Welcome to Taiwan!

Street scene near our hotel.  Lots of motorbikes, but not
nearly as many as in Vietnam.

by Pa Rock
Cultural Explorer


Valerie and Murphy and I flew to Taiwan over the President's Day weekend last month and spent four days exploring that island nation.  Taiwan, or Nationalist China, was once known as Formosa.  It is where Chaing Kai-shek and his followers fled to after the communists took over China in the late 1940's.  Old Chaing managed to smuggle out (steal) many of the treasures of mainland China as he made his hurried exit - most of which are on display in the museums in and around Taiwan.

An alley near out hotel

As usual with my travels, I took lots of photos - and there will be several postings on this blog related to Taiwan.  The first, today's, looks at a few of the street scenes that we encountered on our first morning walkabout.  We were heading from our hotel (via subway and shoe leather) to Taipei's tallest building - the Taipei 101.  Photos from the 101 will be on the second posting.  (Taipei is the capital of Taiwan - and it is where we stayed during our visit.)

Enjoy your walk through a very modern Asian city!

Another street scene.  These small streets were relatively
quiet during the day.   Valerie and Murphy are in the
foreground.

Police station across the street from our local subway stop

And the police also had motorbikes

A busy intersection

Subway station - up the steps, then down the steps

An old theatre building

Bicycle rental lot.  Travelers can rent a bike at one lot and
leave it at another.  Very smart urban travel!

Part of the Taipei skyline

A very narrow building

Murphy and Valerie waiting on a light to change

Unusual architecture

Stainless steel rhino - life sized!

An artsy bus

Taipei 101 in the distance - our destination!