Day 2: Exploring Taipei, Meeting Research Partners

To travel in and get to know a foreign city, especially a large and world-class city like Taipei (which has earned an impressive "A-" in GaWC's ranking system), it is necessary to learn the basic layout of that city. Knowing the names and locations of major streets, landmarks, and districts will make everything easier. With this in mind, I decided on Wednesday morning to talk a walk around central Taipei.

The hostel is located in the Shida District, this also being the Chinese name of National Taiwan Normal University and the local night market. Immediately surrounding the hostel are apartment buildings, but only a two minutes' walk westward will bring you to the night market. Walk one more block, and you will find Shida Road, the street where lots of college students can be found at night, visiting food, drink, and clothing shops. Bordering this road on the west is NTNU. This means that I am staying very close to lots of great things, and places where I will spend a lot of time.

I walked northward many blocks, observing the structure of the buildings along the main road, which included many tall modern buildings, like mini-skyscrapers, that would not be out of place on street in New York or downtown Baltimore. Other buildings lining the road were in less pristine condition, and others showed a strong influence of Chinese architecture. Of course, along all of these buildings and alongside the streets are displayed various Chinese characters, naming the building, advertising the wares, and giving directions. It was only mainland China that switched in the 20th Century to the simplified Chinese characters--Taiwan did not--so all of these characters are Traditional. This means that they are slightly more complex--more elaborate--than would be signs expressing the same things in Simplified.

At the end of my walk, I wound up at Liberty Square, home to the Chiang Kai-Sheck Memorial, a very prominent structure near the center of Taipei, which commemorates the late leader of the Kuomintang (the republican Chinese fighting in the Civil War, who fled to Taiwan after the communists seized control) and president of Taiwan. Also in the same large plaza are the National Concert Hall and National Theater, two buildings of traditional Asian exterior architecture, but Western interiors.

For dinner, a large group of students from the hostel, along with one of the staff members of the Cat's Pajamas, went out to dinner for Korean barbeque. For anyone who has not tried this: Try it! Two large heating elements were brought out and hooked up to the table. On them, we cooked some of our own meats and vegetables. All the while, dish after dish of potato pancakes, fish, chicken, noodles, vegetables, soup, and other things were being brought out to our table. In addition, the restaurant had a great atmosphere and good view from the second-story window. It was an overall great evening.