Taiwan is indeed renowned for its food and shopping sprees. Lots of food and shoes especially. Clothes, not so because they're still selling winter wear. We went there on China Airlines and i love being on a plane, you should know why =p. To and fro i've watched quite a few movies, juno, alvin and chipmunks and lust caution which i didnt like it.
The weather there was great, about 18 degrees. On the second day, we had a guide who brought us around some of their historical landmarks which was as usual, boring. We went to jiu fen, which is up in the hills. The layout up there is like our bugis street. In fact all the night markets i've been to are like that. At night, went to shilin and gorged on all the food there. Third day, we roamed around. Sadly, there isnt much to see in the afternoon. Shopping centres are few and far in between, we didnt go to any. We did go to the 101 tower for a while but there's nothing affordable there and i'm not really impressed by the architecture also. So, we took the MRT to danshui, introduced by some passers by we met. Nice beach and sunset there and the same old stalls along the streets. I'm quite impressed by their "ez link" card. It actually looks like a mahjong chip which i think was kind of cool.
So, overall it was not a really nice trip i would say. It was soso, maybe because i had high expectations. To me, the place only consists of night markets, nice food, nice weather. Service there is a nono i would say. Vendors are not really friendly, people knocked into one another as if its a right to. I've been knocked into quite a few times. ''Excuse me'' is absent from their vocabulary as well and hotel greeters are like robots seriously. Their " huan ying guang lin'' is said with no smiles no expressions whatsoever. Their roads are pretty narrow as well. If they're willing to promote good service standards i believe tourists will have a more pleasant trip.
Yuanjing on 8:26 PM