Monday, June 11, 2007

Last Weekend in Taipei

Being that I am trying to cram in as much travel as possible, this will probably will have been the last weekend (or at least full weekend) in Taipei. Therefore, of course, I had to cram in as much as possible. On Friday after work, I was able to partake in the experience of visiting an authentic Chinese tailor. These tailors are famous for their excellent work and my boss bought me a tailored shirt as a gift. After that, we went to an authentic dumpling soup place with our colleagues. It was a bit too authentic for my tastes, but interesting nonetheless.
Then Saturday, we had a full day. Tony, one of the male interns, and I went to the Palace Museum, which has the finest collection of Chinese art in the world. Admission to this landmark musuem was a whopping $2. For those of you not familiar with Chinese history, when the KMT fled the mainland, they took the most precious pieces of Chinese art with them. It is believed that if they had not taken this step, these artifacts would have most likely been destroyed by Mao in the Cultural Revolution. After the museum, we went to Longshan temple, which is supposed to be one of the nicest Buddhist temples in Taiwan. It was raining pretty hard, so our visit was cut short. We also went to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial, which was pretty boring except for the changing of the guards. Lastly, we took Tony on his first trip to Shilin night market (where I ate dumplings, as can be seen in the picture). I was even able to buy a fraudulent stuffed Eeyore for $2., but had to do so in a back alley because of a police raid.

Lastly, Sunday, I went to Beitou again. This time, I brought Kelly along. I was so relaxed after soaking in the springs, that I fell asleep for about 4 hours. After that, the four of us (including Neal, who came Sunday morning) went out for an authentic Chinese family style meal. We had spring rolls, shrimp and tofu with an orange sauce, Singapore noodles, sauteed beef, and chicken with green peppers. It was very good!


2 comments:

Andrea D said...

you bought a chinese-imitated american product on the streets during a police raid? nice. does it rain often there? i know you mentioned it's monsoon weather, but is it hot? sounds like your tastebuds are going on an adventure of their own. are these other people interns working in your company too? do you guys hang out? have you met any chinese students? that sounds really cool about the tailors. what makes them so special? is it that they learn it like an art? anywho, i hope you're having a good time. wish i were there!
~andrea

Andre said...

i'll have to feature you here (http://taiwanblogs.blogspot.com) before you leave