So this blog never finished. My first thirty days of Taipei turned into one-and-a-half years, and then I never got around to updating this blog. But since so many people ask me about Taiwan, here is my general use guide which I'll just post here. (By "so many" I mean more than three.) It's half touristy, half not. I'm sure you'll cover the basics in any guide book, so I tried to stray from most of those recommendations and highlights. For context please keep in mind that I am me. Weird hours, late nights, anti-scenery, and hate crowds/people. So moving on... Note: I lived right near Zhongxiao Xinshen MRT right about, so most of the stuff I was familiar with was kind of central Taipei. In general, the blue MRT line goes east to west and goes to most of the stuff I’m talking about… Keep in mind there is Taipei proper and then New Taipei, which is akin to say, San Francisco and then Inner Sunset, etc. Also, as I learned from my friend's LV Taipei Guide
With Daisy headed back to the States, real Taiwan life was set to begin. I spent the afternoon with my aunt, as we went down Dihua Street toward the fabric market. Dihua Street is the oldest in Taipei and it has Western style architecture and stores hawking Chinese herbs and medicines, as well as stuff people use during traditional festivals and celebrations. "Dihua Jie was constructed in the 1850s after merchants on the losing side of an ethnic feud in the Wanhua area fled to Dadaocheng… After Taiwan's ports were opened following the Second Opium War, Western tea merchants flooded into the area and built handsome mansions and trading stores. Later, during the Japanese era, baroque and modernist architectural and decorative touches were added to many shops, making Dihua Taipei's most historically diverse street." Both my aunts here are afflicted with polio and they now both use motorized wheelchairs. (Everyone from San Diego should be familiar with the Salk Instit