximending Purchasing

If you are into shopping, you won’t be able to go completely wrong with Ximending. This is the purchasing region in the Wanhua district of Taipei and is considered to be the manner money of Taiwan. On weekends, Ximending streets are closed to website traffic and results in being a pedestrian browsing shopping mall. The region is well known with avenue performers of all kinds and, due to the fact it is a hotspot, you can catch celebrities internet hosting small outside live shows, album launches, and other occasions.

Ximending is also famed for its “Theater Road” where by there is a focus of a number of film along Wuchang Avenue. For background buffs, while, the most famed theater in the district is the Pink Property Theater which was designed in 1908 for the duration of Japanese occupation and is nonetheless an operational theater with regular performances.

• Yangmingshan Countrywide Park

If wonderful sights are what you appear forward to when travelling, then I cannot recommend Yangmingshan plenty of. It is the biggest natural park in Taipei. Yangmingshan is terrific for climbing and has various trails that can last an overall working day or just a few of hrs. Preferred trails incorporate Seven Stars Peak which will acquire you to the best peak in Taipei at 1120 meters (3600 ft) or see the spectacular waterfall of the Juansi Waterfall Path.

Just about every February by means of March, Yangmingshan is the web site of the Yangmingshan Flower Pageant when several kinds of flowers this kind of as azaleas, camellias, and specifically cherry blossoms achieve their peak bloom. Every night of the competition, cherry blossom trees are illuminated for a specifically intimate sight. Website visitors can also have lunch and supper at just one of lots of eating places such as The Best or Grass Mountain Chateau for breathtaking vistas of Taipei below.

Between the natural beauty of the cherry blossoms and the sights of the town, Yangmingshan is a properly-regarded romantic spot for fans all over Taipei. From April to Could, when calla lilies access total bloom, you can decide on your personal lily flowers for only a several bucks at a single of many flower farms.

Last of all, you should not overlook out on Yangming Shuwu, also recognised as Yangming Villa, the stunning summer months retreat of the late president Chiang Kai-shek. Yangming Villa residence and gardens are taken care of as they had been when occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Chiang. The house is a two-story conventional Chinese residence, with reception rooms and workplaces on the initially ground and the Chiang’s own home on the next flooring exactly where their paintings and individual photographs are still shown. The gardens are primarily stunning in the Spring when the flowers are in bloom. As a bit of trivia, it can be been pointed out that various bushes are planted in bunches of five – to symbolize the “5-star” rank of Basic Chiang.

• National Palace Museum

Following, we uncover ourselves at the Countrywide Palace Museum which opened in 1965. If you appreciate background, this is the spot to be! Nationwide Palace Museum has a humongous selection of 700,000 everlasting displays of Chinese Imperial historical past and artwork that spans about 2000 many years in addition prehistoric Chinese artifacts and artwork that dates to the Neolithic era, or far better regarded as the “Stone Age”.

The most well known item in its assortment is the Jadeite Cabbage. Carved all 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 says the sculpture is a metaphor for feminine fertility, with the white cabbage stalk symbolizing purity, the eco-friendly leaves of the cabbage symbolizing fertility, and the insects representing small children.

• Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

A further historically substantial landmark on our trek to understand about the background of Taiwan is the Chiang Kia-shek Memorial Corridor. This is a national monument that was built in honor of previous Republic of China President Chiang Kia-shek. The memorial marks the geographic and cultural center of Taipei. It is the most visited attraction by foreign holidaymakers. The pagoda design memorial corridor has a presidential library and museum on the ground stage.

The principal corridor features a large, seated statue of Chiang Kai-shek, significantly like the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The memorial corridor and its surrounding Liberty Sq. plaza encompasses 60 acres and consists of a lot of ponds and yard spaces. The plaza also residences two of Taipei’s general performance artwork structures, the Countrywide Theater and the National Live performance Hall.

• Beitou Hot Springs and Community Library

My favourite area to take a look at whilst in Taiwan is an area identified as Beitou. Beitou is a mountainous district north of Taipei Town and is most regarded for its warm springs and its outstanding community library. The mineral waters from the many all-natural geothermal vents in Beitou are famed for their therapeutic and therapeutic attributes. An whole sector of very hot springs bathhouses and accommodations have sprung up in Beitou giving aroma treatment, massages, and hydrotherapy. There are a large amount of sites in which travelers can soak their toes in the very hot springs stream. Be absolutely sure to visit the Incredibly hot Springs Museum. When it was crafted in 1913, it was the major public bathhouse in Asia at that time. Now, the museum offers a glimpse at its bathhouse facilities and Beitou’s background.

Next, take a look at the Beitou public library. Its wood construction that matches seamlessly into its Beitou Park placing. By means of use of eco-pleasant capabilities and layout, the library is Taiwan’s to start with “eco-friendly” constructing. The library opened in 2006 and was designed to lessen the use of h2o and electric power. To do this, architects employed big home windows to permitting in organic mild and a photo voltaic panel roof to provide the electrical power essential for operation. Also, the library collects rain drinking water to be stored and applied to flush its bathrooms.

• Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf

Our final halting issue is Tamsui. Tamsui is situated on the western suggestion of Taipei and our beloved location was the Fisherman’s Wharf. We discovered that not only do the restaurants that dot the Fisherman’s Wharf boardwalk offer the freshest seafood out there, it also gives breathtaking sunset sights. Fisherman’s Wharf however capabilities as a harbor for community fishermen and they proudly give harbor for 150 vessels! Our preferred walk is across the “Lover’s Bridge” pedestrian bridge, named as this kind of simply because it opened on Valentine’s Day 2003.

Its architecture resembles a sailing ship’s masts. It was about a 3-minute wander throughout the bridge, which at sunset is magnificent. Lover’s Bridge is also a great place to capture the yearly fireworks demonstrate and live performance that the metropolis hosts each individual 12 months to rejoice Chinese Valentine’s Working day (which takes place in August and not February 14th). An additional way to practical experience Tamsui is to just take a ferry from the Tamsui Ferry Pier and disembark at the Fisherman’s Wharf. The ferry is a inexpensive way to see wonderful views of the Tamsui waterfront. A one particular-way fare fees only $2 USD and can take only about 15 minutes.

While our Taiwan getaway looks to have been about in the blink of an eye, it was remarkable! While there is so much more to see, we really feel we manufactured the most of our travels in Taipei. I hope that your excursion proves to be just as academic and encompassing as ours.