December in Taipei
We flew out on Christmas night, skipping over the 26th and arriving the morning of the 27th in Taipei. I hadn’t been to Taiwan since before the pandemic, and Alex hadn’t been in a decade. This would be our first Asia trip together!
After dropping off our luggage at the hotel in Gongguan, we then had to improvise for another several hours before they would let us actually check in to our room. First stop, Taiwanese breakfast! + coffee.
Visiting the historic district of Dihua Street.
Found a little side alley with cute little boutiques. Nihaowohao is a Japanese-owned shop.
Got a roll of this lovely tissue paper featuring Taiwanese food illustrations. And this box of artist’s risoprint calendar cards.
Had a lovely chat with the shop owner at Jain Jain, a local screenprint shop. We bought a print and a little fabric zipper pouch which now holds my hard drives.
At the end of the alley, coffee shop with vinyl records.
Yongle Market.
Braised pork over rice.
Sounds Good Cafe. More vinyls + coffee!
A good amount of our week in Taipei was spent meeting up with our extended families. This lunch meeting turned into an all-afternoon five hour long gathering.
Saying a very quick hello to Michelle and Frank!
Wanderings around Chengde Rd.
And meeting up with more Taiwanese American friends! At the extremely crowded Ningxia Night Market.
Songshan Cultural & Creative Park.
Alex’s family!
Followed by the 2nd gen gathering at Aussie cafe Wooloomooloo.
Afterwards, Alex and I paid a visit to the Taipei 101.
There just so happens to be a very expensive baseball on exhibit up on the 89th floor of the Taipei 101…
Shohei Ohtani’s 50/50 ball, when he became the only person to ever reach 50 stolen bases and 50 home runs in a season. The ball was put up for auction and purchased for $4.4M USD by a Taiwanese company that then decided to put it on display for the public! In addition to the ball and its two security guards there’s a whole exhibit about Shohei and an exhibit about Taiwanese baseball.
Taiwan is blocked by China from using their actual name on the world sporting stage, so they compete under “Chinese Taipei.” Which recently won gold the Premier12 world championship!
Views from the 101.
You can also view the damper ball, which is a feat of engineering that keeps the tower from falling over in an earthquake. Also, a nice mahjong set in the 101 gift shop! Did not end up purchasing it, but it was really very nice.
Free souvenirs in every single MRT stop and many shops as well: stamps! Just get a little notebook and you can find these free stamp stations all over Taiwan and Japan.
Back in Gongguan, enjoying the famous Linjia gua baos.
Time for an excursion! Alex and I booked a day tour to Jiufen and Shifen through Round Taiwan Round. Funny enough, their English language small group tour was $70/pp but Chinese was only $30, so we thanked our parents for our heritage language skills and booked the latter. It turned out the other half of our group was also Taiwanese Americans from the Bay Area, hahaha. Great minds.
The first stop was in Yehliu Geopark, which I’ve actually visited briefly before.
This part looked kind of like a pineapple.
This is the most famous of the seaside sandstone formations, the Queen’s Head.
It’s at perpetual risk for snapping off thanks to the forces of erosion that made it in the first place.
Instagram vs. reality, or, the difference a half hour makes! Our little tour beat the big tour busses and thus was able to get a nice view before the crowds showed up.
A brief stop by the Golden Waterfall.
The main attraction, Jiufen Old Street. Very packed! But still pretty charming. If we did this again I’d stay for longer. It’s packed with little food stands and shops, but the best thing to do is to park it at a cliffside teahouse and enjoy some tea.
Truly lovely.
Small walk over to the Shifen Waterfall.
And our final stop, setting off sky lanterns in Shifen. Here’s to rising stocks and meaningful work, haha.
The other half of our tour group wanted to go to Raohe Night Market afterwards, and we were happy to join them in being dropped off there.
Raohe is most famous for the black pepper buns right at the entrance, cooked in tandoori-style ovens where the buns are stuck directly on the walls of the ovens. There is usually a long line (unless you arrive early, like we did). But they have a very efficient system with numbers that makes the line move very quickly regardless.
We also enjoyed some Atomoya! Continuing my lifelong obsession with Taiwanese fruits. You might not get mango in the winter, but cherimoya and atomoya are pretty delicious too.
Another day, another gathering with TAF friends! We managed to hang out with a group of 15, all of whom actually live in California. Love!
Oyster noodles in the street!
Waited forever for this braised pork belly… it was admittedly very delicious.
And finally (for this post anyway), we wrapped up 2024 with a view of the Taipei 101 fireworks from Timmy and Joy’s balcony out on the western side of the city! Hooray, happy new year!
Stay tuned for all of our Japan adventures, and our second leg in Taipei as well!
Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.
Part 1: December in Taipei
Part 2: Naoshima & Teshima | Japan’s Art Islands
Part 3: Osaka, Japan
