Night and Day, China and Taiwan.

Not taken at the Airport
but shows flag ;)

I’ve now moved from China to the small Island of Taiwan, also referred to as the Republic of China (ROC). I had no idea what to expect when I was planning coming to Taiwan, I had not really heard a lot about Taiwan and the lonely planet forums were really undecided to it being interesting. But I had penciled it in as a “option” if I had time, and I have loads of that.

I arrived in Taipei the capital of Taiwan and immediately it was obvious Taiwan was not considering itself part of mainland china (contrary to what many people in china I talked to said).  The airport was covered in Taiwanese flags in every direction. It was clear to see the people were very proud of there flag.

The first night I checked into the hostel and met a few of the people there, they were all heading out on the town as it was one of the guys birthday and it was time to party! We headed to a Spanish salsa bar, which had all you could drink as it was closing down (great idea to increase profits), so we drank and enjoyed ourselves till the early hours of the morning.

For some reason I hadn’t been sleeping since shanghai, only getting 2-3 hours of sleep. So having gone to bed at 5am I was up at 7:30 again and out the door… I walked and walked. From the hostel to the other side of Taipei to the Taipei 101 tower.  The 101 tower is the worlds 2^nd tallest building and boasts the worlds fastest elevator. Climbing 101 stories in 45 seconds, at a top speed of 1010 meters a minute.

From the top of the tower you can see 360 degrees around Taipei and its said that on clear days you can see mainland china, but I find that hard to believe due to the distance.

Finishing up at the 101 building I walked back to the hostel extremely tired.  I walked through a few of Taipei’s famous night markets just as they were opening up and had some nice beef noodles to eat.

That night again I went out, I had a kip (nap) earlier so was not tired at all. Others in the hostel were not interested but I went anyways, arriving back at 4am again after a great night out on the town and I met a lot of people. When I arrived back a number of the guys from the hostel were still up, it was there last night in Taipei and they were doing a all night run.

I was not in a happy place the next day, having done all nighters for 4 days straight and averaging 3-4 hours sleep a night I was drained, I hung around the hostel that day doing my washing and watching movies.

That night we talked and organized the following day, tomorrow was Taiwan’s National day of independence. My luck I had landed on the 1 day they celebrate independence but also there centenary (100 years). Sara (Sarah) a member of the hostel staff was talking about a flag raising ceremony at dawn (6am) and other celebrations later the day.  But it was far to early for some people to get up, but I was keen… hell I had been getting up at that time the last week so might as well make the most of it.

5am the next morning I had organized to meet Sara at the hostel and was texting her to make sure she was still keen when I heard “Steffen you awake” and she was up and ready lol… She also managed to wake up Sterny another guest at the hostel and convince (force) him to come along. Nice work Sara J

The flag raising was to take place at presidents hall but getting there seemed impossible, the police and army had cornered off every direction within 3km of the building. We ended up finding a gate where the crowds had gathered, but we were not getting in under any conditions. 6am came and the crowd erupted the flag was being raised and it was literally 7km away so tiny. People began to sing the national anthem. A few people with the national flag for up higher above the crowds and waved it to give people something to sing and cheer for. I don’t think anyone predicted they would not be aloud to get close the hall.

Following the flag raising we hopped in a cab and went to get some traditional Taiwanese breakfast. It was a mixture of Chicken, Duck and Pork things with a rice porridge. All very nice.

We headed back to the festivities, apparently there would be paratroopers and planes flying past at 9:30 or something.  It was 8:30 so we had lots of time to walk there.

9:30 came and went, we watched the performers practice for the main event later that day, soldiers and martial arts performances.  Was very cool to see.

10:30 we had moved to another place in the memorial park to relax and then suddenly everyone pointed and cheered, 1000’s of people erupted at the same time. Helicopters in formation had appeared on the horizon and not just a few, row after row of helicopters then Chinooks (double propeller helicopters), then medical planes, and transport planes. 


Followed by loads of fighter jets of various types, MIGs, F16’s and others. Finally a group of 5 in formation with Red, White and Blue smoke the colors of Taiwan’s national flag.  Very very cool!!

As we left 100’s of police rode in on motorbikes we thought maybe it was the president or someone importance but it was just police, they would later let people close to the bike and take photo’s with them.

Shortly there after paratroopers finally fell from the sky, smoke cashing them.

Following this several convoys of tanks passed through the city.

We headed back to the hostel and had some lunch, the festivities would be paused till 3pm when the demonstrations would be for real. On the way we passed a pack of dogs standing outside a meet shop sniffing the air. They didn’t take a single step inside the shop, they seemed to have been trained to just stand and wait. Quite funny.

We headed back to the grounds at 3pm only to find it was packed, the crowds had swelled to unimaginably big size and getting a place to see the demonstrations was challenging.

Once it was over we headed back to the hostel and had a waffle party.

The following day I had slept in, the previous days had finally caught up to me and it felt so nice to have gotten a decent sleep. I headed out late and went to Longshan Temple, it was a active temple and was full of incense burning and people layout out fruit for prayers.

From there I walked around town eventually getting tired and found a cinema so I poped in to watch a movie. Relaxing day indeed! J It seemed I wasn’t the only one, everyone in the hostel that night spent there time on there laptops relaxing.

My final day in Taipei till I come back to fly out I spend at Maokong, a large cable car that flies over the Taipei Zoo. 


It took me to the top of a mountain and I hiked down it, I couldn’t believe the number of spiders along the way, they were massive as well. 


I must have been taller than anyone else that walked before me that day as I was cleaning up… my umbrella was littered with spider webs(After 20 min of walking into them I used my umbrella as a Machete to cut my way though the webs).

The paths were beautiful and packed in with bamboo, it would take me around the tea plantations and banana trees to a temple. Eventually I Made my way down via the cable car again as it started to bucket down.

My last night, I’m still not sure that to do, Sara has kindly offered some concert tickets to traditional Chinese music but I wouldn’t mind hitting up the clubs before I leave the big smoke again. So many choices. Either way should be fun.

Tomorrow I’m heading to Toroko National Park, Hualien. Going to spend a week hiking around the mountains. So looking forward to that.

Till next time. See ya! Steffen.