Taiwan 🇹🇼 Day 5: Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, Dongmen Market, Badouzi, Shifen, Pingxi Old Street, Shilin Night Market, Lehua Night Market

First stop for the day was Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall NTD16. 

It was tooo hot that I couldn't take it (I prefer hot climates tbh compared to cold ones but this one, I couldn't stand).

Twinning with the Arch of Liberty //this was my 'Lin Chen-hsin' outfit

Cooling ourselves with milk tea from 711 NTD60

Hangzhou tops my XLB list. One order for NTD150. 

At the back of National Chiang Kai Shek Memorial hall is Hangzhou Xiao Long Bao - the local rival of Din Tai Fung. I've read that tourists mainly flock to DTF while locals would opt for Hangzhou XLB.

Belle really wanted to try TKK Fried Chicken which is like the Jollibee of Taiwan daw. So from Hangzhou XLB we walked to the nearest TKK which is in Dongmen. Basically we walked one train station. We passed by a local palengke, Dongmen Market. Their palengke is really clean! I think Suki Market in Dapitan Arcade compares.

We got the curry bento from TKK Fried Chicken NTD160 and 2 pieces of chicken for NTD55. The chicken isn't anything special (I didn't like it) but I love their curry bento - curry biased.

From Dongmen Station, we went to Nangang NTD24 and transferred trains to Ruifang. Apparently in Ruifang, you have to wait for the train to make a turn in Badouzi before it goes to Pingxi PHP186. But we rode it all the way to Badouzi lol

You could stop for awhile in Badouzi and visit Shen'ao Elephant Rock.

We arrived too late at Shifen for the waterfalls (closes at 5PM) so we skipped Shifen for Pingxi.

4 color sky lantern - NTD200

To be honest, if you wanted to fly sky lanterns, you could also do it at Shifen. Pingxi is very small and there are only shops that sell souvenirs and sky lanterns unlike Shifen where there are a lot of food. The scenery? not much difference so I guess it wouldn't really matter if you choose either station. But for a normal day, pick Shifen instead of Pingxi definitely because in Pingxi, the train waiting time is long and when you get stuck for about 30 minutes to 1 hour, there isn't much to do unlike in Shifen.

Wagyu NTD100, Oyster Pancake NTD65, Braised Pork NTD35

Last stop for the day was Shilin Night Market PHP226 + NTD20.

On the top floor of the Shilin Night Market Building, you can buy food and item souvenirs. I suggest you buy your souvenirs here especially the item souvenirs instead of the usual tourist places because they've got it all for you lol. 

The top floor is also filled with arcade or perya games for about NTD100 per game.

Milk tea NTD40, Chicken NTD70

The ground floor of the building is the foodcourt. Do take note of the beautiful architecture of Living Mall just outside Shilin Station - it's the golf ball looking one.

That night, after we went home, we discovered Lehua Night Market near Dingxi NTD24 while looking for laundry detergent lol.

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Taiwan 🇹🇼 Day 4: Xindian Old Street, Wulai Atayal Aboriginal Village & Hotsprings, Bitan Scenic Area, Our Times Film Location, Gongguan Night Market, & Shi Da Night Market

The highlight for the day is Wulai Atayal Aboriginal Village in Wulai District. Wulai, like Beitou is home to natural hotsprings and the closest aboriginal village to Taipei.

Xindian Old Street

From Dingxi, we went to the end of the green line, Xindian Station NTD24. Just outside the station is Xindian tourist information center and across the street on one side is Xindian Old Street and Bitan Scenic Area on the other.

There isn't really anything special in Xindian Old Street - maybe except this hugeee wintermelon outside one of the pawnshops. The street is mostly lined with pawnshops and restaurants. No food stalls like other old streets.

Lunch at Family Mart NTD79. I couldn't finish my lunch buuut it was so good!!! AHHH BRING THIS TO PHILIPPINES PLIZ!

We went back to Xindian Station after to board Bus 849 to Wulai Atayal NTD15.

Wulai is the last stop of the bus so you definitely won't get lost going there!

Across the first bridge is Wulai Old Street. We thought it would be hard to find food here or the food would be expensive as it is an "aboriginal village". Boy were we wrong! The village as well as the top part of Wulai is lined with restaurants.

 Wild boar sausage NTD35

🔆 What to eat: Aboriginal dishes such as wild mountain boar, bamboo tube rice, wild mountain yams, pickled pork, Reeve's muntjac and bird's nest fern

Muaji aka sticky rice NTD30 - I could eat this for merienda anytime!

🔆 What to buy: Millet wine & traditional woven cloth (I wanted to buy one badly but as usual, stuff like this is expensive)

They even have a 711 here! Chatime at NTD30

This is the kind of piggyback ride I want 😂

To the left is the Wulai Log Cart and to the right is the hotsprings river bank

NTD50 each way to the waterfalls but you can also hike it if you want. There are a lot of hiking trails in Wulai!

There a lot of shops on top too! In some shops, you can buy Wulai handmade goods like the woven cloths and aboriginal dolls

❗️Beware: Not all handmade looking stuff they sell are handmade in Wulai. You have to know your goods because my friend was nearly talked into buying something made in Bali as Wulai-made if I haven't intervened.

While we were browsing stuff on one of the shops, we received an alert (similar to that of NDRRMC). Of course, we couldn't understand what it was alerting us about. Luckily, one of the tourists browsing the shop with us were from Hong Kong and could speak English. Apparently they have this one day a year in Taiwan where everybody was not allowed to go out of their house/shop for an hour because the police will be making a nationwide drill.

Atop the falls is a resort which you can visit for NTD220 return gondola ride.

Before leaving Wulai, we soaked in their free foot hotsprings just outside their tourist information center. We were supposed to soak on the hotsprings river but there was construction going on so the river is closed. Beitou has a free foot hotsprings too!

Back at Xindian Station, we went to Bitan Scenic Area. It's a riverfront area where there are a lot of chill activities. You can ride boats or rent bicycles or just stroll along the riverside while looking at the calm surroundings. There are also a few hiking trails and temples near the area.

After Bitan, we visited one of the film locations of 我的少女时代 Our Times near Xindian District Office Station NTD16. The place was a cafe called 小歇泡沫紅茶 which is just around the block from the main station. Unfortunately, when we went, it was already closed for good and in renovation for another business 😭


Karen and I were such a big fan of the movie. I was so excited to the point where I coordinated my outfit for this visit to look like Zhenxin (you will see it in my Day 5 post). We were so disappointed... but on our 6th day, we were able to pass by another film location. Buuut out of all the film locations in Taipei, this cafe was the most similar to the movie 😔

Xiao long bao NTD15 & Cranberry Juice NTD40

We made our way to Gongguan Station NTD20 after that to eat at Gongguan Night Market which is pretty much just a block of building but surrounding areas have a lot of  restaurants and shoe stores. It's also just outside National Taiwan University - the top university in Taiwan.

To be honest, one of the reasons why I went to Taiwan was to check out the living expenses and NTU enrolment because I was thinking about where to study after my bachelor's degree - either Taiwan or China. At first, I was so set on NTU but eventually got swayed over to Tsinghua University in China. But who knows where fate will take me lol.

師大39文Eat市集 NTD120+50, 阿諾可麗餅 Arnor Crepes NTD120, 50Tea NTD45

One station away from Gongguan is Tai Power Station NTD16 which houses the chic shopping district of Shi Da Night Market.

Near Shi Da is NTU (this uni is THAT wide). It's definitely the place to shop for millenials. It's mostly food and fashion stores targeted for university students and also owned by upstart entrepreneurs. AND I LOVED EVERYTHING!!! If had money, I would buy a lot of clothes, bags and shoes here!

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