Taipei Yi-Ling-Yi

After Cambodia and a much-too-short visit home to the U.S. for two weeks, we were only back in Singapore for a few days before taking off to Taiwan for a business trip.

I spent most of my time working, so there aren't that many pictures, but we did get to see a few things during our short stay. Our hotel was right across the street from Taipei 101, which is currently the tallest building in the world. (It's soon to be overtaken by the one being built in Dubai, but since that's not finished yet, Taipei 101 is #1.)

And a view of downtown Taipei from not-quite-the-top:

And dinner at the Tower with a great group of David's co-workers:

To get to the top of the 101 is an amazingly quick ride, not that you're allowed to talk about it in the elevator:

We had a day off on the weekend, so we took one of those guided city tours that pack in as many sites in as possible in one day. First was a quick drive past the Taipei 101 during the rainy day. Does anyone else think it's looks like Chinese take-out boxes stacked on top of each other?

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (Chiang Kai-Shek ruled Taiwan/ROC between WWII and 1975) was the first stop. It was here I finally learned the difference between the Republic Of China and the People's Republic of China. "Feelings towards Chiang are mixed in Taiwan. While some still view him as a hero, other have bad feelings about him and want to draw a line under his era. Hundreds of Chiang's statues have been dismantled all over the island." This statue was watched by guards:

Next was the Martyrs' Shrine. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, and note Rule #3 that warns against "clamoring".

I'm pretty sure that's what this little girl is doing, but she was too cute for anyone to tell her to stop.

We visited a small local temple:

It has such intricate artwork and sculpture inside, but the most fascinating part for me were the electronic revolving buddhas.

Taipei is also famous for night markets. Other than the entire place smelling like a sewer, it was pretty fascinating. David bought some Converse sneakers for $25, and I bought one of those purse organizer things for $5.

My proudest moment was being able to converse in Mandarin with one of the street vendors, otherwise we might not have known what we were eating. The pork steamed buns were great!

Zai jian from Taiwan!