Taipei, Round One

We took a bus into Taipei this past Sunday, our first forage outside of sleepy Hsinchu. Although Taipei did not feel like the center of the universe (certainly no London, Madrid, or Washington D.C.), it was a welcome change. Vendors at outdoor markets hawk everything from ornate Buddha sculptures, to $1.10 DVDs of classic American movies, to homemade wines. I did not try the homemade wine.

Taipei has a diverse collection of museums, such as The Museum of Drinking Water, the Paper Making Museum, the Museum of World Religions, and the world-renowned National Palace Museum. On route to the Taipei Discovery Museum, I was accosted by terrible robots from the future. See the picture below.

We stopped by Taipei 101, currently the worlds tallest finished building. The 1670 foot-tall building looks like a stalk of bamboo lashed together. Although I’m not generally a skyscraper nut, I appreciate that Taipei 101 has a distinctive Asian feel. Devin concurs, but she argues that it looks “like a bunch of take-out boxes stacked on top of each other.”

We capped the day with a visit to the Sun Yat-sen memorial. Dr. Sun Yat-sen was the person most responsible for ending 5,000 years of Chinese dynastic rule to establish the Chinese Republic in 1911. Think of Sun as 100 George Washingtons standing on top of each other. His hall and outdoor garden in central Taipei are appropriately gorgeous.

We’ll head back to Taipei on September 25 to visit the National Palace Museum. Stay tuned!