On Day 8, Topology Travel (真程旅行社) is back again to take us around Taipei, which is officially our last day of tour. As usual, we had our breakfast at the hotel first, before we hopped onto the coach to begin the tour.
Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂)
Our first stop of the day is the
Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂), which is a national monument and considered as a must visit tourist attraction in Taipei. The memorial hall is completed in 1980 in memory of Chiang Kai-Shek (蔣介石), the former President of the Republic of China. We arrived at the main arch gate of the Liberty Square (自由廣場), which is a big public plaza where the memorial hall is located at the eastern end. We took a group photo here before walking towards the memorial hall, which we can feel the strong wind and chill when walking through the open square.
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| Arch Gate entrance of Liberty Square |
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| Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall |
At both sides of the square, it is flanked by the National Concert Hall and the National Theater, which are constructed in traditional Chinese architectural style.
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| National Theater |
Upon reaching the memorial hall, we walked up the stairs and entered the Bronze Statue Hall. Over here, we could see a giant bronze statue of Chiang Kai-Shek in seated posture, flanked by guards.
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| View of the Liberty Square from the memorial hall |
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| Entrance to the Bronze Statue Hall |
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| Bronze statue of Chiang Kai Shek |
We waited for a while to witness the guards changing ceremony, which is popular among the tourists.
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| Guards Changing Ceremony_1 |
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| Guards Changing Ceremony_2 |
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| Emblem of the Kuomintang on the roof |
After the ceremony, we proceeded to the lower level, where there are several exhibition halls that showcase Chiang Kai-Shek's personal life, his military career during Japanese Occupation Resistance and the Chinese Civil War period, and the time during his presidency of the Republic of China.
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| Panoramic model of the Liberty Square |
After the exhibition visit, we exited the memorial hall and went back to our coach, as we depart for an early lunch.
Shin Yeh Restaurant (欣葉台菜)
We arrived at the Shin Yeh Restaurant located at Shuangcheng Street, which was already crowded with locals and other tour groups.
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| Shin Yeh Restaurant at Shuangcheng Street |
The restaurant specialised on Taiwanese dishes, which the fried turnip omelete, braised pork (lurou) and braised squid with bamboo shoot and mushrooms in thick soup are the popular ones. We basically ordered their specialties and other vegetable dishes.
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| Turnip Omelete (Source: Photo from blog.xuite) |
National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院)
After the lunch, we departed for the next attraction,
National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院). The museum is another must visit tourist attraction in Taipei and it has a collection of close to 700,000 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks, spanning over 10,000 years of Chinese history from the Neolithic age to the late Qing dynasty. As the collection is so large, only 1% of the pieces can be exhibited in the museum at any given time! These national treasures were brought to Taipei from mainland China between 1948-1949 when Chiang Kai-Shek's government came to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War period. Although they only consist of a portion of the treasures originally housed in the Forbidden City in Beijing, they are the finest and high quality collections.
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| National Palace Museum |
The whole museum was packed with visitors, and we queued for quite some time before we got the tickets and audio devices. Our tour guide brought us through various exhibition halls, covering bronze artifacts, porcelain, jade artifacts, paintings, Chinese calligraphy and rare books. It was really an eye-opener for most of us. Out of the many exhibits, the Cauldron of Duke of Mao (毛公鼎), Jadeite Cabbage (翠玉白菜) and Meat-Shaped Stone (肉形石) are the top 3 treasures in the museum.
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| Jadeite Cabbage (Source: Photo from Japantimes) |
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| Meat-Shaped Stone (Source: Photo from Japantimes) |
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| Cauldron of Duke of Mao (Source: Photo from Twitter) |
After the tour of the museum, we visited the souvenir shop for some shopping.
Shilin Night Market (士林夜市)
We exited the museum, hopped onto the coach and depart for the last attraction of the day,
Shilin Night Market (士林夜市). Shilin Night Market is the largest and most popular night market in Taipei. Similar to other night markets, it has a large section dedicated to food vendors selling many favourite Taiwanese local snacks, like fried chicken steak, oyster omelet, oyster vermicelli, stinky tofu, small sausage in big sausage and bubble tea etc. Along the smaller streets and lanes, there are many shops selling clothes, bags, shoes and accessories etc.
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| Shilin Night Market (Source: Photo from pcwallart) |
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| Busy street of Shilin Night Market (Source: Photo from mygola) |
Since it was our last night in Taipei, everyone went on a final shopping spree before we wrapped up the day and return to the hotel.
Day 9
There's no planned tour on Day 9 as we need to catch an early afternoon flight back to Singapore. So after our breakfast, we basically spent the remaining time in the hotel rooms packing up before we depart for the airport arranged by Topology Travel (真程旅行社). It had been enjoyable tour in Taiwan for everyone, which was filled with a mixture of historical, cultural, nature and shopping experiences. Final appreciation to Topology Travel (真程旅行社) who arranged the majority of the travel and the great hospitality of the tour guides and driver.
Follow the links below to the other days of my Taiwan tour:
Day 1: Taipei (Tamsui, Ximending Hot Pot)
Day 2: Keelung (Tianhou Temple @ Peace Island, Zhong Zheng Park, Ershawan Fortification, Bisha Fishing Port, Nanya Rock Formation, Bitou Cape, Miaokou Night Market, Cashbox Party World)
Day 3: Hualien (Jinan Temple, Nan Fang Ao Fishing Harbour, Qingshui Cliff, Qixintan Beach, Hang Rou, Mochi, Fanlin House Minsu)
Day 4: Hualien (Taroko National Park Visitor Centre, Shakadang Trail, Leader Village Taroko, Buluowan Visitor Centre, Tianxiang, Eternal Spring Shrine, Dajili Restaurant, Rainbow Night Market)
Day 5: Taipei (Yilan Cake Factory, Fu Ge Shi Yao Chicken, Shifen & Sky Lantern, Mei Guan Yuan @ Ximending)
Day 6: Wulai (Neidong National Forest Recreation Area, Wulai Old Street, Sun Moon Light Hot Spring, Ding Tai Fung @ Taipei 101, Chia Te Bakery)
Day 7: Taipei (Hsing Tian Gong, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei 101, Wufenpu, Shi Da Night Market)
Day 8 & 9: Taipei (Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, Shin Yeh Restaurant, National Palace Museum, Shilin Night Market)
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