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Traffic is the plague of a successful city. There are lot's of private cars but I am told the tax structure makes them very expensive and the motor scooter is king of the streets.

I stayed in the city of Taipei for most of my time in Taiwan. It's tempting to turn ones camera only to the most unique and touristic sights. I could fill pages with such sights leaving an impression that the whole country is made up of photogenic temples and mountains. In reality most of the time it's typical modern city life. Sometimes the city is pretty, often it's plain, sometimes downright ugly and gritty.

The most common convenience store; "7 Eleven", followed by another called "Family Mart"

Americans always want to know how much a gallon of gas costs. Let see;

34.7 X .0345 NT/Dollar is about $1.20 per liter

1.20 X 3.79 Liters per Gallon works out to about $4.55 per gallon in October 2012

Fortunately for me the electronic signage flashes multiple languages.

A benefit of going at very off peak times is the reduced crowding. Most of these pictured are empty compared to peak times.

Above the entrance to a place called "Snake Alley", below the interior. Aside from the usual night market activities, it was a place where they would do somewhat shocking things to live snakes typically as part of food preparation. That sort of thing sees less favor these days. A couple restaurants did have snakes in glass cases out front. I did not go into any of them so I can't really say if they were put to any use beyond display these days.

The city borders on mountainous areas, that's why the hiking is so good. In one section the transit system is actually extended up the mountainside by cable cars called Maokong Gondolas. Riders transfer to a gondola using the same MRT fare card you use to ride the subway!

This was my first room in Taipei, roughly 7X12, $20/night, shared bathroom in the hall. I moved later to one with only one bed. It's in a hostel called "Happy Family" just a short walk from the Taipei Main station already pictured. That station is a huge multilevel complex, mostly underground including the main MRT station, the main railway station, the main bus station, multiple underground strip shopping malls with connection to a very upscale mall and food courts. It reminded me of an old computer game called "Adventure" or "Colossal Cave Adventure" involving a kind of 3-D underground maze except this is the real life version.

Another thought I had, considering the extremely low birth rate in Taiwan, this may become an amazing urban ruin some day, ah well future generations may see it, not me. But I find it interesting to visualize this giant rabbit warren in that state.

Returning to street level another aspect of Taiwan city life is the "Night Market". Most of the bigger towns have one. They are designated streets or alleys, usually quite narrow, in theory pedestrian only but you do see scooters violating the rule. They combine a kind of flea market, food court, carnival midway atmosphere and are usually well attended by mostly Taiwanese and perhaps some Asian tourists, rarely westerners. The different ones do have there own distinctive vibe and some are more famous than others. Several are mentioned in the Saunders books as well as the Lonely Planet.

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Posting 10a Taiwan Waterfalls and Pingxi Area

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Dispatch 10b

Taipei City Life Part 1

About Mid Sept to Early Oct 2012

I'll put up more city life photos up in later pages, after we do some more nature.

Whatever the cost of Gas, the traffic in Taipei is said to have reached a critical level, so chokingly bad that the city was becoming unlivable.

Fortunately they began a subway system called the MRT (Municipal Rapid Transit) some time in the late 90s and have continued to expand it. Traffic is still bad but this MRT system is very fast, clean and modern with trains ever few minutes providing great relief.

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Click for Taiwans Yangmingshan National Park

Go back to Posting 10a Taiwan Waterfalls and Pingxi Area

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