Taipei, Taiwan

Categorized | china, Taipei, Traveling in Asia

Tags | chiang kai shek, chinese taipei, Taipei, taipei 101, taipei china, taipei information, taipei taiwan, taipei travel, taiwan

Taipei, Taiwan

Posted on 05 June 2010 by Mike Behnken

Taipei, Taiwan, Taking a Trip down Memory Lane

I purposely waited to write my primary post about Taipei because I really had nothing to compare it to other than Hong Kong and all of your average Chinatowns that I’ve been to. When I went to Taipei, other than my Taipei Lonely Planet Travel Guide, I really didn’t know what to expect. I thought Taipei would be yet another large bustling Asian metropolis. Now that I’ve been to mainland China including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai I feel I can write a little more about Taipei.

I actually got the trip to Taipei before I booked my weekend trip to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand the earlier weekend. I didn’t realize it when I did that traveling 2 consecutive weekends is not a good idea. The previous weekend I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Chiang Mai returning to Bangkok Monday Morning and I was scheduled to go to Taipei on Thursday which only gave me 3 days at home to catch up on this blog, tourismPICS.com amongst other things.

After I realized that traveling 2 consecutive weekends was probably not a good idea it was already too late to re-book the flight for the next weekend. I also saw a poor weather forecast which included lots of cloudy skies and fog which makes taking good photos difficult as well. Even though the next weekend was supposed to have better weather, I decided not to re-book and lose the few thousand baht I spent on the original tickets.

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall in the center of the city of Taipei

Getting to Taipei

Lucky for me Taipei is only around 3 hours away from Bangkok. I did a few searches on major flight search engines but found nothing cheaper than what AirAsia offered. I took the painless 3 hour flight from Suhamabhumi to Taipei International and following the Taipei Lonely Planet guide’s advice, I took a bus from the airport to the city.

The drive in from the airport to the city was pretty long. The bus had 3 drop off points which were relatively close to the hotel I booked for the first night. I ended up getting off the bus at the first stop and then taking a taxi to the hotel which coincidentally was named First Hotel.

Typical Brightly Lit Taipei Street

Places to Stay in Taipei

I booked a hotel for the first night only beforehand because I wanted to make sure it was in a good neighborhood, write a couple more posts for this blog and of course the hotel only had 1 night available. Maybe it was due to the fact I tried to postpone my trip to Taipei but I found it difficult to find hotels online. I ended up calling hotels which happened to be full, and asking them for the numbers of hotels which possibly had vacancies. I ended up staying at the following hotels in Taipei.

Places to Stay in Taipei: First Hotel

Places to Stay in Taipei: Dolomanco Hotel

Things to Do in Taipei

Just all Asian cities, Taipei has all the shopping anyone could hope for. Whether you want expensive designer handbags or cheap knock-offs, you can find it in Taipei. Here are some of the tourism attractions I had a chance to experience in the city of Taipei.

Taipei 101

Core Pacific City

Visit Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

River Bicycle Ride

Overall Impression

I truly believe I missed out by visiting Taiwan without leaving Taipei. Like I mentioned in the introduction, Taipei is a relatively small city and with the language barrier it was very difficult to get around in a timely manner. Looking in the Taiwan Lonely Planet Guide I saw many very beautiful sites that I wish I went to.

I can’t speak for Chinese speaking people but I would recommend anyone going to Taiwan to spend no more than 2 days in Taipei. Plan your trip well ahead and plan your excursions outside of Taipei and see the beautiful natural as well as historic man-made attractions that Taiwan has to offer.