Taiwan – Day 2 (Ximending – Going Around Taipei)

Itinerary for the day: Ximen Station, Yuan Shan Station, Confucius Temple, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, K Underground Mall, Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, Elephant Trail, Jian Tian Station, Shilin Night Market, Ximending Walker

Since we had a hectic schedule on our first day, we decided to just tour around Taipei at our own pace. Because of this, we slept in a bit to make up for the early morning flight from yesterday. For this day, we mostly visited artistic, cultural, historic, and gastronomic sites.

After having our breakfast at the hotel, we went to Ximen Station to buy a 1-day Taipei Metro Card. This card allowed us to take unlimited train rides in Taipei. They also offer similar cards for multiple-day use so you can get that if you’re staying longer.

Once we got our cards, we took the green line to Zhongshan Station then the red line to Yuan Shan Station. After a few minutes’s walk, we reached Confucius Temple. Upon entry, you can easily notice the amount of architectural details put into the temples. From the pillars to the roof to the bells, the creators had intricately etched every detail in place. Also, in one of the rooms, you can ask a calligraphy master to write a charm for you. This can either be related to health, wealth or even love.

Note: When entering temples, there’s a threshold by the door that one should skip-through and not step on. Apparently, stepping on it is a sign of disrespect.

Note: Do you recognize the person on the mural? It’s Guan Yu! He’s a general who served under Liu Bei. Most of the Chinese history I know are from playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dynasty Warriors. Who said games can’t be educational!?

You can also visit Baoan Temple Garden and the Dalongdong Baoan Temple right across the street if you’re up for it.

As soon as we were done with our cultural immersion, we decided to head back to Yuan Shan Station but not before checking out Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

There are a lot of interactive art installations in the museum and some were quite interesting. There’s one room wherein you can do a shadow play. Then there’s another room where you can do modelling of sorts. The one above is actually a space where different people placed and connected strings however they wanted.

After that, we headed to K Underground Mall in Taipei Main Station for a rather late lunch. To be on the safe side, I ordered dumplings and milk tea! You can never go wrong with milk tea in Taiwan!

When we were done eating, we visited Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. Since we studied in CKSC and that’s where we all met, dropping by here was a no-brainer. At least to thank the person up there you know? However, we didn’t bother going up the halls since there were a lot of places we still had to go to.

With CKSC Memorial Hall out of the way, we went ahead to Elephant Trail to have a good view of Taipei 101. For this one, it’s advised that you go around 3:00 – 4:00 pm. There’s a hefty amount of stairs you’d have to go up to in order to get a good view. Also, come sun set, there aren’t going to be any lights so going down can get difficult.

Note: If you’re not in it for the view of Taipei 101, you can head directly to the place instead. The first few floors serve as a mall with shopping and dining options while the top floor is an observatory / viewing deck.  

Because of my condition, I refrained from tiring myself so I decided to wait for Sheila and Shiela. However, both of them didn’t reach the peak and just stopped by a viewing deck. On the way down, we rested at a Family Mart and to re-hydrate ourselves. While they were resting, I took a look around at the selection their convenience stores have. Taiwanese really love their milk tea and so do I! Cha Time in a box anyone?

After resting, we took the TRA to Jian Tian Station (one station away from Shilin) to reach the Shilin Night Market. From the station, just follow the long trail of people and you’ll reach the night market. Night markets in Taiwan are usually a mix of shopping and dining but we went there for the food so… Food it is! Below are just some of the things we munched on:

Tip: Jian Tian station is actually nearer to Shilin Night Market than Shilin Station.

Baked Oysters

Beef Cubes

Fried Chicken

Some cheesy, vegetable thingy. It’s great actually!

Glutinous Mochi

Tip 1: You should take an empty plastic with you to keep your trash in. Or you can ask other stalls to throw them for you. *Pero nakakahiya rin kung hindi ka bumili sa kanila…!*

Tip 2: A lot of the stalls offer similar selections. If you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, you can simply fall in line where everybody else is. Although to be honest, it’s the same wherever you buy it. Food is still food!

After surviving the throngs of people, we went back to Ximending and roamed around the nearby Ximending Walker, another (mostly) shopping and dining destination.

Here, we went for our last dessert at Three Sisters.

The interior of their diner is ladled with scribbles from guests. Some of the tables and chairs got them too!

Their shaved ice is *so* good! Heck, it can’t even be called ice. Ice doesn’t look that silky and white! It’s milky snow! I’m going all over the place but good heavens, just try it!

Soon after, we went back to our hotel in order to pack up. Tomorrow was going to be another long day as we scheduled a tour around the north. In the evening, we will also be flying back to Manila. And that’s it for the very productive day 2 at Taipei!