We visited Taiwan from August 25th to August 30, stayed there for 5 full days, visited 5 places - Hsinchu, Sun Moon Lake, Taichung, Taipei and Taroko National Park.
Day 1 Arriving at Taiwan, Stay at Hsinchu
I flew to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and landed around 4:30pm, and I drove to Hsinchu to meet Lily at Hotel Royal. She was at Taiwan the previous several days for business.
First impression of Taiwan was great.
People at airport and car rental place were nice. The way Taiwanese speak Mandarin is endearing.
The long viaduct along the west coast is old but made me feel the wisdom of the planner for the viaduct. The west coast of Taiwan is highly populated, and has many old buildings.
Taiwan is mountainous and very green, soothing to my eyes.
I arrived at Hsinchu around 6:15pm, rush hour time. There were traffic jams near the hotel. It took me 20 minutes to drive 2 km! But there was no horn, and traffic was orderly.
The hotel Royal's management of the parking was very impressive - double parking and double stack parking through mechanical platforms, which doubles or maybe even triples their parking capacity.
 |
| the five star hotel Royal |
 |
| The mechanical parking platform |
The street in front of the hotel is narrow, no side walk, and full of neon light signs for restaurants, auto shops, doctors offices … we sampled different street food for dinner along the street.
 |
| Hsinchu street |
Day 2/3 Sun Moon Lake
We left Hsinchu for Sun Moon Lake early in the morning, and had breakfast at a rest stop and filled the car's tank as well.
 |
| service center at rest area |
We arrived at Sun Moon Lake near 11am on day 2, rented bikes and cycled at the Moon Lake side. We completed our 16km ride before it started to rain around 3:30pm.
 |
| Ci'en Pagoda on top of hill in a rainy evening |
 |
| Going at last hour made it possible for us to have lunch at the Michelin Star restaurant Yu Yue Lou without reservation |
Day 3/4 Taipei
We arrived at Taipei on Day 3 evening, and stayed at the hotel Sparkle at the foot of Taipei 101. It happened to be a moon-lit clear night, we had great view of the high rise and the city.
 |
| Tuned Mass Damper on 88th floor of Taipei 101 |
We left our rental car at the hotel on day 4, and visited several places of Taipei by bus and on foot - National Taiwan University (NTU), Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial and Elephant Mountain. Meeting a graduate school classmate at NTU is another highlight of the trip.
 |
| National Taiwan University main library |
 |
| Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall |
Day 5/6 Taroko National Park
We left Taipei for Taroko on the morning of Day 5. It was a 150km drive.
We were once again amazed by the bright green mountains along the highway. The east coast of Taiwan is very beautiful. The Taroko National Park, famous for its mountains, streams, water falls, definitely requires a separate blog to summarize our experience.
We stayed at the Moment Hotel in Hualian for the night of Day 5, which is only 30 minute drive from Taroko. We went back to Taroko on the morning of Day 6 at 7:30am to hike on Shakadang trail in the early morning. We had the area all for ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed the hike.
We left Taroko around 10am for Taiwan Taoyuan International airport to return home in a 4pm flight.
The trip to Taiwan, with 1000+ km drive, made me love the place and its people!
 |
| A section of Taroko Gorge |
 |
| The mountain range at Taroko |
 |
| A emerald green water pool on Liwu Stream of Taroko Gorge |
 |
| 1000+ km road trip of northern Taiwan |
Notes
1. Lily added a night stay each at Sun Moon Lake and Taroko National Park, which made our trip so much more enjoyable and less stressful, and we had more time at the two gems of Taiwan.
2. Avis car rental at Taiwan Taoyuan international airport is quite different from US. It operates only from 9-6. Customers can not drive the rental off the parking lot, or return the car to parking lot. Rental agent will do both.
3. Most places don't accept international credit cards. Tourists need cash for shopping especially at street food stalls, and smaller stores, restaurants.
4. An interesting observation is that Taiwan is "progressive" about gender neutral restroom - at hotspots for international tourists and on NTU campus
 |
| male restroom is doubled as gender neutral restroom at Sun Moon Lake |
 |
| The restroom at NTU library is true gender neutral - no separate restrooms for male and female |
No comments:
Post a Comment