Arriving back in Taipei it was time for a change of style. Our hotel for the night was hidden away and reached by a lift inside a supermarket and dinner was Mcdonalds.

No more luxury, but it didn’t matter we had lots to do in a short time as usual.

Top of our list was the National Palace Museum. It has the worlds largest collection of Chinese imperial items. The most famous is apparently a jade cabbage but we didn’t bother to  find it among the 700,00 objects. Your ticket into the museum also covers the lovely Zhishan garden which has traditional landscaping and is a relaxing place to walk round mostly watching other people.

Taipei 101 was built in 2004 and until the Burj Khalifa was built in 2010 was the worlds tallest building. Solid concrete foundations can withstand earthquakes and a huge damper between floors eighty seven and ninety two  can counteract typhoon force winds.The food court in the basement is great and popular with locals  then you go to the fifth floor to buy a ticket for the lift that takes you to the eighty-ninth floor in thirty seven seconds. There is the usual glass floor area and of course fantastic views over the city.

 

We got to the Chiang Kai-Shek  memorial in the dark and there was a festival of some kind going on. This place must be worth a visit in the day but we just didn’t have the time. What we did see was interesting.  The building was opened in 1980 as a memorial to Chiang Kai-Shek who set up government in exile in Taiwan in 1949. I don’t know much about him but he did forbid local languages and imprisoned thousands of Taiwanese for their political views so I’m not sure why the area is so popular.

Shilin  is the most famous night market. Its huge any carries on over lots of streets with many small restaurants and shops. I think you could buy almost anything.

We really enjoyed Taipei and the rest of Taiwan.  I’d want to go back if flight times weren’t so long.