The last big excursion: Taipei

Here's a small update in the beginning:
I'm flying to Shanghai next Tuesday, picking up the rest of my stuff there, and flying to Germany on Wednesday, so I'll finally be home on Thursday. I will look for an internship in Germany, just like Gelpant.
Sophie also lands in Germany on Thursday, but she doesn't know yet what will happen to her. Trumpf she canceled it for now.

But now to the actual report: Since these are my last days in Taiwan, we absolutely had to spend a day in Taipei 台北. The train ride took about 45 minutes with the high-speed train and we had a beautiful 25°C again. From the main train station, we walked past the North Gate towards the southwest of the city. There you can find countless streets with small shops and restaurants. You could stroll through the streets forever here.

Our first destination was the Bopiliao Historical Block. This is a small street block from the late 19th century that gives an insight into what Taipei looked like back then. You can go inside some of the houses and there are exhibitions and information boards about the history. Many of the buildings have been rebuilt or renovated over the years, but it still has its own charm, especially since it stands in contrast to the 'modern' Taipei that surrounds the block.

Right next to it was the Mengjia Longshan Temple. By now we have seen quite a few temples and somehow they all look quite similar. Nevertheless, I find them very beautiful and I like all the decorations on the roofs. There were many small streets with countless street food stalls around where we had lunch.

From there we went through a small market that reminded us a lot of Cambodia, to the Presidential Office and then on to one of the highlights of this day: the Liberty Square.

This square and the surrounding buildings were one of the most impressive things I have ever seen, especially because of their size. The one in the middle at the bottom is me, for size comparison. This gate is the Liberty Square Arc, on the left is the National Concert Hall, on the right is the National Theatre, and in the background you can see the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Many ceremonies and festivals take place on this square.

The area also includes a very large and beautiful park. Here we took a break and enjoyed the good weather.

Then we climbed the steps to the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. This is named after one of the presidents of China or Taiwan. Inside the building is a large sculpture of the former president, which is permanently guarded by two soldiers. There is a changing of the guards here regularly, which we happened to witness by chance.

Since it was already quite late, we took the metro to the Taipei 101. This 508m high tower is probably the landmark of Taipei par excellence. However, we didn't want to go up the tower, it was too expensive for us, instead we planned to enjoy the sunset with a view of the city. For this we walked up to Xiangshan 象山 (Elephant Mountain). About 700 steps lead up the mountain and in between there are viewpoints that offered a breathtaking view of the city.

Our goal was to be up there in time to enjoy the view in daylight, at sunset and at night. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy and the smog was quite dense, so we couldn't see the sunset. Nevertheless, it was very beautiful and we found a perfect spot.

There we also met a group of German students who were with their buddies and had the same plans as us. So we enjoyed the onset of darkness together, had a little chat and exchanged experiences. Afterwards we had dinner together and a beer before we took more or less the last train from Taipei back to Hsinchu. There we could finally fall into our bed, exhausted and full of impressions.