Beacon Dan Bing and The journey to find Lin Tian Barrel Store

My adventure began at 10am. We took train from Ying Ge to Taipei. It was similar with KTM train from Singapore-Malaysia. Initially we wanted to go to Taipei Main Station (the MRT station), but when we found out that we passed Wan Hua, me and aunt decided to alight at Wan Hua, the Old Taipei. Most of the shops still closed, but we found a food stall and had breakfast. I had beacon Dan Bing, which is beacon inside of egg (dan) and fried flour (bing). I love this so much and ate it every day in Taipei. Me and my aunt suspected that my sulfur-aroma-of-fart in 4 days in Taipei was caused by beacon dan bing *duhh*

Beacon dan bing and my guide book

After we had breakfast, we read the map and walked to Qingshui Temple. When we passed the temple, my aunt said, “No..it can’t be this temple. It’s very small.” Then I replied, ”But it’s in the guide book!” So it’s actually the correct temple, but it’s not really a tourism object. But we were happy to find the temple. We continued to walk to find other temples in the guide book, but after we walked for quite long, my aunt screamed, “hah??? How come we are in Cheng Du road?” We checked the map again and it turned out that we walked to the wrong direction. Grrr… Since we had walked for quite long, we cancelled the “mission” to find Longshan temple and decided to continue walking to Ximen Ding instead. It was a shopping district and a place where many youths hang out. Then we entered a red building to feel air-con. Hahahaha. The red building is The Red House, a two-story octagonal building built by the Japanese in 1908. I bought some postcards there :)

Qingshui temple

Ximen Ding

The Red House

The coin - for MRT

Our next stop was 228 Memorial Museum. We took MRT from Xi Men to NTU Hospital (National Taiwan University Hospital). Thanks to Singapore MRT, I was not confused taking MRT in Taipei. Hehehehe. We arrived at NTU Hospital station and went to the Peace Park. There were quite a lot of people doing taichi, or just sitting around at the park because the weather was very good. The sun was shining, but you could feel the cool wind blew friendly J The bad news was 228 Memorial Museum was under renovation L Next, we tried to find our way to Dong Men (East Gate). Thanks to my aunt, she could read map VERY WELL! We were so excited when we found Dong Men, and the surprise is… the characters written at the picture of Dong Men in the guide book were different with the ones written on the real gate. My aunt said it’s because the former president changed it, but she couldn’t read the characters. I think the former one in the photo referred to Chiang Kai Shek, but the current characters, according to Ai Ida only meant “public park” (I’m really not sure about this). Then my aunt found a spot to sit in front of National Theatre, while I walked around by myself at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. 

228 Memorial Museum

At Dong Men - Can someone tell me what the characters mean??

Inside Chiang Kai Sek Memorial Hall

birds-birds-birds everywhere!!

It was already around 1pm and the worms in my stomach started to scream! However, we decided to continue our journey to Taipei 101 Tower (101=yi-ling-yi). Ohh!! I almost forgot to write about the National Library. When we walked to MRT station, we passed the national library and saw people studying!! (evil laugh coz I finished my exam :P). 

National Library, opposite Dong Men

Study hard, guys!!

The journey from Taipei City Hall MRT Station to Taipei 101 Tower was not short, luckily this time my aunt knew the way. We had niu ru mian (cow something noodle?). I didn’t take the lift to the top of the tower, we literally only ate and went to toilet in the tower which also used to be the tallest skyscraper. Ohh! I also took picture with cute reindeers :)

Niu ru mian

At the mall next to Taipei 101

Next stop : Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. It LOOKED near on the map, ONLY 1 mrt stop way. But we were already quite tired and took the MRT. It was a nice place too. I randomly went to an exhibition which was filled with so many abstract Chinese calligraphies but I didn’t understand, so I just enjoyed the main exhibition of Sun Yat Sen’s personal belongings. After that we took MRT (again) to go to Lin Tian Barrel Store which was established since 1928 according to the guide book. At that moment, my aunt scolded me for proposing to walk from Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall to the store. Hehehehe. I totally forgot that everything LOOKED near to each other on the map :P

It was already dark when we alighted at Zhongshan MRT station. It was a hectic area and we had to walk through underground to cross the road. We were already walking for quite long when we realized that the even number was at the opposite road so we have to walk back and crossed the road. When we finally found the store, my aunt laughed at me, “Daaaaa.. yah..it’s ONLY a barrel store” Yeah..it’s ONLY a barrel store.. The photo in the guide book showed the picture of the old man making the barrel, so what I imagined was a big store with people making the barrel, but it was only a SMALL barrel store. However, I encouraged myself and my aunt (we were both tired) and told her “Yes, but it is 72 years old!! See? Even the name of the store has faded out. We also have visited a place that is not visited by other tourists”. Then we took picture J

Actually in Central Taipei, there were so many other things to see: Fine Arts museum, Paper Museum, Puppet Centre, but it was too late. We were thinking of going to Taipei Film House, but after we walked for quite long and got lost, we gave up and took MRT to Dan Shui.

Sun Yat Sen's

meditation outside Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall

the barrel store

See the board? It's a historical barrel store!!

The Chinese Brush shop reminds me of Edbert and John Sim

There were lots of things to see in Dan Shui. I tried the “Iron Eggs” (very hard to be chewed L) and the tall ice cream. We entered a ‘shop’ which had weird animals and collections. Honestly, I felt scared inside. They had lots of collections of freeze animals, eg squirrel with two heads, or real animals like superhuge rabbit and furry turtles, and at the top of each collection, they had picture of strange phenomenon like the ones portrayed in Ripley’s believe it or not. When I walked out, I told my aunt, it seems that they didn’t treat the animal well. Hhhh..

Iron Eggs

See?? it doesn't even have space to move!!

the "freeze" spider..ahhh what's the English term for the process of keeping the dead real animal in its shape? (i think the animal was still alive when they put chemicals on the animal, am I correct??)

the "creepy" museum with weird collections

i love ice-cream!! ping qi lin!!

I was actually tired of walking, but deep inside my heart, I felt that I only visited a few places and I wish I could visit more places. I tried to bring my aunt to Shilin night market, but we alighted at the wrong MRT stop. We were supposed to alight at Jiantan, but we alighted at Shilin. There I found a dog wearing cap and specs :P then my aunt called Ai Ida and complained of being tortured by me coz we walked a lot. Hehehehe. At the end of the day, we didn’t go to Shilin Night Market and took train to Ying Ge. It was very confusing!! Both I and my aunt couldn’t read Chinese characters so we only asked the security coz we didn’t know at which platform we should wait for the train to Ying Ge. When we decided to take train, someone said that the train did not reach Ying Ge, so we alighted at Shu Lin and thought that we would wait for another train. But when we alighted at Shu Lin and people were going up to the train, we asked another guy and he told us that our train went to Ying Ge, so we took the same train again. Hehehehe. 

cute dogs!!!!! the owner made it wear cap and specs :P I saw lots of dogs wearing cloth in Taipei :P

What a longggggggggggggg and fun trip in 1 day :P