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Public Zone 公開區 => Travelogues 遊記相薄 => Topic started by: chin on 29 December 2010, 04:10:14
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We went to Taipei from 19-24 Dec, with a few families from the kids' school. This is actually my first time to Taiwan, although I have attempted twice before.
For this trip, we did not go out far from Taipei city. We stayed in the Grant Hyatt. Before we went, I checked the hotel web site, and they say the hotel is in the same complex as the Taipei 101. It's true that the hotel is only 5 min walk from Taipei 101, the hotel building itself is quite old with low ceiling. Whilst Taipei 101 is very new.
With so many kids around, we chartered a small bus to take us around.
The food in Taipei is generally very good. From upscale restaurants like 高記小籠包 & 欣葉台灣菜 to street food in the various night markets. Even simple soy milk breakfast in small shops were good.
I got many chances to take taxis in Taipei - when I did not feel like going to kiddie places or after the other families left after 3 days, we took taxis everywhere. And it's very impressive that we almost all have good & friendly taxi drivers. Most of the drivers were almost too keen to help and recommend places to go, or things to do, or bits and pieces of information about Taipei. This contrast very sharply to the taxi drivers I encountered in the mainland China (and the very few times that I used taxis in the US.)
I almost never shop for 手信 when traveling. But after I came back to HK, one of my regrets was not buying some 太陽餅 & 鳳梨蘇 freshly baked from some of the shops we saw. The almost only purchase was some whiskies from the airport duty free.
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Before going to Taipei, my friends who had been there told me Jiu Fen is a must see. I think there must be enough Hong Kong people telling their friends that same, such that I heard lots of Cantonese in the street of Jiu Fen. I even bump into the owner of Sai Sha Cafe, Mr Wong. Probably half of the visitors were from Hong Kong.
The small town was a prosperous gold mining area during the Japanese colony period. The town is perhaps only a few km from a sea port, build on the slope of mountain. Large clear land was limited and the roads are very small.
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Two more pictures of the narrow street. On the first is probably the local postman. The second was peeking from a narrow alley into the main street full with tourist shops.
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Most tourist would go to 九份老街 which is really the "main street" for tourists, especially those only had a very short time in Jiu Fen. I believe the official name of the street is 基山街. For the kids in our group, the first stop and the shop that they spent most time was this magic shop. I think our group ended up spending a few thousand NT$ learning magics.
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Two views of a lookout at the end of the "main street". The nearby port can be seen upper right on the first picture.
In the second photo, the hill side decoration depicts the gold mining operation of years ago.
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Gold mining was organized in a large scale under the Japanese occupation. From what I read, the whole gold mining area was divided into two patches with mining rights went to two different Japanese companies. This is the entrance to one of the mines. The naming of the mine is very Japanese - it means mine no 5. Some of the nearby businesses was named after the mine.
When I took this picture, I heard birds inside the old mine.
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There were lots of tea houses and coffee shops along the hill side. I took this picture sitting in the balcony of one cafe, overlooking another cafe and the valley.
Besides cafes, there were also many 民宿 - bread & breakfast type of small hotels. Many of them very Japanese in style. (And one of the strongest impression from my first Taiwan trip was the very visible strong Japanese influence in almost everywhere.)
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The streets of Jiu Fen were actually very interesting. As soon as we arrived, the kids went to the magic shop, and I went around into the side road and small alleys.
Among the first buildings I saw was this shop with very nice and artistic front. Too bad it wasn't open so I don't even know what they sales. Note the deco in the store front was the tracks and carts used in the gold mines.
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Nice mail box was not only limited to stores. This home has another nice hand made one.
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And the mail box above belongs to this nice looking home.
In Jiu Fen, everywhere you go, you see greens.
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The town is very near the sea, and Taiwan is also famous for the many typhoons every year. You can just imagine that this place has lots of rainfalls and sun. Plants grow everywhere, which is very pleasing to the eyes. But at the same time, I can just imagine how bad it can be in a strong typhoon.
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More pictures of greens everywhere. The first one was taken at the entrance to someone's home. The second photo was the wall on a small hill side alley, leading to the Gold Museum. I will have more picture of the "museums" later.
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For so many plants to grow so easily everywhere, the place must have lots of water. And as I walked the street, I heard running water in many places. The town has many sewage like water pipes, perhaps to channel the water collecting in the hill area.
Many of the sewage has covers like these - saying this is the Properties of the Town of Ruifang (where Jiu Fen belongs.)
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More nice store fronts. The first one wasn't open so I have no idea what do they sell. I like the store front very much.
The second pis is a tea house 天空之城. It's part of a group that owns a few tea houses, potteries and art galleries in Jiu Fen. Their business is scattered into a few buildings along the hill side, with one of the shops 九份茶館 occupying a hundred-year-old house (as claimed by the shop.) I quite like some of the tea cups on display in 九份茶館 but the shop keepers were too busy entertaining some Japanese visitors...
In one of their potteries, they had a 煤氣窯 in a very dusty room, creating the impression of a real workshop.
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Not all houses in Jiu Fen are nice ones like the above. In fact there were many ruins, often right next to a nice house.
Perhaps this shows how difficult it is to maintain a business or a home in Jiu Fen, that the owner rather just abandon the property and let the plants take over?!
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Plants just grow in all unlikely places. Any opening.
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During my little walk around town, I saw two gold mining "museums". None of them seems to be in business any more. And the signs and advertisement just sounded so desperate to get people in. I will translate some for non-Chinese speakers.
- Free gold mining game, get gold rocks for free
- Our museum is the best place for school field trips
- Get yourself & your kid ahead on the "golden" starting point (of life)
- How can you come to the treasure mountain not bring back some goodies
- Are you not happy with your work & career? Come to our museum to mine gold to change your luck
But the funniest sign I saw outside the gold museum has to be this one
- Thieves, there is no valuable inside in the evening! ::)
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This window cover was once part of a 牌匾, probably proudly displayed by the owner in a prominent place of the house.
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If you paid attention to some of the small details of the photos above, you can see that "cat" is a popular theme in Jiu Fen. Like in this picture.
In one of the pottery shops I went, the owner/artist was making a small cat sculpture, using her own cat as the model.
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The reason for the popularity of cat theme? Maybe simply because of the large number of stray or domesticated cats?
I found this one at the ruined house photoed above.
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More cats on the roof top. And this kind of tar roof top is also typical of old houses in Jiu Fen. In the material I read, they called the tar sheets "black cloth 黑布". They were widely used because they are water proof.
The tar roof in the second photo seemed so broken already.
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One more picture of cat, before we move on from Jiu Fen. :)
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Before the trip, I already heard about the large floral expo in Taipei and planed to visit. From their web site and other report, the Expo has 4 sites. But only after I arrived then i realized the 4 sites are actually next to each other and walking distant away.
One of the newspaper reports on the floral expo was effectively saying the floral is as big a deal as the just-finished Shanghai World Expo. I think it maybe true for people in the green plant business, but for layman like me, the scale of the floral expo is much much smaller.
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After reading the official floral expo web site and some news report, we decided to visit the 新生園區 first. The most popular attraction in this site is the 夢想館 Pavilion of Dreams, pictured below. But when we arrived, all the tickets were allocated for the day.
Too bad. But on the other hand, we have seen so many impressive hi-tech pavilions in the Shanghai Expo, I didn't think we missed too much in the hi-tech focused Pavilion of Dreams.
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The flower beds near the entrance.
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The site has many funny looking rest stops.
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More pictures later. I will take a break now.
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Good! Please upload more photos! I am thinking a place to go for Chinese New Year, Taiwan may be my choice. Does the foral expo end by that time? ???
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Never been there before.
I knew that Taiwan has long been influenced by Japan than PRC, given that they were ruled by Japanese for more than 50 years...
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Kai, see www.2010taipeiexpo.tw
The Floral Expo last until late Apr 2011. Still have plenty of time.
All my pictures already processed. I just need to upload and write the comments.
Hang, one of my school mates in university was from the family that found or owned Samsonite (the luggage brand.) He is Chinese from Taiwan, but sometimes spoke to his parents in Japanese. I was told that the older generation, especially those who prospered under Japanese rules, still can speak Japanese. For the very young generation, the attraction is the Japanese pop culture. On the street of Taipei, you can see many language schools advertising classes in American English and Japanese.
The reason I made a note about the Japanese influence is because I heard Japanese in many shops, and upscale restaurants, and in a pro-independence protest in the Palace Museum.
I think overall the influence of traditional Chinese culture is still much stronger. In fact, as I commented on the 大江大海 book, Taiwan may have preserved more traditional Chinese culture than the mainland China.
BTW I am kind of surprised that I was not the only one who had never been to Taiwan until recently. :)
Go visit during the Chinese New Year.
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2 things I would like to mention:-
1) I was told Grand Hyatt is quite popular with those "3rd encounter"...... :-[ :-[ :-[
2) Yan should be a good guide for Taiwan .....any chance to organise a Taipei golf tour... stay overnight and play 36 holes .... ;D ;D ;D
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I did not like Taiwan before because of those Taiwanese in mainland behavior (both business practice and personal), Later, I really could not understand how they can elected 陈水扁 as president for two times! However, I changed my perception after 马英九 became the president. Not because I like Ma, but I found that the power transition is in a total peaceful way! This has never been happened in China for 5000 years. This is the most democratic place Chinese people ever have. In this aspect, Taiwan is far more advance than Hk and mainland. I want to go there and feel it. :)
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OK more pictures. Still in the Floral Expo.
Since we did not get tickets to the Pavilion of Dreams, we went for the 未來館 Pavilion of Future. Why was it named Future?
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I have no idea why it had the word Future in the name, perhaps part of the pavilion has a conceptual house that is eco friendly (whatever it means)?!
Anyway, I was happy to take pictures of plants, and see the nice arrangements.
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;D
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;D
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This part is about agriculture in Taiwan. The second photo is different stages of papaya shots.
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I forgot how many hundreds of chrysanthemum flowers this plant had. Yes, it's all from one plant!
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This is supposedly a dance tree. I couldn't make out the movements.
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The next part of the pavilion is a series of walkway gradually going up. Starting from the lower section with rooms imitating low land or desert climate, the next and higher room showing plants from higher and cooler places, until the last room somewhat alpine like.
First cactus.
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More cactus.
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;D
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More nice flowers.
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Maybe some of my friends who know flowers can help name all the flowers in this thread. Anyway, I will update the names later if I can find out more.
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The final section of the pavilion has many orchids. This one looks like a funny monster face.
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The beginning of new life.
And the lifeless duck.
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At the end of the Pavilion of Future, we saw the line for the Pavilion of Angel Life.
It turned out that this pavilion just have a very short film (and uninteresting in my opinion) of flowers, nature and animations. Then the audience were led to a large lifestyle showroom. A big shop, in other words.
The photo here shows part of the short film. I thought this was the introduction to something more substantial. Perhaps I was expecting too much to see a Hollywood type production?!
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As soon as we got into the Expo site, we went for the tickets to get into 養生館 Pavilion of Regimen. For me this is a very interesting show of the best 盆景 (miniatures trees imitating much larger and older trees, or Bonsai, the Japanese term now well known in English.)
Out of the 100 or so 盆景 displays in the pavilion, about 36 were more than 100 year old!!
The collection, upkeep, and maintaining a 盆景 display is a trans-generation project, or the owner better able to find someone who can appreciate the 盆景. One of my friend told me that his dad used to have some nice ones, but none of the children were interested in keeping and taking care of the 盆景. Thus his dad had to give them away.
Anyway, this one in the courtyard is the oldest at about 550 years old!
Just imagine it began its life even before the Qing dynasty, 450 years older than the Republic of China, almost 300 years old when Queen Victoria ruled the world, about the same age as Leonardo da Vinci!!!
The 2nd phote shows details of the trunk. Old tree indeed.
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I took pictures of the 盆景 as well as the info about them. I will update the info later. Now just the photos.
Anyway, it's pretty amazing that trees like the one in the 2nd photo is still alive and well.
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I like to see 盆景 but I don't remember seeing lots of this style before. This style essentially exposed the inside of the trunk, then twist and manipulate to the required form.
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These styles are more common in my experience of viewing 盆景 in Hong Kong, Macau or China. One plays to symmetry, while the other one extreme asymmetry. :)
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This is another style that requires lots of patience and work. It essentially fused the small tree and the rock together.
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A nice wood horse in the 盆景 garden.
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The Expo site is really near a small domestic only airport. I felt that we can almost touch the airplane.
These are 3 of my many attempts to capture both the airplane and the garden around me.
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OK one more airplane picture. I hit the shutter release just when the plan passed under the sun.
My daughter said it was lucky. I told her that it was lucky plus readiness!
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OK that's all for the Floral Expo photos. The followings are some misc photos taken in Taipei.
In one morning, the kids went to the Baby Boss, a kiddie career role play kind of entertainment center. I went to the National Palace Museum instead.
The museum has the best collection of Chinese arts and antiques. When Kuomintang loss the country, they brought all the treasures with them to Taiwan. I was told that it will take years to cycle through all the collections. It was really a nice place to spend a day or even two. We went there at around 11:00, and by 16:00 was only able to see 1.5 of the 3 floors.
By then I was too tired and went to the bookstore admiring the fine books published by the museum. Just to help visualize how large a collection this museum has, they publish a monthly magazine, each contain research and articles on maybe 10 fine pieces in their collections. This monthly magazine has published more than 300 issues, and still going strong. I actually would like to buy almost all the books published by the museum.
When I was enjoying browsing the books, we heard lots of commotions and noise outside. I saw many men in dark suit rushed up to the second floor, then in about 30 seconds, I saw a middle aged woman ran up yelling and struggling. And later I learned that 陳雲林, the senior officer of the Taiwan Affair Office in from the mainland Chinese government, is visiting Taiwan and at the moment in the museum.
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As we came out of the museum exhibition halls, we saw rows of TV cameras on one side, and pro-independent protesters on the other side.
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The protesters were mainly older people, but their leader was a young man. They simply do not like their government to have any contact with the mainland government. One or two of the protesters were speaking to on-lookers in Japanese and English, asking and thanking the museum visitors for support.
And this is not the only protest we saw in the vicinity of the museum. About 200 meters outside the museum entrance is a full wall sign sponsored by 發輪功 Falun Gong. (A "spiritual" movement found by the guy who claim himself to be the reincarnation of Buddha, Guanyin, plus Jesus. Yes, all 3 in himself, the hold trinity. If he wasn't being prosecuted by the Chinese government, I don't think he will get any support from the western governments.)
One thing we noticed about Falun Gong (Falun Dafa in some English name) in Hong Kong is that they only show up making their "spiritual practice" in shopping area where there are mainly mainland tourists. They never really bother to promote or explain their "philosophy" to the local Hong Kong people. They probably realized that they would never found any market in regular Hong Kong residents.
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In the taxi back to our hotel, the driver saw the protest and was making small talks about it. He was initially very cautious in revealing his view of the protest, and Taiwan's relationship with the mainland. But at the end, he was more relax and spoke more. I don't think he consider himself any less Chinese than the mainlanders, and at the same time proud of the civil progress in the Taiwanese society - that protest is allowed and tolerated.
He commented that previously visit by the like of Chen Yun Lin would mean the closure of the meseum. But now they have enough confidence in having controls of the situation that they no longer require the museum be closed to the general public on the day of Chen's visit. The relaxation is a sign of confidence and maturity.
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His comment sort of answer Kai's comment about power transition. I personally don't think it has much to do with democracy per se. When the general populace is wealthy and prosperous, when they have a collective identity, there can be peaceful power transition.
If you read 孫中山's framework on the development of the Republic of China 建國大綱 (or some name like that, I am not entire sure), it's very clear that Sun advocated first the physical survival of the people, then secure their political rights, then onto other stages. Whenever the US government criticize the mainland China on human rights, the mainland government always point out that they lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, that the first human right is the right to survive. With this framework, Taiwan is at least one stage ahead of the mainland. I don't think the mainland can skip the different stages.
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This evening we had dinner in the 信義新天地 and on our way walking back to our hotel, we heard some nice drum play at the street corner.
As we approach the street corner, we saw this young girl playing drums. She played very well that we stayed and watched until she finished the session.
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I later found out that she's a very famous street performer in Taipei. If you search for 曼青 you can find many videos of her performance in Youtube, Yukou or Tudou. One example below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=635mEocqQkY
According to the information on the Internet, she was born in 1988, and start performing on the street at or before 18. When playing, she listen to the accompanying music from a PSP. My kids took some pictures and video of her performance. I may upload the videos later.
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I think I have uploaded most of the more interesting photos from this trip. Needless to say, I was very glad that we made this trip, and looking forward to visit Taiwan again.
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2 things I would like to mention:-
1) I was told Grand Hyatt is quite popular with those "3rd encounter"...... :-[ :-[ :-[
2) Yan should be a good guide for Taiwan .....any chance to organise a Taipei golf tour... stay overnight and play 36 holes .... ;D ;D ;D
1. What's 3rd encounter? Ghost? I don't believe in ghost. Hookers? I did not see any. Aliens? I might have seen a few... ;D
2. Stay over night is too rush. 3 days min for an enjoyable trip. I will go.
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Thanks for the sharing and photos...The lady performer is really cool......
Taiwan to me is a place where I think I will visit there when I retire. I would rather go to somewhere which is more physically demanding. However, if we have Yan to be our guide.....I will go too..... ;D
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Hang, playing in Taiwan can be very very demanding if you wish. e.g. we can go cycling in Taichung Tie-ma-Dao (iron-horse-track) with lots of landscape to see. Or we can go hiking in the Tailuge area.
However, for a relaxed person like Charles, we'd better go so natural hot springs.
Chin, did u try the High mountain tea in Taiwan. It is good too. There is a very old tea shop in Taipei city that CKS used to buy from there. Tea is a bit expensive but tastes really good.
What time you guys prefer and how many days (for golf and for other fun)??
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For me, i never played in Taipei...that's why i want to try....for tea, I tried....really gooooood...I buy some back every time..
for the schedule to play golf, I suggest starting from 17th Jan is OK for me....3days/2nights is fine for me...
the 3rd encountered I mean is ghost....I was told when I stayed there before...
::) ::) ::)
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Yes, I'd love to go to Taiwan for any place and activity! Ghost? What ghost?
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How about this?
http://www.golf007.com/travel/china/taipei.html
三日兩夜 3 days 2 nights
Hotel
東龍大飯店 East Dragon Hotel, 3480
台北凱撒飯店 Caesar Park Taipei, 3930 (不包早餐)
神旺太飯店 San Want Hotel, 3930
喜來登大飯店 Sheraton Taipei, 4440 (不包早餐)
費用包括 Package Include:
港龍航空 香港 <> 臺北來回機票
兩晚所選酒店平日住宿（二人一房）
天天早餐
統帥球會平日18洞果嶺費、球童、球車
桃園球會平日18洞果嶺費、球童、球車
香港旅遊議會印花稅
Dragonair HK <> Taipei round trip air ticket
2 nights hotel accommodation(Twin share)
Daily breakfast
Marshal Golf Club 18 holes weekday green ,caddy, buggy
Tao Yuan Golf Club 18 holes weekday green ,caddy, buggy
TIC Levy
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i am IN!!!
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Let's talk on this Saturday. ;D
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Another trip to Taiwan in Jul-2012.
I am now too lazy to take my large camera. All pictures here taken with a very small Sony RX-100 compact camera.
The first set is 3 of the many blue sky pictures taken in this trip. Note the third pic is taken inside a moving car. The compact camera somehow was intelligent enough to know it's in a less than ideal shooting situation and took 3 or 4 photos and combined them to form this.
First picture was in 九份，second picture was in 澳花公路.
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This set was taken in 野柳 geo park. By the time we arrived at just past 18:00, the park is already closed. However I saw some local fishing enthusiasts climbed over the wall at the park exit and went in, so I followed and got into the park.
The priority is to take picture of the Queen's Head 女皇頭. As you can see in the third picture, it won't last very long before the head falls off.
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I was among the many who took pictures of the Queen's Head. One guy was there for at least 30 min, setting up the tripod, etc...
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More sunset pictures. This time at 淡水漁人碼頭.
(Yeah, I know, the same spot. But the drivers all recommended the same places. This was my 2nd visit, but the first for my family.)
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We spent 3 days in Taroko 太魯閣, did a lots of short hiking. Some random pictures taken around the hotel in Taroko.
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More random pics inside the temple.
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自身難保！
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The rocks are marbles. It's amazing that a road is built and maintained through the cut out rock.
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There were a few suspension bridges in our hikes. The first on is closed because it was broken at the far end. The second pic was taken in the middle of another suspension bridge.
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九曲洞 is still closed since my last visit 16 months ago. Maybe it won't be opened again.
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did you go to any hotspring??
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did you go to any hotspring??
No, except in Taroko, we hiked down to the river which has a hot spring pouring into the river. I dipped into the hot water for awhile.
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No, except in Taroko, we hiked down to the river which has a hot spring pouring into the river. I dipped into the hot water for awhile.
野溪溫泉,一邊冷,一邊熱,最好玩!你果個應該系文山溫泉!
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野溪溫泉,一邊冷,一邊熱,最好玩!你果個應該系文山溫泉!
Yes, you know the place!
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I later found out that she's a very famous street performer in Taipei. If you search for 曼青 you can find many videos of her performance in Youtube, Yukou or Tudou. One example below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=635mEocqQkY
According to the information on the Internet, she was born in 1988, and start performing on the street at or before 18. When playing, she listen to the accompanying music from a PSP. My kids took some pictures and video of her performance. I may upload the videos later.
This girl really plays well. See this : ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK5GrK3ufqU&feature=share
The way she controlled the drum sticks is wonderful. I know this song very well and can say that she played exactly the same as the original. Very enjoyable, both visually and audibly