National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan

The National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, hosts nearly 700,000 of some of the finest Chinese art and cultural artefacts in the world. The museum began life in 1925 in the Forbidden City in Beijing hence the reason for having the word "Palace" in its name. During the civil war, around 600,000 precious objects belonging to the Chinese history and culture were shipped to Taiwan for preservation. 

Main gate to National Palace Museum, Shih-Lin

It was not until 1965 when the artefacts were moved to its current location, the National Palace Museum in Shih-Lin (where the famous Shih-Lin night market is), Taipei. Over the years, the museum continued to expand and increased utilisation of digital technology to exhibit its holdings. In 2015, a new branch of the museum is scheduled to open in Chiayi, Taiwan. It is hoped that this will make the museum more accessible to those living in the southern part of Taiwan and also allow the museum to expand the scope and vision of its collections.

National Palace Museum

It is not possible to see everything it the museum in one go and so I strongly recommend spending the whole day there if you have the time. We only had half a day and wished we could have stayed longer. However we managed to see all of the special Exhibition on Rare Books and Documents. Also learnt about "unequal treaties" which was a sad part of Chinese history. Photography is not allowed so you will have to go yourself to experience the museum and its collections.

National Palace Museum

We arrived at the museum after a morning's walk in Yang Ming Mountain Gardens so the first stop was of course to grab a bite in the museum's well-known "Taiwanese Food Court" (府城晶華). The restaurant is inside museum grounds but in an adjacent building. I must say it was a delicious meal and very authentic Taiwanese food. We ordered 7-8 small dishes to share between the 4 of us and what a variety we ordered. There were fried oysters, marinated pig's intestine, traditional Tan Zae soup noodle, TaiNan rice cake in bowl, traditional pan-ried Taiwanese Sausage, traditional miniature rice dumpling wrapped in leaf and MiaoKow steamed taro cake. Then you have the choice of hot or cold traditional homemade tofu pudding or almond curd to finish off.

Taiwanese Food Court

To see more photos about Taiwan, its culture and food, go to www.mytaiwanholiday.com

Hot Spring Bath - Yilan, East Cost of Taiwan

Getting to Yilan, east coast of Taiwan, from Taipei has been made simpler and faster since the completion of the Hsuehshan Tunnel (雪山隧道 meaning "Snow Mountain tunnel") which is almost 13 kilometers long. This allowed Taipei city dwellers to get to the famous Hot Springs in Yilan in 30-40 minutes instead of the 2 hours it takes to go around Snow Mountain. Because of the types of rocks in this area of Taiwan, construction workers encountered major engineering challenges and at last completed the tunnel 15 years after it began. We were so thankful for the tunnel because we did not leave Taipei until 5pm and still got to Yilan well in time for an early dinner.


The first town you arrive at after leaving the tunnel is the Hot Spring town Jiaoxi (礁溪). Almost immediately, you can spot numerous road signs to dosens and dozens of Hot Spring hotels. We were just so spoilt for choice! Each hotel was bigger and newer than the previous. As it was low season being during the week, the hotel staff were keen to offer us irresistible deals for a room with all modern facilities and our very own private hot spring bath - i.e. the hot spring is pumped directly to your room so you can enjoy it with your loved ones away from prying eyes...


After dinner, we took a stroll towards the town train station just a few blocks away. The station itself was just like other Taiwanese stations. However we were surprised to find a public Hot Spring set up right in front of the station for anyone to soak their feet in. 


We had our own private Hot Spring Bath in the hotel room so we didn't sit down then and there for a soak. But boy were we tempted. Sure we can imagine how relaxing it would be for travellers or locals arriving on a train from afar to get off and have a Hot Spring foot soak before continuing their journey. 


You can see more photos on this and other highlights around Taiwan by going to www.mytaiwanholiday.com

Sun Moon Lake - Shuishe

We arrived into Sun Moon Lake from the north along highway number 21. The miserable weather in Taipei as we left this morning turned into sunshine as we drove further down south. There were some cloud cover the day we arrived and we were just pleased that it wasn't raining. What we hadn't expected is the rest of our stay at Sun Moon Lake is greated with sunshine and clear skys. More on that later.

We checked in to our hotel in Shuishe, Hotel del Lago (日月潭大淶閣), to large modern rooms with full lake view. The room offered complementary tea, coffee, mineral water, soft drinks and fresh fruits. It was a nice welcome after our 3 hour drive from Taipei. Our hotel package also included afternoon tea so off we went to sit in the cafe which looks out onto the Shuishe Pier. The cheese cake was delicious and goes surprisingly well with fresh lavendar tea. The skies opened and showed early promises that the rest of the trip would be better weather than the first day as we set off for a stroll along the lake.

There are many pedestrian lake-side trail from Shuishe. Heading west into the peninsula is the Hanbi Lakeside Trail which takes you near the famous Lalu Hotel (涵碧樓). Heading east along the lake is the Shuishe Lakeshore Trail and is joined on the east by more trails including Mount Neihu Hikign Trail and Wenwu Temple Hiking Trail. From Shuishe, you can also hire a bicycle and hop on the Xingshang Bikeway. The bikeway takes you anticlockwise around the lake and joins with Yuetan bikeway to take you all the way to the southern most tip of the lake.

This evening we stayed put at the Hotel del Lago, enjoying its facilities and soaking in the local atmostphere while observing boat-loads of tourists from all around the world being taken on a tour around the lake. We enjoyed an icecream or two, made enquiries at the souvenir stalls and also stopped to say hello to this little fellow.

Holiday in Taiwan - Taipei night markets

A holiday in Taiwan couldn't be complete without experiencing the world famous Taiwanese night market. And where best to try it then in the Taiwanese capital Taipei city. Taipei city itself is home to 2.7 million people and greater Taipei - or now called New Taipei - is home to 6.7 million Taiwanese. Serving such a crowded city, the Taiwanese have come up with an ingenius way to entertain themselves - night markets.

Night market in Taiwan started way back to the days when the villagers would sit by the old evergreen trees after a day’s hard work on the farm and catch up with each other on village affairs. This usually takes place by the village temple where it is well-lit. As time passes, some people came up with the idea of setting up a drinks trolley to quench the thirst of the growing crowd. From there, other trolleys came with hot foods, refreshing ice lollies and even selling household items. 

In time, Taiwanese night market grew into the size it is nowadays which, the largest ones in Taipei city, takes over dozens of streets in the surrrounding neighbourhood. You can find almost anything you need at one of these night markets; from cheap shoes to branded clothing. You can also pick up a set of quality bed sheets or even a pet dog or cat!

And of course lets not forget the mouth-watering dizzying array of Taiwanese world-famous street food. Be warned, there is no escape from the mixture of aromas - but you don’t tend to notice it once you’ve tried a few delicacies. Ask for stinky tofu, oyster omelette or go with your fancy once you get there!

Umbrellas of all sizes, colors and patterns

Souvenirs and lucky chains

Made-in-Taiwan bags

One of many cheap shoe shops 

... of course, no night market is complete without street food!

Lots of it

Clothing, watches, scarfs...

More clothing

The girls at the bubble tea shop insisted we took a photo of them

The temple which the night market surrounds

Holiday in Taiwan - Taipei International Flora Exhibition

The last time I had a holiday in Taiwan was in Spring 2011. It was a beautiful April with whole 3 weeks of sunshine and temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius. The weather was simply gorgeous and we took the opportunity to get around Taipei City and the various main sights.

Queue into the Flora Exhibition grounds

Our visit to Taiwan coincided with the Taipei International Flora Exhibition which opened November the year before. It was the final few days of the Expo and hundreds of thousands of people were still visiting it every day! We were lucky to get our hands on some "special" tickets which allowed express entry to the grounds and highlight pavilions. When I said special, I meant we queued for just half an hour instead of 2-3 hours. There were seas of people, and they came wave after wave throughout the day.

We were complete amazed by the exhibits, designed and exhibited by countries around the world especially for this exhibition. All were unique and the landscape architects attempted to recreate the famous and memorable landmarks of their countries. So we saw Rome of Italy, the Petronas twin towers of Malaysia, wind mills of Holland and many more.


Performances both in doors and outdoors were set up around the exhibition grounds. There were people dancing in traditional Taiwanese costumes and singing to Taiwanese folk songs. Official were posted every 100 meters to help directing visitors and answer important questions about where to find lavatories and buy food. There were also souvenir shops selling Flora Expo memorabilia, pot plants and other garden items.

We enjoyed the day tremendously and must say that it was a well organized event. Taiwan has come a long way toward democracy and its ability to host such an international event is another evidence of its growing stability in the region. For us, we were just pleased to have the opportunity to witness its growth and to visit the exhibition.