2 Mar | Out and about in Taipei 遊台北 | Taipei, Taiwan

There’s never a dull moment when you have a list of twenty things to get through with only 2 days left to go!

Breakfast 早餐
The best way to start the day in Taipei is to visit the famous Taiwanese breakfast establishment known as ‘Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang’ 永和豆漿大王 . Yong He 永和 is a large city just outside of Taipei City itself, and they are known to make the best soya milk in the whole country. Thankfully most successful Taiwanese businesses follow the franchise model, so there was no need to travel to Yong He to taste the soya milk, as a 5 minute walk by foot was enough to find our breakfast. (And chances are, no matter where you stay in Taipei, you will find the ‘Yong He’ brand) Here I began what was a consistent theme on this holiday – over ordering.

Just some of the things available for breakfast

Dude cooking our breakfast

Here I am with our breakfasst

As one can see from the photos below we devoured the deliciously good soya milk 豆漿 with fried bread sticks 油條 + raddish cakes 蘿蔔糕 + chinese style omelettes 蛋餅. There's a lot more on the menu but I probably needed a party of five to at least get through half the menu! This is one of the best ways to taste an authentic Taiwanese breakfast on a budget. All this food for under AU$5. Bargain.

Address: 永和豆漿大王 located at 102 Fuxing South Road, Sec. 2 復興南路2段102號

National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院
It seems appropriate that after a heavy breakfast we should walk it off at one of the top museums in the world. The National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院 is a ‘Must See’ attraction for any first-timers to Taiwan, and in my opinion, repeat visitors! The National Palace Museum ranks up there with other top art museums including The Louvre and The Metropolitan Museum of Art for its incredible collection of the finest Chinese antiquities. There are over 675,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts ranging some 8000 years! You will find pieces from the Neolithic age to the last Chinese dynasty - the Qing dynasty. It is simply astounding to see how the Chinese civilisation has progressed in those 8,000 years and continue to progress in this modern age. Despite what history has written about Chiang Kai Shek, I still applaud him for taking all these artifacts from Mainland China and housing it in this incredible museum. I'm not sure if these artifacts could have survived war time China. My love for walking around museums and admiring artworks can definitely be attributed to my childhood spent living in Taipei. My mum cultivated in us an appreciation for history and fine arts via frequent visits to this amazing museum. Unfortunately, one cannot take photos inside the museum, so I only have external shots.

To get to the National Palace Museum
1. Take the MRT Danshui line to Shilin station 
2. Catch the Red 30 bus or bus 255 to the Museum

National Palace Museum
- 100 Years of the Republic of China

At the entrance to the National Palace Museum

"Celebration by Marc Chagall" Exhibition
Taipei is one of the best cultural cities in East Asia. Why? You can choose to visit any time of the year and be guaranteed there will be a major exhibition worth visiting. When I was there in 2009 the Taipei Fine Arts Museum displayed the popular 'Pixar - 20 years of animation' exhibition, followed by an exhibition of 'fireworks' from one of the best fireworks masters of our time - Mr Cai Guo Qiang 蔡國強 － 泡美術館. This time in Taipei not only was there the immensely popular International Floral Expo, but also a "Celebration by Marc Chagall" exhibition at the National Palace Museum. For the sake of convenience and my interest in art history, I chose to go to the Chagall exhibition rather than the Flora Expo (which is supposedly one of the best ever!). I wish I had more time at the Chagall exhibition, because I really did find joy viewing his works, whic I found unusual because I do not usually feel the emotion of happiness and joy when I'm focusing on the works of just one artist. Chagall is a Belarusian-French-Jewish artist and one of the first 'modernist' of the 20th Century. His works attract the viewer (at least me) by his vivid use of colour and just the free form flow of his paintings. Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s "When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is."

Poster of the Celebration by Marc Chagall exhibition

“Les maries de la Tour Eiffel” 

If anyone reading this blog is planning a trip to Taipei soon, I'd highly recommend this exhibition. It will still be showing until May 29th, after that you can follow it to Taichung. 

PS: Speaking of art exhibitions, unfortunately I missed 'Monet Gardens' exihibition by one day! I just want to emphasise again that Taipei is an art-savvy city and I hope Sydney lifts the standard of art exhibitions.


Beef Noodle Soup 牛肉麵
Beef noodle soup is another 'must eat' item in Taiwan.  For those not in the know, Taiwan is THE Chinese-cultural melting pot, especially in relation to cuisine. Taiwan is THE place to sample all the best Chinese food (except Cantonese food) - whether it is Hunan 湘菜, Sichuan 川菜，Peking 京菜，江浙菜, you can find it all here in Taiwan and be confident that you are eating quality food. I make no exaggeration here. Why go to China when there is Taiwan? But the beef noodle soup movement in Taiwan can be explained as the result of years of sharing and integrating these Chinese regional cuisines to amalgomate and perfect the National dish - Beef Noodle Soup. Sure you will find beef noodle soup in mainland China, Singapore, Hong Kong and everywhere else, but it is in Taiwan where you will find this dish being elevated to the status of King. Am I exaggerating? Probably, but if a country holds an annual beef noodle soup competition to award medals to the best beef noodle shop in the country, you know that it is serious.

The Taipei City pamphlet we found in the hotel guided us to Taoyuan street behind Ximen station to find a row full of beef noodle soup vendors. As our stomachs were grumbling by 3pm, we found ourselves on this street, walking up and down trying to select a vendor to eat at. Eventually we walked down an off-street alley and found ourselves at a moderately busy beef noodle soup vendor. What we were about to taste was just superb! Yep, we found ourselves a truly authentic and deliciously good Taiwanese beef noodle soup vendor. The broth was tasty and full of flavour and the noodles were soft and fresh. Oh how I love eating noodles in Asia. Below is our find...and would be the most memorable meal of our trip!

Seriously good Beef Noodle soup!

The secret to good beef noodle soup is the broth...where they cook it for hours. 

The noodle shop people in action

Ximending 西門町
As was a common trait on this holiday, after a meal comes a long walk. This time we went to the Harajuku of Taipei - Ximending 西門町 for some youthful injection of popular music, fashion and just general roaming around. Ximending is where the youth (by youth I mean highschoolers) come out to play. What did we accomplish? Unsurprisngly, more shopping. You would think after Shilin night markets we had accumulated our stash, but no, the bright lights and music just tempt you with more things! I liked roaming around Ximending just for observing the colour, the hecticness the youthfulness of it all. It's a great place to take some happy snaps too. 

The colourful Ximending 

We were there until dark!

Red Theatre - Building with a difference @ Ximending

CKS Memorial Hall 中正紀念堂 & National Theatre & Concert Hall
Most visitors come here by day, but since we didn't have many days left I thought a night trip would be appropriate especially since they light up the National Theatre & Concert Hall. I never managed to take photos of this place at night last time, so was eager to do so this trip. It was probably a good idea as we didn't spent too long out here due to the cold and winds! 

Liberty Square by night

National Concert Hall by Night

CKS Memorial - this is worth a visit during the day.

National Theatre Hall (side view)...how gorgeous by night

Kiki Restaurant
I really wanted to try this restaurant in 2009, in fact I booked it for my own Farewell Taipei dinner but had to cancel it at the last minute. And I am so glad we went this time. Kiki specialises in Sichuan style cuisine 川菜 which is a Chinese cuisine known for being spicy, and one of my favourite cuisines. Since there were only two of us diners, we were a bit overwhelmed with the menu so ended up ordering Chicken with sesame and pepper sauce 椒麻雞 and sitr fried cabbage. Initially we were surprised with our choices - a) we didn't realise the Chicken dish was a 'cold' dish. (The menu comes in English, so really no excuses) b) the cabbage dish looked rather ordinary. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find the food was just SO GOOD. I can't really describe the taste here but it was just delicious! This is a great place to dine in Taipei, and you will find many locals dining here enjoying a hot pot meal in the winter months. We were amazed with all our neighbouring diners and the fact that they could eat on average 4 dishes between 2 people, yet we were struggling! I love Chinese food. I have to say, when it is cooked and presented well, nothing beats it! At the end of the dinner, total damage was only AU$15 for 2. Another bargain!! But in a great setting. 

Kiki is now so popular that you can find a few branches in Taipei & one in Taichung. We went to the original store in East Taipei. 

Address: 復興南路一段28號 

Delicious Sichuan-style food

Brown Sugar Lounge Bar

For some reason I didn't manage to go to Brown Sugar at all when I was there in 2009 for 3 months. (I don't know why? I just ended up being occupied with other things!) So this time I really wanted to go to this popular jazz lounge bar. Again, so glad we went as it was a Wednesday and 'Ladies Night' where we both got 2 free glasses of Moet champagne (we think it was Moet because of the glass it came in, and the taste was just so much better than the champagnes we've tasted before!). Here they had a jazz band performing on stage for a good hour or two. It was the perfect way to end our hectic day roaming around Taipei city. 
Moet + Jazz = Perfect way to wind down on a holiday.

Address: 台北市松仁路10號(near Taipei 101)

At the bar @ Brown Sugar...had no where else to sit!

I was really fascinated by the lighting here

Marissa with her Moet & jazz band in the background