10D9N Taiwan Trip: Xinyi Shopping District, Taipei City Hall
"You and me, get in the car together and ride."
I always think of doing a solo travelling because it has been a long time since the last time I did it. However, few years have passed and I have been doing it again since then. I always think that as long as I am blessed with someone who's willing to travel with me, I should just go travel with them instead going solo. I suppose the moment I am going solo travelling is when I have nobody in my life to share the adventure with. Sound lonely and yet not so lonely after all. I suppose yourself is your best company? Hahaha. It does take me years to realise this phrase, you know.
But I was kinda happy I was not alone when I was roaming around in Taipei. My best buddy from high school, SL, has always been my best travelling companion and she's here with me enduring all the nonsense given by her travelling mate, me. Hahahaha.
The moment after we touched down at Taipei after our days spent outside Taipei, we quickly filled ourselves with so many food from unagi rice bowl to bubble tea to cheese tarts and ice cream. Needless to say, we need to walk and burn some fats right now. We decided to wander around Taipei's most glamorous shopping district, Xinyi. You can reach Xinyi by taking the train to Taipei City Hall station. Xinyi is the so-called Central Business District of Taipei. The area was nicely lit up even though it was not Christmas or anything when we visited Taipei in early March. Street musicians and performers are plenty in this area making it a cheerful place to wander around.
Alternatively if you do not want to go via Taipei City Hall station, you can also take the train to Taipei 101 Station instead because the skyscraper is located in Xinyi district as well. Plan your timing carefully if you want to go up to the observation tower because there are so many tour groups going up there, you don't want to be stuck in the queue with them. There was one time where I had to queue for nearly two hours because turned out one of the elevators to bring you up was spoilt. So yeah, plan carefully.
Few blocks away from Taipei 101, we saw a small park right in the midst of big corporations building. The trees in the park were lit as well and we were getting pretty excited to take picture here. Big names for banks, insurances, consultancy firms can be spotted from the surrounding buildings. I wonder if the Taiwanese office workers have time to enjoy and walk around in the vicinity. Working hours for such industry in Singapore are pretty crazy, after all. Maybe it's about the same in Taiwan. Sad notorious Asian working culture.
Oh hello! Did I tell you I was getting pretty excited taking picture here? I never get excited taking picture at Raffles Place of Marina Bay area in Singapore though despite the same "Central Business District" tagging. LOL.
The magnificent Taipei 101 tower can be seen clearly from the park that we were at. The weather was kinda foggy that day so we did not bother to go up after all. Taipei 101 is leased for both retail and office space. So the first 5 levels below belong to retail space while the rest are leased for office. It will be kinda scary and cool at the same time if let's say I'm working at level 40 of the tower? I don't want to be there when earthquake or typhoon strikes the city though. Hahahah.
Other than Taipei 101, here are some places that you may be interested to visit at Xinyi District:
1. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall
2. Elephant Mountain
3. The flagship Eslite bookstore
4. ATT4 Fun
5. Shinkong Mitsukoshi Xinyi (you can do tax refund here)
4. Breeze Songgao (a must visit for LINE Friends lover)
