Caitlin Gu

One of my main goals for my time in Taipei was to bravely face and conquer stinky tofu.  I was determined to sample the stuff (a vegan version without the fish sauce, of course).  People told me stinky tofu smells like rotten eggs, rubbish, or sewage.  I was told you either love and hate it, and you can smell stinky tofu stands for at least a one block radius.  You can tell who loves it and who hates it, because you’ll see some people running towards the noxious odour and others fleeing.  People warned me long before I set foot in Taiwan, but I didn’t believe the odour could be so bad until the first time I smelled it.  My first time was when I was walking through a night market near where I was staying, searching for the vegetarian food stall.  I found it right next to the stinky tofu stall.  One whiff of the odour, and I lost my appetite.  I nearly vomited into my bag of fresh-cut pineapple, too.  I didn’t eat dinner that night.

Stinky tofu experience aside, I have to admit, I began to feel a bit spoiled food-wise while I was in Taipei.  Each morning, I’d wake up mid-morning and, after getting ready, go out to find lunch.  Usually I’d walk about five minutes in any direction and I’d find a vegetarian restaurant.  If I didn’t like it, I’d walk another five minutes until I found another.  Taipei has a population of 2.6 million and possesses 300 vegetarian restaurants, so they are very concentrated around the city, making veggie food easy to obtain (though you have to check what’s vegan).  Plus, many of them are really cheap!  I’d often eat lunch and dinner for around $1 or $2 per meal.

Taipei’s full of great, cheap food stalls and little restaurants that consist of an outdoor or semi-outdoor kitchen with a few tables next to it.  Some are clean and some less so, but I never got ill.  My favourite was across the street from the first hostel I stayed in and was completely vegan.  I loved being able to see my food cooked fresh before my eyes; the owner even made her dumplings from scratch (other places used frozen dumplings or premade dumpling skin).  I even came to love the ambiance–the napkins on the dispenser on the wall, the lack of drinks (even water), the fact that you had to go into the kitchen and find the owner/cook to pay and you never got a receipt.  She made some of the most delicious food I had in Taipei and it cost under $2. My favourites were her mahjiang mien (see below) and dumplings (below).  Her food was as good as the $30, 10-course meal I had, though it lacked the ambiance and presentation.

Hot pot containing every vegetable imaginable

One of my favourite dishes, mahjiang mien (sesame noodles), about $1.50 or £1

10 handmade dumplings, $1.50/£1

I also splurged on a meal at the fanciest vegetarian restaurant in Taipei, Yu Shan Ge, where many vegetarian celebrities eat.  I bought the second cheapest option on the menu, $30 for 10 courses (I think the cheapest was $25 for 5 courses), which they veganised for me.  (Incidentally, a review I’d read online led me to believe the staff spoke English, but the ones I spoke to didn’t–so you’d need some Chinese to comunicate your desire for a vegan meal.) The meal was excellent, and the presentation incredible, but I felt slightly uncomfortable because it was just so fancy and I felt a little too spoiled with two waiters for the five people in my room/section of the restaurant.  Plus, the doorman kept hitting on me, which I’m pretty sure wasn’t a part of his job description.  What follows below is a lot of pictures, from every course, so if you’re bored by the food pictures so far, you might want to skip this.

The place setting of the table at Yu Shan Ge. They even arranged the napkins to look pretty. The silver/blue napkin you see in the foreground is actually a bib they put on me!

Not thrilled with my silver bib

The meal began with them bringing me a bowl of rosewater in which to wash my hands.  They also brought me tea throughout the meal.  It was absolutely amazing, some of the best tea I’d ever tasted, so at the end I asked them what kind of tea it was, hoping I could buy some before leaving Taipei.  They told me it was their own blend of sweet potato, licorice root, and ginseng.  Guess it’s a once in a lifetime experience unless I figure out how to make that myself!

Handwashing bowl

I’m not sure, but based on reviews I’d read before, I believe the first course was a mock shark fin soup.  I’ve no idea how authentic it tasted, but it was really good, with a great mouthfeel. It seemed to coat the inside of your mouth, but in a good way, not a gross way.

Course #1: Shark fin soup?

The second course consisted of a bunch of adorable things.  This course was kind of tasteless, but it was SO CUTE!

Course #2: tiny cute things on a plank.

The third course was a squash stew. It was creamy and delicious, and nicely presented with a flower and a sprinkling of black sesame seeds on a wooden plank.

Course #3: Squash stew.

The fourth course was roasted aubergine.  I’m usually not a fan, but this was really good. It was so soft (I guess it had been roasted for such a long time) it fell apart when I cut into it.

Course #4: Roasted aubergine/eggplant.

Palate cleanser

Course #6 was the main course, a “steak” apparently made of mushrooms.  It was elaborately presented with leaves and flowers to make it look  like a plant.  One review I’d read criticised the fact that it was doused in an Asian-style sauce that they thought contained Chinese 5 spice powder, when they thought it should have been accompanied by American-style steak flavouring. Well, I’ve never had a steak, in America or elsewhere, so I can’t comment on American steak sauce, but I’ll say that I really liked the sauce on this ‘steak’ and thought it was had a nice kick.  Plus I liked that they utilised local spices for flavourings.  I’m not usually a fan of faux meat but this was pretty good.

Main course: "steak"

The seventh course was a soup containing loads of different types of mushrooms.  I’m not a huge fan of mushrooms, so I didn’t get that excited about the soup.

Course #7: Mushroom soup

The eighth course was fried rice.  It was good but not excellent, and at that point I was starting to feel stuffed.

Course #8: fried rice

By the time the ninth course was due to arrive, I was starting to feel like my stomach was going to explode, and silently began hoping that no more food would appear.  I’d been eating for two hours, and though the courses were small, it was too much!  But the ninth course came out, and it turned out to be my favourite!  I’m not sure what it was; it seemed to be a simple soup of shoots and a clear broth.  The waiter instructed me to squeeze the lemon into it, and it gave the broth a delicious and delicate balance of flavours.

Course #9

Normally I would have been a bit disappointed with the dessert they gave me, a porridge with raisins and a side of fruit.  But given how full of was, I was extremely relieved to have such a light dessert.

Course #10: Dessert

I left Yu Shan Ge full of good food–but a little too full–and with the doorman’s phone number in hand (ugh!)!  I’m glad I had the experience. It’s not every day, after all, that I get waited on like that or that I start a meal by washing my hands in rosewater.  It was a fun experience, and although it was pricey at $30, was much less expensive than a similar experience would cost in the US or the UK.

During my time in Taipei, I also took two day trips out of the city.  Taipei is located close to some beautiful mountains, so I took a hiking trip to Maokong.  I also took a day trip to Danshui, a river/seaside town near the city. It’s a popular weekend getaway for Taipei-ers, so I guess it’s a bit like Brighton for Londoners.

I made the mistake of going to Danshui on a Sunday.  I thought it might have a fun atmosphere due to all the city-dwellers (and that’s what my guidebook said, but I should know by now not to trust it!).  The atmosphere was buzzing, alright, but I think it was the most crowded place I’ve ever been apart from Disneyworld.  And they were selling a lot of kind of gross-smelling things from the sea.  Eventually the assault on my senses from all the people and seafood got to me and I had to leave.  It was very pretty, though, so I’m glad I went.  If I went back, though, I’d definitely go on a weekday when it’s less crowded.

View across the river from Danshui

Packed street

Me in Danshui

Beautiful view over the extremely reflective water (the water was strangely shiny, I'd never seen water so reflective)

Boats at Danshui

Maokong is the tea-growing region just outside Taipei, up in the hills/mountains.  Maokong means ‘no cats’ in Mandarin but actually comes from a local word which means ‘cat-scratched’ because the land is full of little rock formations which look like cat scratches.  Maokong is easy to reach; you simply take the subway to the end of the brown line, Taipei Zoo station, and then you take the Maokong gondola (cablecar) to Maokong station.  And if you’re thinking “Wait a second, Caitlin went hiking?” let me assure you it was the kind of “hiking” I can enjoy.

Me on the Maokong gondola

View from the Maokong gondola (that's Taipei 101 off to the left in the distance)

The 'cat scratch' formations that gave Maokong its name

Cultivating tea

The views of the city were great (though they didn't photograph all that well)

Giant stalk of bamboo (with my hand for size comparison purposes)

View of the city

Rusted gate in Maokong

"Hiking" involved walking along one-lane highways like this with various teahouses along the side. I think there may be actual hiking trails in Maokong but this is what I found and I liked it!

I expected Taiwan to feel very differently politically from mainland China, but I was struck by how different it felt culturally as well.  Someone told me that Taiwanese culture shares a lot of similarities to Japanese culture due to its period of Japanese rule; I’ll be interested to see what I think of this theory after my time in Japan.

Taiwan was under martial law until relatively recently.  In 1987 martial law was lifted and in 1996 the first democratic elections occurred (previously only the Kuomintang party could run).  The KMT won reelection in 1996 and remained in power until 2000, when the Democratic Progressive Party won.  The DPP is the more separatist party of the two (in that they lean more towards declaration of independence from China).  The KMT won again in 2008 and so are back in power.  Taiwan’s international political position is rather precarious.  In many ways it functions as an independent nation-state (it holds elections, has its own currency, etc.) but internationally is not recognised by many countries of organisations, such as the UN and WHO, because of pressure from China ( during the SARS epidemic Taiwan was unable to receive advice from the World Health Organisation as China won’t allow them to join, which the Taiwanese government led to them being unprepared to handle the epidemic but Beijing denied this, claiming they passed information on to Taiwan from the WHO).  In polls 80% of Taiwanese support maintaining the status quo (neither declaring nor negating independence), and in March 2005 China passed an anti-secession law declaring that they may use force if Taiwan declares independence.  Some events in the past few years seem to point to more cooperation between Taipei and Beijing; Taiwan lifted a ban on trade with China, and China now allows flights to Taiwan.  It seems that a Taiwanese identity began to emerge in the 1990s.  A growing number of citizens identify as Taiwanese rather than Chinese; (in 1991 13.6% considered themselves Taiwanese and 43.9% considered themselves Chinese; in 2004 45.7% considered themselves Taiwanese and only 6.3% considered themselves Chinese).  It will be interesting to see how cross-straits relations develop in the future.

Falun Dafa/Falun Gong banner near Taipei 101

I was interested to observe Taiwanese politics during my time in Taipei.  Taiwan is a relatively young but very vibrant democracy.  A lot of people take active interest in politics and the Taiwanese parliament is known for being very rowdy; they frequently have brawls in the middle of parliament!  They are holding Taipei city government elections in November, so I saw a lot of campaigning and several protests.  By a lot of campaigning, I mean a LOT, far more than I’ve seen in any other country.  Their method of campaigning was also new to me.  Lots of shops put up signs and flags for candidates, and campaigners went up and down the street handing out brochures and packs of tissues…yes, packs of tissues.  I’m not sure exactly how a pack of tissues with a candidate’s face on it is supposed to convince someone to vote for them, but I guess it must work or else they wouldn’t do it (hey, I was just happy with some free tissues!).  They also drive vans up and down the street blasting political slogans and messages from the candidates.

Campaign truck

I found Taipei to have modern infrastructure and as such was really easy to get around in.  It definitely helped to speak Chinese, but a good number of people spoke some English, and there were plenty of signs and maps in English.  Usually if I looked confused someone would approach me and ask if they could help (though I think this is partly due to them not getting a lot of tourists so people are more eager to help).  Taiwan is currently pushing tourism and I’ve read several travel articles predicting Taiwan will become the next big travel hotspot in this decade.  I’ve also heard that Taiwan is making a lot of efforts to be environmentally friendly in order to provide for a better future, and I noted lots of recycling facilities around the city, plus warnings on some of the rubbish bins.  My hostel even composted. In general, where there was a rubbish bin there was also a recycling bin (why don’t all cities do this?!), especially in subways stations.  The subway was fast, cheap, and very clean (probably because you’re not allowed to eat, drink, or chew gum on it, which I resented at first but came to like–it cuts down on dirtiness and also gross smells on the train).  They also seem to be a bit obsessed with queueing (even more than British people!).  They draw lines on the floor of subway stations to form lanes for people to queue in while waiting for the train.  I found people to generally be very polite about letting you on and off the train and lifts, which I really appreciated.

Dear London, please put these in tube stations!

In addition to prohibiting eating, drinking, and more on the subway, Taiwan seems to be a fan of "don'ts" more generally. I found this sign outside a park. Do they really need to tell people not to bring their own desks to the park? I wonder if that's actually happened...

Hopefully this will make people think twice.

Of course, the quinessential symbol of contemporary Taipei is Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world until recently.  Most of the buildings surrounding it are only 10 stories tall, which makes 101 seem all the bigger.  I also enjoyed the futuristic Ximending area, which my guidebook described as Taipei’s answer to Tokyo’s Harajuku district (it’s not like I imagine Harajuku but I’ll see!).  Their description made me imagine it to be like London’s Camden Town but instead I found it to be a weird amalgam of the feel of Camden, Soho, and Oxford Street.  But I liked it.

Ximending at night

Taipei 101

101 reflected on glass donor plaques

Graffiti in Ximending

I ended up in Ximending on Halloween day, which was an interesting and funexperience.  It was packed, as not only where there Halloween revelers out and about, it was the day of Taiwan Pride and a rock festival featuring Taiwanese bands.  The rock festival was free so I got to catch a concert at no cost.   Taiwan’s gay pride parade was not what I’d expect from a parade (instead of blocking off the whole street they only block off one lane so people are marching next to passing cars, though someone told me this gives is a more ‘integrated’ feel and more visibility; I’m not sure if that’s true or not), but it was fun that I happened to stumble across it!  And as it turns out, I later read that this year’s Taiwan Pride broke records–with 30,000 participants it became Asia’s largest gay pride parade. This year’s theme was “Out and Vote”.  In 2003 the Taiwanese legislature proposed legalising same-sex marriage and adoption, but sadly the bill has been stalled since then.

Halloween in Ximending

Rock festival

Taiwan Pride

Ximending graffiti

More Halloween--Santa zombie

In some ways, Taipei struck me as a city with two faces.  There’s the traditional Taipei–the calligraphy shops, the temples filled with incense and offerings, the money burning (done at the end of the month for good luck).  And then there’s the hyper-modern Taipei, epitomized by Taipei 101.  But, the two sides seemed to coexist peacefully.  I noticed Taipei’s proliferation of temples all the more because I’d just come from China, where there are few religious structures (the only I saw was Lama Temple, though I was surprised by the number of active worshipers there).  I seemed to encounter a temple every 25 steps in Taipei.  Most of them were small and seemed to encompass a range of traditions.  They were extremely colourful and usually filled with food offerings (I wonder if anyone eats these or if they let them rot?).  Some business owners in Taiwan burn (fake) money in the street for luck (and possibly ancestor worship?) every 15 days, and I witnessed this at the end of the month.

Small local temple

Calligraphy shop

Spirit money burning

Tien-ho Temple in Ximending (possibly my favourite temple in Taipei--it was a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of Ximending)

Offerings in a small local temple (I wonder if anyone eats the food?)

View from memorial to Chiang Kai-Shek, leader of the KMT and former dictator of Taiwan

CKS Memorial

Longshan Temple

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My first full day in Taipei was probably the most eventful of my two weeks there.  I spent most of my time in Taipei just relaxing.  Sometimes you need a vacation from your vacation, and I chose to spend a bit longer in Taipei so I could unwind a bit.  I thought I would like it there–and luckily I was right!  I met lots of nice people in my time there, but especially the first day.

I decided since I was planning to relax in Taiwan, I’d start my time there by going to the cinema.  But when I reached the metro station, my plans changed.  This Buddhist nun started chatting to me, and told me about how she was going to the Internatonal Floral Design Expo, which was having a free promotional day.  I said it sounded interesting, so she invited me to join her.  I figured why not–it was free!  I had a good time, looking at the flower exhibitions and talking to Ling Tong about travel and life.  We also met some people at the expo, two students from Malaysia and Macau who came to Taiwan for university.  One of them nicely showed me the way to the vegetarian restaurant I was looking for (I wouldn’t have found it by myself as Taipei’s street/alley system is a bit confusing), where I began talking to another girl who was eating alone at the restaurant.  Turned out she’s also vegan, and is originally from Israel but moved to Taipei a few months ago with her boyfriend, who’s studying at uni there.  She lived in my area, so she gave me a little tour of the veggie restaurants in the area and then we walked to Da’an Park, one of the main parks in Taipei. I was surprised how many people were out and about in the park even at night (Taipei is generally a very safe city).  I saw a guy doing tai chi and I got to try out the rock paths, which are supposed to be therapeutic for your feet but are very, very painful!  Though after the path I noticed I no longer had pain in my feet from climbing the Great Wall (not sure if it was due to the path or time, but the path seemed to help).  I also got her to take me to the best fruit stand in Shida night market.  Oh my God, the fruit was so amazing, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to eat tropical fruit in the US or UK again!  After that, I went to a club with some friends from the hostel, which was interesting. It was smoky and a little bit crazy–apparently Taipei’s famous for its intense club scene.  The system was interesting.  Entry is about 5 quid/$80 and buys you unlimited drinks (there’s some complicated system to ensure you don’t get more than one at a time but I don’t really know as I only had one).  They also rent out lockers for your bags, which is a pretty good idea (I hate checking my bag as I never feel safe).  It costs under $1  and you get a key which ties around your wrist…which works well unless you accidentally drop it in a pile of questionable liquid next to the squat toilet.

With my new friend at the Floral Expo

More new friends at the Floral Expo

Shida's best fruit!!

On the rock foot path in Da'an. My feet are in a lot of pain in this picture but I'm trying to smile through it!