台北之旅
Taipei Trip - 03.2005

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Yes I know it's been more than a year but I didn't get a chance to really organize my pictures until now. Also I doubt that much has changed in the past year except for the opening of Taipei 101 :)

During the week I spent in Taiwan happened to be the week of the 2004 ROC presidential election. Needless to say that made my trip all the more interesting...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my pictures :)

第一天
Day 1

We got up at 4 AM to catch a flight from Houston to L.A. since back then the direct flight from Houston to Taipei hasn't started yet. Usually we take 中華航空 China Airline but this time we're trying 長榮航空 EVA Airline, these two are the only Taiwanese airlines that fly to the U.S. I believe.

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EVA Airline

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China Airline

After a 14 hour flight, we finally arrived in CSK International Airport. The flight was pretty pleasant but having spent 14 hours in one spot simply wore me out. I didn't get to take many pictures except for this one.

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第二天
Day 2

My brother and I stayed with our cousins in Guishan and every morning we take the train to Taipei.

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A Taipei MRT station

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The Taipei Zoo MRT Station in Muzha. I like how they painted the chimney with a cartoon giraffe.

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The Taipei Zoo MRT Station entrance.

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My first sighting of Taipei 101, you can pretty much see it anywhere in Taipei as the city's physical size isn't that big and Taipei 101 is just simply extremely tall.

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Leaving Muzha on the MRT

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The Muzha MRT Station. I noticed that Taipei started using Hanyu Pinyin for all the public signs, which I thought was wonderful. Before, all the signs were using a bastardized version of the Wade-Giles Chinese romanization system, which made no sense. For example, "Kuting" could've been Guting, Guding, Kuting, or Kuding, no one would know for sure.

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The outside of the Muzha MRT Station. The whole Muzha MRT line has stations that look like that.

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If I remember correctly, this is the 忠孝東路站 Dongxiao East Road Station.

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One of the many things that really impressed me was how orderly people in Taiwan have become. There has been much improvement since the last time I went back to Taiwan which was in 1997. For example, when taking the escalator, anyone who isn't in a hurry would stay on the right side. In contrast... here in Houston, TX, it's not uncommon to see people taking up both sides of the escalator or just the wrong side, making it impossible to pass people up.

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It was toward the end of the day and my brother and I were heading back to Guishan. Here is a picture of the inside of the Taipei Train Station, which is also directly connected to the MRT underground.

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An interesting robot I found in the Taipei Train Station. Its shield has the symbol of the Taiwan Railroad Commission, which is a 台 with a rail in the middle.

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I also noticed that 桃園 Taoyuan has also become more lively. This is right outside the Taoyuan Train Station.

第三天
Day 3

We got back to Taipei the next morning.

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I believe this is the 台電 Taidian Building.

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An underground MRT station. Stations that are near the center of Taipei tend to be underground while the stations in the outter skirts are above ground.

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We arrived at the 信義區 Xinyi District where Taipei 101 is located.

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I remember seeing Taipei 101 in real life for the first time, my jaws simply dropped.

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Of course, the Taipei 101 observation deck wasn't opened yet but the mall next to it was. Here is the entrance into the mall.

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The architectural design inside the mall.

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Another shot of the inside of the mall.

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Xinyi District

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Xinyi District

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Xinyi District

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A mock statue of liberty right outside New York New York, a shopping center. The statue of liberty is always holding one product or another promoting it.

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The front of Warner Village, another shopping center with a movie theatre.

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Walking towards 新光三越 shopping center.

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A large screen showing the Apple iPod commercial.

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Another shot of 新光三越.

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An interesting building in Xinyi district. The lights keep changing although it's difficult to tell in this picture.

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I saw this ad in a MRT subway station and got hungry so we had instant noodles that night.

第四天
Day 4

We went back to Taipei the next day and joined a KMT rally for ovesea Chinese. We got free t-shirts, posters, flags, and bunch of other swags. But of course, due to political reasons, I will not post those pictures here.

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This was right before the rally, which was held infront of the Dr. Sun Yatsen memorial hall (the yellow roof building).


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After the rally, we were all pretty tired so we went back to Taoyuan and had dinner at the 夜市 nightmarket.


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Entrance to the Taoyuan Nightmarket.

第五天
Day 5

We decided since we couldn't go to the top of Taipei 101, we'll go to the second tallest building in Taipei, which is the Shin Kong tower.

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Shin Kong Tower

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A shot from above.

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Another shot.

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West side of Taipei.

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It was very cloudy that morning.

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CSK Memorial Hall.

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A street in Taipei.

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Taipei Train Station.

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You can see the Presidential Palace at the right.

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Taipei 101.

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員山飯店 Yuanshan Hotel (What's the English name?)

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A park.

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The Presidential Palace up close.

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Looking back at the Shin Kong tower.

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The 小南門 Small South Gate infront of the KMT headquarters and Taipei 101 in the back among the clouds.

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A traffic light for pedastrians, the number above tells you how many seconds are left before the light changes. I also like the little man who walks when it's green and stops when it's red.

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The sky finally started to clear up when we arrived at the CSK Memorial Hall.

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I just love the details.

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This is probably my favorite picture from this trip. I thought those were doves but turned out to be just pigeons.

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The CSK Memorial Hall MRT subway station.

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A park next to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. My cousin told me that since the recent drought, the city stopped filling this place with water, so now it looks crappy.

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The outside of Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

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We arrived at 西門丁 Ximending later that night.

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It was election night and there was a big screen broadcasting the results as they come in live. It was almost like watching a sports game. Everytime one side takes the lead, you'd hear half of the people there cheer while the other half groan. It was rather exciting.

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Another shot of Ximending.

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第六天
Day 6

It was our last day in Taiwan. We got to the CSK International Airport early in the morning for our long flight back to L.A. then eventually Houston.

I noticed that there were a lot of Vietnamese at the airport, making a pit stop in Taipei from Vietnam to the U.S.

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Great post! Good news that no fighting broke out in Ximen as the election results were in progress.

Great photos, you should come to Taipei more often.

Great photos, you should come to Taipei more often.
I wish I had the time and money :)

I was born and raised in Taipei actually. I didn't leave for the U.S. until I was 10. Unfortunately, I've only been back three times since then... :(

I was born in 新店 and then moved to 景美 although I went to school in 木柵 :)

How wonderful journey while you are back HOME~~~~~

You are the man!


I didn't know that it would be this beautiful. I gotta go there :D

Thanks for the pictures : )

My friend who visited Taipei said that the Muzha elevated metro line is pretty popular. Any idea why they chose to use a moderate-capacity line instead of the heavy rail used in the other lines?

Really nice pics. . .crisp and colourful. thanks!

Awesome pics. The hotel is simply called The Grand Hotel (Taipei) in English.

awsome shots! gotta see taipei some day

Thank you so much Pangu. You should've posted the rally pictures, blue or green, I just love to see the spirit of democracy in Taiwan (although a tad rowdy at times, I think we can call it.. 'vibrant.' ;) ). I'm glad they switched to Hanyu Pinyin, because I pulled out the MRT map I had from 2000, and it clearly says Mucha. That must've been really confusing for foreigners and overseas businessmen... probably even Taiwanese.

Stanford: I'll post the rally pictures in our skybar :)

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=224606

My parents had just got home from a trip to Taiwan.But they took much less pictures than you.I found more impressions of Taiwan here than watching my parents' pictures

Really nice picture of Taiwan.....:D

員山飯店 Yuanshan Hotel (What's the English name?)

Grand Hotel 圓山大飯店

CSK Memorial Hall. and CSK International Airport

Would be CKS 中正紀念堂/蔣介石国際机場第二航站

A park.
Named 228 Park, former to New Taipei Park 二二八紀念公園,原台北新公園

We arrived at 西門丁 Ximending later that night.
西門町

ＷＯＮＤＥＲＦＵＬ！！什么时候来内地呀！！！

ＷＯＮＤＥＲＦＵＬ！！什么时候来内地呀！！！
中國大陸我可是去過很多次了。 :) 可惜都沒有照太多照片 :(

Wow,Taipei is just so beautiful.

Now i know you're a 第一专家 photographer,Pangu :)

Correct me if i said it wrong.

Wow,Taipei is just so beautiful.

Now i know you're a 第一专家 photographer,Pangu :)

Correct me if i said it wrong.
Haha, I know what you're trying to say. Thanks but I still have much to learn :)

nice pics pangu!!
I will go to Taipei・・・,someday :|

My friend who visited Taipei said that the Muzha elevated metro line is pretty popular. Any idea why they chose to use a moderate-capacity line instead of the heavy rail used in the other lines?
I think it was because of the curves that are required for both Muzha and Neihu lines... I remember that I had read something about the minimun requirement for curve radius for the other line is around 250m, and Muzha and Neihu probably just don't have the space for them...

Very nice photos,

Thank you very much

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I am wondering when this '小南門-shao nan men?- small southern gate' was built?

You live in Houston? I had no idea...