Exploring Taiwan: Taipei Walking Tour

I woke up on my second day in Taiwan all rested and ready for the day. For my second day, I went on a free walking tour which I booked via Klook, where we visited some of Taipei's popular tourist spots.

The meet-up time for the tour was at 9:45am so I had more than enough time to eat breakfast at the hostel and take the MRT going to Longshan Temple station where the meet-up point was. We had a very big group with people coming from different countries, led by two local tour guides. The tour started at around 10am and here are the sites that we visited.

Mengxia Park - the meet-up place for our walking tour; also known as

hotel park as it is where homeless people sleep for the night and leave

their belongings during the day as they go about doing their jobs

Longshan Temple - one of the most popular temples in Taipei, which is

for Chinese folk religion; it is a place of worship where the locals leave

offering for a god depending on what they wish for

Bopiliao Old Street - a well-preserved street from the Qing period; it now

serves as a popular tourist attraction

Ximen Red House - a historic theater which is now a heritage site that

houses a cafe and a few small shops

Presidential Office Building - the workplace of the President of the

Republic of China on Taiwan

2/28 Memorial - a heritage site build to pay tribute to the thousands of

victims of the February 28 incident in Taiwan

East Gate - one of the main gates of historical Taipei

Liberty Square Arch - entrance to the famous Liberty Square, which is

a public plaza that houses a few important structures in Taipei

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall - located in Liberty Square it is a famous

national monument, landmark and tourist attraction erected in memory of

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China

National Concert Hall - also located on Liberty Square, it is a popular

performing venue in Taipei

After the walking tour, I went to the McDonalds near my hostel and ordered ten pieces of chicken McNuggets. I feel the need to blog about it because we don't have a box of ten in the Philippines. Because you know, McNuggets is life *rolls eyes*. Kidding aside, I was such a happy kid that day for being able to eat more than just the usual six pieces of McNuggets.

When I was done with lunch, I went back to the hostel to take a nap before going out again and heading to the Shilin Market, which is one of the most popular night markets in Taipei. The Shilin Night market opens at 5pm so I decided to go early. I wanted to avoid the evening crowd plus I really wanted to get a lot of rest for the next day.

The Shilin Night Market offers everything from souvenir items to toys to local Taiwanese snacks to clothes. You name it, they have it. Everything there is really cheap but if you have haggling skills, you can get a pretty sweet deal. Needless to say, that is where I did all of my pasalubong shopping for the folks back home. I also tried some of the local street food being sold there and they were all sooo good. And really cheap too.