Taipei Day 1

We made plans to Taiwan about 1.5 months ago, when my bestie suggested the place for a short break. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to make it, so I went with another friend instead. There was a lot of research done for this trip - Matta Fair, Lonely Planet and my favourite, Tripadvisor :).

It took us ages to decide if we should follow a tour - Taipei Free & Easy, or greater Taiwan, or if we should just do it on our own. Finally, after much debates and when cheap flights were available through MAS, we decided to plan our own trip. 6 days Taipei and County :).

I love looking out the window on flights :)

Our flight was at 0940 which meant that we had to get up at some ungodly hour (as I've been sleeping till almost noon since I got back from Japan :P) to catch plane. Thankfully, we both managed to sleep most of the way in the plane so we were pretty refreshed after that.

Our hotel was located about 5 minutes walk from Shuang Lian MRT station, which was pretty convenient. Evergreen Bus Line services the route to that MRT station, the journey only costing TWD 135 which was really cheap! :)

VIP Double Room

Our hotel wasn't a hotel as of such, it was most like a cross between an inn & a business hotel. But it suited us fine. The hotel was pretty clean, the room spacious for the price, the free internet access, the huge bathroom (which has steam/sauna facilities). Most importantly, it was near a MRT station.

We quickly checked in, and headed out to Long Shan Temple as our first destination. Located above Yuan Shan MRT station about 6 stations away. We did have to make a change at Taipei Main Station, but that wasn't too hard :).

Long Shan Temple Entrance

There is actually several Long Shan Temples in Taiwan itself, and there's two in Taipei itself, one in Danshui and the other in Wan Hua, the latter is which we visited. There was quite a few people in there while we were there for a weekday, but I suppose we were there at the peak 'praying' hour. The chantings seems to exude a sense of warmth :).

There is a small artifical waterfall and pond to the left of this picture which had a few fishes in there, a nice touch to the temple.

Candles and prayers

Long Shan temple is regarded as one of the bigger and oldest temple in Taipei, built in the 18th century by Fujianese immigrants. It displays architecture styles of southern chinese. The temple has been destroyed several times by natural disasters and war, but the people has rebuilt it over and over again without fail.

Main temple building

There wasn't any English brochures on site, but according to LP, "The story goes, a passer-by left an amulet of Guanyin hanging on a tree at the site of the present temple, and the amulet shone so brightly, even after dark, that all who passed by knew that the site was blessed". Hence eventhough the temple has many deities, it's main central deity is Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy).

This is located towards the back of the main temple, where more deities are prayed. The square lights is an appreciation symbol to all who has contributed to the construction of this temple. Each square represents an individual, family or organization.

Offerings to the gods on the table

Just outside Long Shan Temple, there is a night market on Guang Zhou Street which caught our eye before we even went into the temple. At that time, vendors were just setting up so when we left the temple, the timing was perfect!

Guang Zhou Night Market

Squid stall - Dried & grilled available

Grilled corns with optional sesame seeds

Deep fried pork spare ribs

There was so much snacks sold in the market that we had a tough time deciding what to eat! We definitely tried the spare ribs and had bubble tea, but I can't seem to remember what else we had. Hehehe..


As it wasn't too late when we left the market, we decided to visit Taipei 101 as it was on the same metro line (Bannan Line), eventhough it was on the other end. The closest MRT station to Taipei 101 is Taipei City Hall, which isn't near at all. It was at least a 15 minutes walk and there wasn't much direction upon exiting the station. So, we were navigating in the dark :( .

One of the many entrances to Taipei 101
*No picture of building as I had the shaky-hands syndrome*

Ticket counter, located on 5F

Taipei 101 - completed in 2004, was one of the tallest building in the world standing at 508 metres. Comprised of 101 floors, floors 85-91 are open to public, 85-87 restaurants and 88-91 observatory decks (89F indoor, 91F outdoor)

Shopping mall on the lower grounds

Taipei 101 is also famous for it's elevator, boosting a top speed of 1,010 metres per minute. They building is also built for earthquake and wind resistance up to gale winds of 60 meters per second. Having built on 380 piles, 80 metres into ground and 30 metres into bedrock making it one of the most stable buildings in the world.

There was some talk about wind dampers or something... but I wasn't sure what it was, and I soon lost interest. But I think it serves as a buffer to counter strong winds, so minimize the amount of swaying the building might do in event of strong winds. One can see the damper on the 88F.

The 4 famous mascots of Taipei 101

View from the top

One with Silver Damper Baby :D

There is 4 of them : Red, Gold, Silver and Black. But I totally forgot what they each are suppose to mean.

One of the exhibits in the observatory

Thankfully, when we first got to the building we saw signages in the mall for shuttle bus to MRT station. We were so delighted to know that we won't need to walk back to the station! There wasn't a timetable on how frequent the bus was, but we waited for about 10 minutes before getting on to one, but oh well, so long I didn't have to navigate in the dark anymore! The funny thing was, when we got to the station, we tried looking out for signages which says shuttle bus to Taipei 101, but we couldn't see one. All I can say to those who are going there from the station, ask someone there if they knew which bus stop to be at for the shuttle bus ( as there are quite a few).

When we got back to Shuang Lian, we were starving so we decided to have dinner at one of the stalls on our walk home from the station. We stopped at a shop instead and had some yummy tofu noodle soup, "Siow Long Bau" aka small dragon buns, and a cold appetizer before retreating back to the hotel.

Appetizer : Cold Cucumbers