Trip to Vienna, 2010

To one of the most beautiful cities in the world

Alarm went off. It was 4am on a Tuesday morning. I had to catch the early train at 4.40 to Vienna. I didn't slept well that night, 3 hours was way to little. But the prospect of seeing my girlfriend later that day kept me fresh and excited. Mum drove me to the nearest railway station in Austria and I caught my train literally in the last minute. The ride was smooth and some four hours later I was in Vienna. Once in the city, I had to take the S-Bahn (city train) to Vienna International airport, which took me about half an hour.

The airport taken by my girlfriend from her plane.

I arrived at the airport around 9.20 and my girlfriend was supposed to arrive at around the same time. I headed straight to the arrival hall and had to wait. And wait. And wait...

The arrival hall at the VIA.

There were so many people waiting for their dear ones and every time someone opened that gate and came out with a load of baggage, everyone hoped it will be their friend, their lover, their relative. I had to wait half an hour before I saw a cute Taiwanese girl in a purple sweatshirt pushing a fully loaded black suitcase on wheels. She exited at the second gate and seemed a bit confused, because she didn't spot me immediately. But I saw her and I tried to find my way between the people to get to her. Few moments later she spotted me and we smiled and approached each other. We hugged.

S-Bahn from the airport to Vienna.

After the extensive hug and plenty questions about the flight and everything, we the city train back to Wien Meidling station (the currently main railway station of Vienna south), where I planned to buy a subway ticket, that lasts for 24h and you can ride as many trains as you want.

The ticket costs currently (in 2010) 5.7 euro per person and it's really worth it, if you plan to tour the historic center and go back to your hotel. Our hotel was pretty far away from the center, but by train, it was only 3 subway stations away. After getting the tickets, we headed to our hotel [Birg-Cyrus], which is located in the Favoriten district, south from the city center.

Meidling railway station.

Vienna's subway U-Bahn.

I have to say, after seeing various subways in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Kaohsiung and Seoul), I'm pretty disappointed with what I saw in Vienna. I wasn't actually bothered by the fact that some trains were old and dirty (eating is allowed in the trains), what really makes it hard for tourists is the lack of good maps and signboards in English. And when there's a train arriving, there's no warning signal nor any announcements in multiple languages, what is common in the aforementioned Asian cities. There is also no turnstiles or barriers between the subway area and the outside, you don't tap your card on scanners, but you just board trains with a ticket, which you have to keep with you at all times and there are random controls by officers, who dress up like normal people. We had such control one time, the guy stood next to us and wore a normal jacket, was unshaved and dressed pretty casually. Suddenly he said "ticket control" and showed us and other passengers his ID. The fine for not having a ticket is 70€.

The Vienna U-Bahn frustrated me few times, but after few rides I got used to it and we had no problems. But it definitely takes more time to get the grip of it than the Taipei MRT, my personal favorite subway system so far.

The Favoriten area near our hotel.

Our hotel room.

The Birg-Cyrus hotel is old and a bit ran down, from the outside and inside. The only good things are that it's located very close (3min away) from a subway station (Keplerplatz), the rates are cheap (49€ per night) and the staff is very friendly. The whole area around the hotel is mostly inhabited by Turks, you have many shops with Turkish food (like kebab). Regarding the hotel, the room was not like it seemed on the photos we found online, it was old, the walls were a little dirty, the furniture seemed to be from the 80s, the sink was broken, there was a hole in the wall... but it was a big room (like an apartment) and the shower worked well. More about the hotel (with photos) here (in another post soon).

When we freshened up and after a longer rest, we decided to walk around the city and see the most prominent sights. My girl was so exhausted from the long flight, but she still managed to walk around Vienna's historic part with me. I was really impressed and amazed, how fit and determined she was. These are the main sights we saw that first day in Vienna:

The impressive Karlskirche is a famous baroque church built in 1737.

The Naschmarkt, Vienna's most popular market. We just walked around here. You have a big variety of foods and especially fruits, but I wasn't really impressed. We left quickly.

Vienna State Opera (from 1869) was one of the favorite buildings I saw that day.

Vienna was full of horses and cottages that day. A lovely sight.

The famous Hofburg, the biggest palace in central Vienna. This part is called Michael's wing and it's from the 18th century.

We saw many famous Lipizzaner horses (Lipicanci in Slovenian), which originally come from a stud farm in Lipica, a small village in Southwestern Slovenia, the pride of my country.

Heldenplatz is one of Vienna's famous squares. Adolf Hitler, the German führer had a famous speech here in 1938 at the annexation of Austria to Greater Germany.

The other side of the Hofburg (Neue Burg part) seen from the Heldenplatz.

Volksgarten, a famous park near the Hofburg.

The impressive building of the Parliament of Austria.

The Burgtheater and a bike that wanted to take a nap.

One of my favorite buildings in Vienna: The Rathaus. I took a lot of photos here.

The Votive Church, an impressive neo-gothic building from 1879, 85m tall.

Der Graben is one of Vienna's most prominent pedestrian areas in the center.

Stephansdom in the middle of Vienna's historic center was completed in the year 1160 (makes it 850 years old!) is 107m tall and the most prominent landmark of Vienna. We walked around the whole cathedral and we even went inside. It's truly an amazing construction.

It was the last famous spot we visited that day. My girl was too tired and so was I. We went back to the hotel. The next day we only had few hours in Vienna, because we also planned to go to Bratislava in the afternoon. So I suggested we see another famous building before we leave: The Hundertwasserhaus.

This expressionist landmark of Vienna was completed in 1986 and designed by 100Wasser.

After the Hundertwasserhaus, we checked out of our hotel and headed to Wien Südbahnhof (Vienna Southern Railway Station) to take the train to Bratislava at 1.25. We had like an hour to spend and I knew there's another lovely palace in the area:

This is the Upper part of the Belvedere palace. It was a sunny day and there were some Asian tourists around there. This lovely girl was happy to be in my photo (I guess :-P).

And then it was around 1 pm and we boarded the train to Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. That will be the topic of my next blog post. Two days in Vienna really made us exhausted, but we were happy to see so much in such a short time. It wasn't my first time in Vienna (I think I've been at least 10 times here), but it was my girlfriend's first time in Vienna and Europe and she really liked it, which made me truly happy. Vienna is always worth a visit. I'm happy that I could show my girlfriend one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And then I showed her Bratislava...

[My post about GRAZ][My TRAVELS page][All photos by MKL, 2010]

We had a blast so far

in Vienna and Bratislava


Hola peeps!

How's everyone? I'm fine here, thank you very much. Just came back from Vienna and Bratislava with my girlfriend and we had a helluva good time! :) I'll blog about all the places we've been to in my uniquely Kafkaesque style when the great times are over, but let me just tell you: We're really having a blast. And so far, things went very smoothly, no big problems on the road and I hope this will continue in the next days, when we're heading to Postojna, Piran, Trieste, Ljubljana and Bled. We'll switch from train to car and cross our small country from east to west, from north to south. I won't have time to do much online, so I see and read all of you in a couple of weeks. Wish us luck, peeps! And I hope everyone's fine and enjoying themselves, too.

Regards.

Your MKL

My girl is flying to Europe for the first time!

Share some of your tips and experiences on flying long distance

Photos from my flight with EVA Air Vienna-Taipei (Feb 2010).

My lovely girlfriend will be taking her first intercontinental flight tomorrow evening and she'll be landing in Europe on Tuesday morning. It will be her first flight outside Asia and of course she's a bit nervous. She's flying alone and she has two stopovers before her final destination, where I will be picking her up.

I flew to other continents at least 12 times in my life and I must say I mostly had pleasant flights. I love the food, I love the movies and flying is fun to me, too. Sure, sometimes I had an annoying person next or in front of me, but I thought to myself: Only few hours and I'll never see that bugger again. And it worked. Even though flights, who take over 10h seem long and small things can be annoying, mostly nothing bad really happens.

You take off, you watch TV and eat. Then you sleep. Wake up, eat, watch TV and land. That's how I'd summarize an intercontinental flight. If you manage to sleep for at least 6h and watch 2 movies, the flight passes in no time and you still feel fresh when you arrive in your destination.

Of course it's even better, if you meet an interesting person on board. Last time, when I flew from Vienna to Taipei, I sat beside an older Austrian woman, who was pretty bubbly from the beginning. She was 50+ and told me how she married a man from Zimbabwe and she even lived there for a while, before they moved to Vienna and eventually split up. She told me that in recent years she's traveling to Asia. She was headed to Thailand and Cambodia at that time, where she wanted to stay for 3 months. We sat side by side and chatted like old friends most of the time. But when we reached my stopover in Bangkok, we went separate ways. It's funny, but the seemingly good friends we've became on board suddenly changed to what we were before: Strangers. We said take care and good luck and walked away pretty quickly. I probably won't ever see her again.

For me, flying long distance is a blessing. It's amazing how one day you're in Europe and the next day you're on the opposite side of the world, having a completely new life and becoming a foreigner in an instant. Isn't it like a kind of time travel? I don't know, but sometimes it's like a dream. And I feel I'm so lucky to be able to experience that. So happy that intercontinental travel is affordable these days also to average people, not only the rich. It's one thing to read about a foreign culture, it's another to see it, live it first hand. It's a precious experience and I'm so happy, that my girl has the chance to see my continent and my home country Slovenia with her own eyes. I will be her proud guy and hope she can take my encyclopedic monologues about European history, hehe.

Do you have any tips for my girlfriend about how to have a good long distance flight?
Do you have any funny experiences from your long distance flights to share?
How did you feel before and on your first intercontinental flight?

Visit Taipei! Best Taipei Travel Guide

I will tell you why I love this city and why you will love it, too!

Translations: [閱讀繁體中文版][阅读简体中文版][BERI ČLANEK V SLOVENŠČINI]

I love Taipei! How about you? Taipei City is awesome! I'm sure that some of you, who follow my blog for a while now, know how I love this city. I've been blogging about it a lot, but this post is dedicated to people, who plan to travel somewhere in Asia and don't know where they should go. I want to tell them: Come to Taipei!

Taipei is a city that never sleeps.

And if you ask why you should come to Taipei, this post will hopefully give you all the answers.

✰ Taipei what and where?

Taipei City 台北市 (or 臺北市) is a modern East Asian metropolis and the capital city of the Republic of China. It's home to roughly 2.6 million people, while its metropolitan area (or Greater Taipei 台北) is inhabited by around 6.8 million people. That may be a small city compared to other Asian global cities like Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul or Shanghai, but it's definitely big for a European guy like me. Taipei is located on the northern part of the beautiful island of ✰ Taiwan and its Chinese name "台北市" means "Taiwan's Northern City". Taipei is like a big pie cut into smaller pieces by the rivers Danshui, Xindian and Jilong laying in the Taipei basin and surrounded by beautiful mountains of Northern Taiwan also known as Xueshan range.

Taipei's modern part Xinyi lights up beautifully at night.

✰ Taipei why?

Taipei will amaze you: You'll see some of the most amazing sights in this bustling city, eat some of the most delicious food in the world, shop till you drop, meet friendly people and see the most beautiful women you'll ever see in any other city (in case you're a male reader). Taipei will fascinate you with the old and new side by side, with the modern at one corner and the traditional at another. In one day, you can see Taipei 101, Taipei's landmark skyscraper and former tallest building in the world and the National Palace Museum, the currently 11th most visited museum in the world, full of precious historic artifacts representing the history of China at its best. Want to know more? Read on.

✰ Taipei how?

First you'll need a map. And I made a great one for you. Click on it to enlarge.

The red dots ● ● ● mark Taipei's center. The Western part (on the left) consists of historic centers Wanhua and ✰ Zhongzheng, the Eastern part (on the right) is the modern center called ✰ Xinyi.

Once you have a map, make a plan. Decide what you want to see in the days you have available. I recommend you to spend at least 7 days in Taipei City or 14 days in Greater Taipei. Of course when it comes to Taipei, the more days you can stay, the better. If you truly want to get a grasp of the city, stay 30 days, you won't regret it. But that will acquire a big budget and a lot of time. If you have plenty of that, you'll have tons of fun in Taipei.

✰ Taipei: What to see, what to do?

Let me show you some of my favorite spots in Taipei City and show you around this city. I hope to give you great ideas, what you could do in Taipei, in case you plan to visit. This awesome city is a great place to visit for young and old, for Westerners and Easterners, basically for people all over the world. Below are the places I really recommend to you. See Taipei through my eyes.

IMPORTANT: All these types of ✰ Links lead to one of my own posts about the topic and they'll open in a new tab, if you hold down CTRL, when clicking on links. These types of [Links] lead to a website or a page outside my blog and will also give you further information on the topic.

✰ Taipei's amazing spots

First thing you need to do, when you arrive to Taipei, is to see one of the most incredible buildings Taipei has to offer: ✰ Taipei 101 It's not only my favorite building in Taipei, it's also the skyscraper that put Taipei on the map in 2004 by being the tallest building in the world for 6 years. Being at this time at the no 2 spot and most likely losing this position pretty quickly to some buildings currently under construction in China and Middle East, Taipei 101 will always be worth to see, because of it's design and a huge number of firsts and innovations. The 509m tall bamboo-shaped skyscraper is located in Xinyi, Taipei's modern city center. You can go to the observatory on top or dine in some of the finest restaurants on floors 85 and 86.

Taipei 101 at night always looks incredible.

A view from Taipei 101, taken in Diamond Tony's restaurant on 85th floor.

If you're also a fan of high-rise buildings, you'll love the currently second tallest building in Taipei, the 245m tall ✰ Shin Kong Life Tower It looks great at night and it's located in Taipei's old center named Zhongzheng. You can take some amazing photos there.

Dazhi bridge in Dazhi district, beautiful at night. [photo source]

I have to admit, my favorite part of Taipei is ✰ Xinyi. You don't only have Taipei 101 there, but plenty of shopping malls, cinemas, restaurants and clubs, that you'll need to spend many days and nights to see and visit all of them. Xinyi is Taipei's modern architecture at its best. It's a big, clean and a pedestrian friendly area. And you'll see a lot of middle and upper class Taiwanese shopping and eating there. It's something like Seoul's modern district ✰ Gangnam, only smaller and somewhat more pleasant to walk around, because the buildings are not as tall and as intimidating as the ones in Seoul.

Xinyi is Taipei's modern center with the famous Taipei 101.

Xinyi at dusk.

Xinyi's pedestrian area with shopping malls and department stores.

Another awesome district is ✰ Ximending, which is the biggest pedestrian area of Taipei, and a so called trendy district for young people with cinemas, restaurants, shops and clubs. You'll see all kinds of youngsters with unique fashion styles going to crazy theme restaurants and pubs. From fab to weirdo, from cool to special: Ximending is the place to be in Taipei. Even, if you're not from the young generation, it's fun to walk around. And many older people can be found there as well. It's probably the most liberal part of Taipei.

Ximending at night.

And then there's ✰ Zhongxiao East Road, Taipei's main boulevard, that connects the Shin Kong Life Tower with Taipei 101 or the Zhongzheng district with the Xinyi district, the old with the new. It's Taipei's fashion street, full of high-class boutiques and shopping malls, pubs and clubs, fitness centers, spas and shops that sell branded watches. The richest of the rich can be seen there and the people always dress top, especially the women. Do you want to see sexy model-like Taiwanese girls? Go to Zhongxiao East Road!

Zhongxiao East Road at night.

The best way to explore Taipei is by using the subway or Taipei MRT [official website]. The trains are quick, clean and not so crowded like in other big Asian cities such as Seoul or Tokyo. Eating and drinking is not allowed. You can buy a token for a single fare, but there's also a one-day pass for tourists or you buy the standard EasyCard, like most people, who live in Taipei, do. More information about the prices [here].

Taipei City Hall Station in Xinyi, near Taipei 101.

Young people from Taipei waiting for the train. Read about ✰ Taiwan's youth.

✰ Nightlife in Taipei! Where?

Taipei is full of awesome pubs and clubs, that can be found all over the city. Best website for finding a night club of your preference is [Waakao.com], but if you wanna see, how people party in Taipei, check [Steven Vigar's photos] from July 2010 from the night club [Luxy]. Besides Luxy, I recommend you to visit [Roxy Roots], which is a reggae and blues bar and two cool clubs to dance your night away: [Legacy] and the [Wall]. Of course there are so many other clubs in Taipei, but I'll only mention few here, so you can get the idea. Steven Vigar, one of the best photographers in Taiwan, allowed me to share some pics from various clubs with you. I chose the ones that will catch your attention instantly. So, do you wanna see hot foreign girls and guys together with hot Taiwanese girls and guys dance like there is no tomorrow? If yes, then come to Taipei and visit the hottest clubs.

All four photos with permission from Steven Vigar. (Thank you!)

✰ Shopping and food in Taipei

You have shopping malls literally all around in Taipei. Most of them are located in Xinyi and along the Zhongxiao East Road, but let me introduce you some different ones, some special ones. If you take the train to Jiannan Rd. Station, you'll come to ✰ Miramar Entertainment Park, which is an area full of big shopping malls, cinemas, restaurants and with a big Ferris wheel, one of Taipei's famous landmarks [their homepage]. Would you take your lovely lady for a spin? If yes, come to Miramar!

The biggest Ferris wheel in Taipei at Miramar Entertainment Park.

Fun facts: Taipei 101 has the largest countdown clock in the world, displayed every year on New Year's eve. The fireworks are also some of the best around the globe.

✰ Taipei 1010 Mall in the evening.

Speaking of big shopping malls, one of them is called the ✰ Living Mall or [Core Pacific City], a shopping mall with a unique design. The main part is a sphere and it's really cool to walk around that part, which is full of shops. The basement floor is a food court with some yummy and affordable food. There are also great cinemas, where you can watch 3D movies.

Core Pacific City at dusk: An amazing piece of modern architecture.

Of course you won't only come to Taipei for shopping (even though that could be reason enough to visit this amazing city), you will also come to try the incredible food. Taiwanese food is one of the best in the world. Food in Taipei is abundant, it's everywhere and in case you can't imagine, here is the ✰ proof.
The best traditional Chinese food in Taipei can be found in the numerous day and night markets all over the city. Let me show you the the ones I have visited.
✰ Use my list of Night markets, to find the best one for you.

Night markets are full of traditional Taiwanese food and some of them might appear strange to foreigners, maybe even crazy. Would you try to eat the ✰ frog soup? I tried it, it's not bad, but it's certainly not everyone's treat.

✰ Shilin night market, the most famous night market in Taipei.

It's full of uniquely Taiwanese food, such as the stinky tofu, Taiwanese sausages, oyster omelettes, steamed and fried dumplings, buns, fried chicken cutlets and much much more.

Some other famous night markets are ✰ Raohe night market in Songshan district, which is usually the second most popular right after the one in Shilin. There is a popular night market near universities: ✰ Shida night market. There's also the less touristy ✰ Tonghua night market, which is worth to mention, because it has some unique foods and ✰ Ningxia night market, one of the oldest traditional night markets in Taipei.

Yummy Taiwanese food that can be found at the Shilin night market.

Taiwan is also famous for having some of the best sweets in the area. Something I really recommend to you are two famous ice creams. One is the [Snow King's] ice cream, which is famous for having some unique ice cream flavors such as wasabi, chili, pig's feet, tomato, carrot and basil. Another ice cream I highly recommend to you is ✰ Shin Fa Ting's shaved ice cream, that consists of very thin layers and melts in your mouth instantly. So tasty!

And since you go to Taipei, don't forget to try the famous ✰ bubble tea, a uniquely Taiwanese drink sold almost on every corner, which is so addictive and tastes really good. Plus it's very cheap. Once you'll try it, you'll love it forever. Taiwanese are crazy about the bubble tea, drinking it is a must. A must! :-)

There are all sorts of bubble tea, Taiwan's food is famous for variety.

Of course in Taiwan people don't only eat the traditional local food. Are you a Western businessman, who misses food from home? No problem, in Taipei you will get EVERYTHING. Taipei is a food paradise. You can get any pizza you like at almost any time, the best spaghetti you miss from home or the best Italian coffee in Asia. Taipei is full of Western style restaurants and unlike in Malaysia and Singapore, where sometimes Western food is just their idea of what Western food is, in Taipei you really get the exactly same food you know from home. That's because Taiwanese people do things extremely well.

Western food in Taipei is easy to find.

Of course besides the local delicacies and the Western food, you also have a lot of other food from Asia. Very popular are Korean, Japanese and Hong Kong styled restaurants, of which I recommend you ✰ The Sweet Dynasty, that serve some delicate traditional Chinese sweets such as tofu pudding. You have to try that one.

One of the best Hong Kong styled restaurants in Taipei.

But if you want to experience something amazing, go on top of Taipei 101, to the ✰ Diamond Tony's Observatory restaurant on the 85th floor, around 370m above the sea level. The view is amazing and the food is top.

Dining on top of Taipei 101, an experience I won't ever forget.

The best duck I ever had... it was 370m above the ground. Amazing.

But Taipei is also famous for some different kinds of restaurants called ✰ theme restaurants. They're totally in this year (2010), be it a Hello Kitty theme, a hospital or airplane theme [see photos here], they are a lot of fun to visit and I'm sure they'll make your trip to Taipei unforgettable. How about eating "shit"? Oh yeah, you've read that right. Go to ✰ Modern Toilet, a restroom themed restaurant, and eat your curry from a mini toilet. Be cool, it's a lot of fun :-)

Curry in a mini toilet, tea in an urinal, ice cream in poop shape: It was delicious.

✰ Historic Taipei

Besides food, drinks, shopping and clubbing, Taipei offers a lot of history for you to explore. Being a merely 300 years old city, Taipei does not have the long history most of European capitals have, however those past 3 centuries were quite eventful. From the early settlements of the Han Chinese in the 17th century to the Japanese rule of the early 20th century to the post WWII capital city of the Republic of China, Taipei has experienced a lot of good and bad times. You will not find a historic center as you know them from European cities like Vienna, Rome or Paris. The remains of the old Taipei are scarce and not always easy to find, but it's not impossible. Most of the historic looking buildings were constructed in the 20th century either by Japanese or later during the rule of Chiang Kai-shek, the former president of Taiwan (from 1949 to 1975). Let me show you the most famous historic sights from the 18-20th century.

✰ Longshan Temple is the most famous temple in Taipei, built in 1738.

✰ Confucius Temple is one of my favorite temples in Taipei, you have to see it.

✰ Baoan Temple is one of the oldest and most beautiful temples in Taipei.

✰ Xingtian temple is one of the biggest and most popular temples in Taipei.

Walk around ✰ Dihua Street, if you want to see the oldest street in Taipei.

✰ Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, completed in 1980.

✰ National Concert Hall, completed in 1987.

✰ National Theater, completed in 1987.

✰ The Gate of Great Centrality and Perfect Uprightness, 1975.

✰ Shin Kong Life Tower seen from the Liberty Square. It was completed in 1993.

✰ Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, completed in 1972.

Statue of [Sun Yat-sen], the founding father of the Republic of China in 1911.

✰ Presidential Office Building, completed in 1919.

✰ 228 Memorial Park, established in 1908.

✰ Taipei Main Station, completed in 1989.

✰ Taipei Post Office, established in 1895.

Read all about the ✰ Gates of Taipei.

✰ Beimen (Northern Gate), completed in 1884.

✰ Nanmen (Southern Gate), completed in 1879.

✰ Xiaonanmen (Little South Gate), completed in 1879.

✰ Dongmen (East Gate), completed in 1884.

✰ Lin Family Garden and Residence in Banqiao, completed in 1847.

✰ Li Family Residence in Luzhou is a famous old house from Qing, 1857.

✰ National Palace Museum, established in 1964 [homepage].

✰ Museum of Contemporary Art is located in former City Hall, 1921.

National Taiwan Museum, completed in 1908 [homepage].

National Museum of History, established in 1955 [homepage].

Nanhai Academy with a lovely pond.

✰ Taipei Botanic Gardens, esatblished in 1921.

The Lotus pond in the botanic gardens.

✰ Chiang Kai-shek's Presidential residence in Shilin, 1950.

✰ The Grand Hotel, established in 1952, completed in 1973.

✰ National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine, established in 1969.

✰ National Taiwan University, founded in 1928 [homepage].

✰ Around Taipei

Taipei offers so much to do and see during your trip, but you need to reserve few days to visit some lovely small towns nearby. They're accessible by bus or train and will make your Taipei trip truly unforgettable. Let me introduce some to you:

The first one you need to visit is ✰ Danshui, because it's accessible with the MRT train (red line). It takes about 30min going northwards. You can see historic buildings from the Spanish and Dutch times and the famous sunset at the Lovers' bridge, as well as enjoy some tasty street food at the famous Old Street. Another town located south from Taipei city is ✰ Xindian. It's also accessible with the MRT train (green line), you'll need about 20min from Taipei's main station. You can stroll around the Xindian river, which is turned into a lake, because of a dam. The whole area is called [Bitan]. You can cross the lake on famous pedestrian suspension bridge, eat out at restaurants or take a ride at a pedal boat with your loved one. Located east from Taipei is ✰ Keelung, a big port city famous for the ✰ Miaokou Night Market, one of the best night markets in Taiwan with the famous sea food.

Another small town I highly recommend to you is ✰ Yingge (30min away from Taipei by train), the famous pottery capital of Taiwan. Walk around the Old street or visit the pottery museum, it's free of charge. Take one day to visit ✰ Jiufen, a lovely mountain village (about 1.5h away from Taipei) at the north coast of Taiwan. Enjoy some great views and tea there. You'll love it, it's so romantic. Close to Jiufen is ✰ Yeliu, a famous geopark with some of the most amazing natural sculptures you'll ever see, such as the well known ✰ Queen's Head, one of Taiwan's famous images. Maybe on your last day you can visit ✰ Wulai, a lovely mountain resort with hot springs (around 1h away from Taipei). You can soak in warm water, enjoy some aboriginal delicacies or visit the famous Wulai Falls. If you add all these lovely getaways to your Taipei trip, you really won't regret it. Believe me. It'll make your Taipei trip truly unforgettable.

✰ Around Taiwan

Taipei is also a great starting point to explore all of Taiwan. It's well connected with the biggest Taiwanese cities, such as ✰ Taichung, ✰ Tainan and ✰ Kaohsiung. You can take the high-speed train and you'll be in the southern part of Taiwan in about 1.5 hours.

Taiwan has a lot more to offer than just its four bustling cities. But that's a topic for another and much longer post. For now, let's remain in Taipei.

✰ In conclusion

I hope I made Taipei interesting to you and I hope I gave you some good reasons to visit. I wasn't paid to promote Taipei by anyone, I just love to share my experience with those, who are interested in visiting Taipei or Taiwan. I will constantly update this post, add new photos, change information, if necessary. And you can always correct me, if I've made a factual mistake. Please drop a comment below, if you have some questions or additional info or anything to say.

Taipei is full of young people.

Fun fact: 88% of today's Taiwanese have some aboriginal roots [source].

Taipei 101 on a hot summer day. See ✰ a big photo here.

Fun fact: Taipei 101 is seen from almost every corner of the city.

A cute girl near Taipei 101. You'll see many like her all around Taipei [photo source].

Fun fact: Taipei was made the provincial capital of Taiwan in 1886 during Qing Dynasty.

I hope I gave you enough reasons to visit Taipei at least once in your life.

Fun fact: Taipei is safe, full of museums, universities, culture, art and good food.

People in Taipei are friendly, but shy at first. But once you get to know them, they will open up and become good friends with you. The cute girl above is very special to me. She used to be my guide around Taipei and all of Taiwan. I had the best time of my life with her and I'm looking forward to explore more of the island with her in the future. I want to say special thanks to her for helping me with this post and with almost all Taiwan related posts. This article is dedicated to my dear girlfriend Lily. Thank you very much. 我愛妳!

External links: [7 Ways that Taipei beats Singapore][Culture of Taiwan (articles)]

Related: [My TAIWAN page][All photos by MKL, except where otherwise noted]

[My TAIPEI page][Thank you Lily Chen and Steven Vigar]

[This post was UPDATED on 29th March, 2011]