1. Lin Antai Ancient House, Garden Maze, Shilin Night Market
On the outskirts of downtown Taipei is a really well preserved house that was built by a wealthy man in the late Qing dynasty (late 1800s, early 1900s). Not only is the house fascinating, but the grounds are beautiful. The grounds have several features that were must haves among imperial Chinese well-to-do families. Here are some pics of them below.
Traditional Chinese houses often have garden created out of concrete formed into coral rock, with winding paths, overlooks, and grottoes throughout.
A moon-reflecting pool is a must have.
This house was unique in featuring windows and doors in symbolic shapes. These shapes included bats (the Chinese word is a homophone with blessings), vases (which is a homophone for peace), and peaches (which is symbolically the food of the gods).
Here is a typical room in the house, which the raised bed on the back wall, chest of drawers on the left, and desk on the right.
Across the street from the Lin Antai house is a huge park, in the middle of which is a maze made of high hedges. Elliana had a great time playing in it.
The Taiwanese love their night life. They are regularly out till 11-12 at night on weekdays, even sometimes with their young kids. One of their favorite things to do is go to night markets. Taipei has several good night markets, but probably the most famous of them all is the Shilin night market, famous for its size, variety of items, and its mango shaved ice (which is super yummy!). Although it was a bit crowded for us with our big stroller and two little kids, we still had a good time.
2. Chiang Kai-shek Memorial
In the heart of Taipei is a huge memorial for the founding father of Taiwan, General Chiang Kai-shek. It's a beautiful park with a temple-like memorial in the middle and the National Theater and National Concert Hall at the west end. Inside the memorial is a huge statue of CKS after the likeness of Lincoln memorial. It's a great place and an iconic image of Taipei.
3. Bihu Temple
There are lots of hikes near our house. One of the hikes with the best view of the city is around Bihu Temple, which is at the top of one of the hills ringing the city. Here are some pics of our hike.
4. Taipei 101
Another iconic image of Taipei is the Taipei 101 building, named for the number of stories it has. It is one of the tallest buildings in the world. We had a great time taking a look at the city from the top.
5 comments:
looks so fun you guys!
I love hearing about your adventures! It would be an absolute must to get out and explore while you are living abroad, but I am sure it is NOT easy with two littles in tow! Way to make the most of it and document it too!
Love seeing everywhere you go! It is so nice that there are such sights close by! I love seeing pictures of each of you, too! Love, Mom (Christine)
First of all, I have to admit that the concrete coral rock looks a little creepy. I would not find that tranquil. I love the symbolic door frames and windows though. Fun maze garden but what is that behind your head, Todd? It looks like a frog looking towards the sky. The night market sound fun and perfect for our night owl family! That mango shaved ice looks delish!
The CKS Memorial area seems very similar to our National Mall but on a smaller scale. Very neat.
The local hike is beautiful. Its amazing to me how much time people have put into all these ornately painted tunnels and bridges and ceilings. Elli found a pretty bug to mess with on your hike. Haha.
The Taipei 101 building is very unique look. It is obvious that its not an American building. What a view! I knew Taipei was big but i didn't know it was THAT big! I just looked up the population and it's bigger than Paris and only slightly smaller than Chicago. I bet you already knew that though. The number I saw was 2,607,428 people but with a metropolitan area of 6,900,273 and that's from 2009. Wow!
Well, cool post. Interesting stuff. Lots of cute family photos too :)
Yeah- Taipei has a lot of people! You don't feel it as much as China though because there are a lot of hills and valleys that make things still seem to have some space.
The thing behind Todd's head is a whale made out of garden leaves and flowers. It is supposed to look like it is coming straight up out of the water. I might add another angle so you can tell that better.
Thanks for posting!!
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