Exploring Taipei for a Weekend

When I learned that I could apply for a Taiwan e-visa, I jumped at the first chance I could to visit this country. The only information I had on Taiwan was that the food was great and the electronics were cheap. These proved to be true. I spent each night eating at the night markets and everything I tried was delicious! Upon further research, I found that there were actually a lot of natural parks I could visit from Taipei. However, since I only had the weekend to go around I settled on visiting the hot springs in Beitou, Elephant mountain just on the outskirts of the city, and Shifen Waterfalls, two train rides away (pictures in the next post). In between, I walked around the city, checking out the sights in the city.

National Palace Museum – home to the largest collection of Chinese art outside of China.

Beitou Hot Springs Museum – found in the middle of the park, it was the original communal hot spring in Beitou

Thermal Valley – source of the hot springs. Unlike the hot springs in Japan, people are expected to wear swim wear while bathing in the hot springs of Taipei.

Community performance at the park

The beautiful public library of Beitou, also found within the park grounds.

Longshan Temple

Taipei 101 – formerly the tallest building in the world until surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in 2009. Has one of the fastest elevators in the world.

One of the dampeners used to stabilize the tower during typhoons. Incidentally, the week before I arrived, it experienced the largest displacement due to a typhoon.