Taiwan (台湾)

Taroko National park (太魯閣國家公園)

2009-01-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

Taroko National park is one of seven national park in Taiwan. It was named after the Taroko Gorge, the landmark gorge of the park. It's less cars now. After big earthquake some part of road connect to East and west side of Taiwan is very dangers,so the government decide to close it, but the whole of Taroko still open. Taroko is still very gorgeous. You can see beautiful marble stone everywhere.If you like hiking,there are many hiking trails.

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Hualian County (花蓮縣)-Farglory-Oceanpark (遠雄海洋公園)

2009-01-15T21:28:00.000-08:00

You can very easily spend a day in this ocean park with your family. They have very nice Dolphin & sea lion show,Mermaid show, Aquarium, Russian circus, etc. Unfortunately we miss Russian circus when we were there, the Wednesday is their day off. And if you are nice ,the sea lion will give you a kiss. The food court foods also are very delicious. Don't forget to try their water ride,it has a fantastic view ,and fun. I recommend this park including in your schedule if you are going to explore Hualian. Here is the Ocean park website link.

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Hualian County (花蓮縣)- Farglory Hotel (遠雄悅來大飯店)

2009-01-15T00:12:00.000-08:00

This five star victory hotel is locate at top hill of Hualian. The hotel and it's surrounding is very beautiful design. It's very easy to spend few days without going anywhere, it has Farglory Ocean park next door for family & kids, and also has nice walking trail look down the pacific ocean. The hotel has all of facilities, as nursing room, gym, indoor swimming pool,spa. The rooms are very stylish,you can choice the rooms face the ocean or the mountain,the both side are very beautiful. Here is The hotel website

Hualian County (花蓮縣)

2009-01-14T23:03:00.000-08:00

Hualian is locate in a very beautiful surrounding. It change a lot since I visited last time, more developed,and more nice hotels & Minshus. Now there is bullet train run between Taipei & Hualian,it only take 2 hours. There are many sightseeing place nearby as Taroko Gorge etc.

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Yilan County (宜蘭縣)-Jiaoxi (礁溪)

2009-01-13T03:23:00.000-08:00

Jiaoxi is a hot spring town. It's locate at east north side of Taiwan. Taiwan government build a tunnel connect East north to West north of island, now just need two hours drive from Taipei to Yilan, it's also on the way to Hualian ( 花蓮), therefore ,the traffic is very bad in the weeken,so i suggest start early in the morning. You can go there by train or bus, which run very regular.
There are many things you can do in Yilan, hiking in the mountain, experience drinking tea in the very beautiful surrounding tea farm on top of hill.

The foods are great in Yilan too. We went to this seafood restaurant,which only take reservation,if you show up that day,they won't take you in,because they want to control freshness of vegetables, fishes they serve. The price is very cheap,it's around NT$900-1200. The chef create dishes for you denpend on what price you order, we payed NT$900/each,think at lest 8 dishes,at the end we could not finished,and had to take our desert home.

The other interested place to visit is King Car whisky factory,which is very big you can spend few hours here.They have factory tour,after the tour,they let you try their whisky. And if you would like to try their coffee, the 2nd floor has beautifull view,and nice sitting area.

There are many minshus (民宿) & hotels in Yilan. It seems Minshu pop up everywhere in Taiwan last few years,they provide room & breakfast at very reason price. we stoped at this Ya-Lu minshu for tea, and enjoyed his beautifull & quiet surrounding. The owner is very friendly,and show us their rooms,which are very nice,and comfortable. Here is their website

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Taipei (台北市)

2009-01-12T22:12:00.001-08:00

Taipei is capital city of Taiwan. The city is very international. You can find many kind of entertainments, and foods.The foods are great. There are many night-market which you can spend whole evening there, the foods are cheap in the market too. There are also many things you can do in Taipei area, hiking,cycling,shopping,etc. Think the living cost is cheaper,compare to Tokyo. Taipei really had been changing a lot since we lived there, much more clean ,less air pollution, the traffic is much nicer.

It's the tallest building in the world ,we call it 101 building( I am aware that China & Dubai are building the tallest building, too. sooner 101 will not be the tallest in the world). The view is fantastic if you take elevator to the top,and look down whole Taipei city,also there is restaurant on top, too. We had a lunch over there, unfortunately the weather was very bad we could not take some photos. We were there for New year 2009. The firework display were wonderful, and they are so beautiful that we couldn't stop click on our camera.

This is national palace museum in Taipei. I heard It has a permanent collection of over 650,000 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks, making it one of the largest in the world. Taiwan Just start having flight direct from island to Mainland China. We saw many mainland Chinese tourist over there.

Taipei has very nice transportation network. It's too bad we didn't have more time to stay and revisiting old place and take more photos,we will have to wait next time.

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