[Travel] Part 6 of 8, Taiwan

While most of the trip till this date involves sight seeing on tourist attractions, today’s agenda differed from the usual one as I had a chance to witness how does a university graduation in Taiwan looks like.

The same old joint for breakfast.

Apparently, they use chopsticks for this.

The trip consists of:

  • Graduation ceremony in Taipei, Taiwan
  • GongGuan’s hotpot
  • Chian Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
  • Hot spring at XinBeiTou
  • Shi-lin Night Market (again)

(One of) The entrance of Chinese Culture University (PCCU) (中國文化大學)

University graduation in Taiwan

One of the youth’s important turning point in life, to graduate from an university.

Almost every single students got up early in the morning with bikes to attend the graduation ceremony.

There are 2 main entrance that you can get into the Chinese Culture University, by bus or taxi.

As you walk along the entrance of the university, you can see a lot of people selling gifts, flowers and souvenirs, at a premium price.

A panoramic view of inside the university as graduates march around the campus.

A balloon that flew away.

The excitement of being a youth.

It seems that it is not only limited to an ordinary graduation ceremony but there are also student performances.

Snacks and drinks.

After a quick strolling around the campus, we walk towards behind a quiet alley where the students usually have their lunch or groceries.

That concludes a short visit to an university graduation. We found out that there are a lot of hidden stalls behind the campus, where those that purchased souvenirs earlier might find themselves bought an overpriced items.

Not dead, just chilling out on a sunny day.

A lot of items for sale, at a cheaper price.

There’s so much that you’re just really blinded by the selections.

There’s unlimited amount of bikes almost everywhere.

Though it’s pretty hard to portray the amount of bikes in the picture above, but it’s so many that you wouldn’t want to start counting them.

Right towards the bus stand where we walk from the university exit, there’s plenty of mansion around.

And underground private car park.

Most of the mansions has at least 50 years of history.

Taiwan Spicy Hotpot 麻辣火鍋 at Gongguan

Not too long after chilling out from the graduation ceremony, we head right away to GongGuan Station for a lunch break.

It appears that this place is as busy like the other big cities around Taiwan.

It has much more livelier streets compared to Danshui.

Just when we thought that the amount of motorcycles in Taipei is scary.

It’s private bicycle parked outside.

This is the shop where we had our spicy Taiwanese hotpot. The shop’s name meant spicy-horse literally (pun intended). But in fact the actual meaning for this dish describes the spicy flavor that can make even your tongue go numb.

It’s a buffet-styled hotpot restaurant.

The menu in it’s blazing red colour.

For those that is not looking into the extreme spicy flavour, you can opt for a non-spicy soup.

Much expected, there are a bunch of snacks to look for.

But worry not for shopaholics as there is a lot a lot of shops selling apparels to accessories. Really a lot, just that I didn’t take any pictures of it :)

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 國立中正紀念堂

This would be another tourist attraction that you can’t miss if you do visit Taipei.

There is a direct Metro train that arrives into this memorial hall.

Apparently it opens from 9AM to 6:30 PM.

It’s actually one of the historical monument where you can stroll around until the sun-sets.

Or look at these few types of birds. But do not mess with them as I literally got few drips of their poo behind my back before I even realized it.

As you can see, the is a huge gate in between 2 temple-lookalike building. To walk from the main gate (where the exit of the Metro train is).

to this building, it takes approximately around 20 minutes.

To look at this. No entrance fees incurred.

So besides photography, what do people do there?

There is this ceremony almost everyday. (Removing flag from the pole)

Hot springs in XinBeiTou

After days of walking around the town or county, you can consider dropping by one of the hot spots for hot springs near Taipei. Just few stations away, Xinbeitou (新北投) has a lot of resorts where they offer hot springs facilities. But of course there is also a known fact among the locals there is also a famous spot for illegal red light districts. (sigh)

So as you reach Beitou, you need to take/change train towards Xinbeitou.

And as usual, it’s best to have some research in hand before deciding to any of the hot spring hotel/resort at all, if not, you’ll end up like this damn shady one. Even from the brochure it did mentioned something like “Japanese styled-hot springs” but it is nowhere near 1% in resemblance.

Revisiting Shi-lin

Surprisingly, there is Som-Tam found on the streets of Shilin Night Market. Maybe due to the fact there is this very popular Thai-drama that is running at the moment.

Huge.

And that is all for the 6th day of visit to Taipei. It seems like the city never sleeps here in Taipei, where entertainment like Karaoke are available up to 24 hours. More to come! Thank you for reading.

The entire travel-log to Taiwan consists of travel to :

  • Taipei City
  • Shilin Night Market
  • Xinbeitou Hot springs
  • Wulai, Taipei
  • Hualien County, Taiwan
  • XiMenDing
  • Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
  • DanShui old street
  • Danshui Fisherman’s wharf

The links: