[Taiwan] Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall tops many lists of the best sights in Taiwan and it was also the first place we visited. We arrived in Taipei in the early morning and got to our hotel a little past 8am. Since check-in was still at 2pm, we left our luggage with the concierge and looked for a place to have breakfast. Once we had some food and coffee, we made our way to one of the most famous landmarks in Taipei and even the whole of Taiwan.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

We came in through the Daxiao Gate because it was the nearest one to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall MRT station. As soon as we arrived, I asked the guard where we can buy tickets and he said entrance is free. Wow!

Daxiao Gate

Chiang Kai-shek was president of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 until his death in 1975. This hall was built to commemorate him. One of the permanent exhibits showcases artifacts of Chiang Kai-shek's presidency and the history of Taiwan. It was cool to see some Philippine memorabilia such as the Grand Collar of the Order of Sikatuna, which was awarded to the former ROC president in 1956.

Grand Collar of the Order of Sikatuna in Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

The highlight for me was the Flowers of Freedom exhibit. When we arrived at a little past 11am, we saw a sign that said that Flowers of Freedom would open at 1pm. We spent a little under 2 hours going around to see other exhibits in the memorial hall before making our way back.

The Flowers of Freedom exhibit

We were the first in line to enter once it opened at 1pm. I didn't even know what it was but once there and I knew what it was, I'm very happy we stayed to see it. It was an exhibit that showcased Taiwan's long and arduous journey towards the freedom they have now. It was very sobering to read about the struggles of the Taiwanese against tyranny and authoritarianism. It was here that I learned Taiwan was under martial law for almost 40 years, from 1949 to 1987!

Letters written by White Terror victims to their families

There was a section at the entrance of Flowers for Freedom that showcased different battles against oppression all over the world and throughout history. It was wonderful to see a section on the 1986 People Power Revolution of the Philippines there! Naturally, I had to have my photo taken. I love the fact that I was wearing yellow, which was the symbolic color of this historic bloodless revolution.

People Power display at the Flowers of Freedom exhibit

According to the official website of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Flowers of Freedom is a permanent exhibit so we were really lucky to have arrived just as it opened. In fact, we were the first three Filipinos there. How do I know this? It's because at the exit of Flowers of Freedom, there was a small section on the wall where visitors can indicate which country they are from using stickers. My family placed the first three stickers under the Philippines. We also picked blue, red, and yellow stickers since these are colors of Philippine flag.

We were the first Filipino visitors at the exhibit

We also went up to see the large bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek. There's a grand view of Liberty Square from here.

Chiang Kai-shek bronze statue

We visited the Anne Cho Landscape Blue-and-White Porcelain Joint exhibition of Teacher and Students. The porcelain pieces on display were absolutely magnificent and the fact that there was a lot of beautiful art on the walls made this exhibit even more exquisite.

Anne Cho Landscape Blue-and-White Porcelain Joint exhibition of Teacher and Students

As I had recently acquiring art, I found myself drawn to a couple of paintings that I saw, but I didn't know if they were on sale - I think they might have been? - and I thought it might not be all that easy to bring a painting back home to Manila so I decided to just look at and enjoy all the art while I was there.

Porcelain pieces and paintings

We barely had any sleep since our flight was at 340am and we arrived at 6am so by mid-afternoon, we were already very tired and we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a day. Since we hadn't other parts of Chiang Kai -shek Memorial Hall yet, we went back there the next day. My mom bought a decorative stamp at the gallery store then we all took a stroll along a pathway amidst the garden. We then made our way to Liberty Square, which is named for its historical significance in Taiwan's transition to democracy in the 1990s.

Liberty square

It is flanked on either side by the National Theater and the Concert Hall. You can take guided tours at both of these impressive buildings.

National Concert Hall

There is a beautiful garden next to the National Theater with lots of birds. In the middle of the garden is a pond filled with koi.

Garden and pond outside Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

There were also a couple of vending machines near the garden. I spotted a really cute Peanuts-themed drink and decided to buy it. After all, 2025 is the 75th anniversary of Peanuts, which was created by Charles Schulz and made its comic strip debut on October 2, 1950.

Peanuts-themed drink from an animation-themed vending machine

And finally, we got to see the Changing of the Guard at 1pm (although it is performed every hour on the hour from 9am to 5pm at the side of Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall that faces Liberty Square.

Changing of the Guard

There really is so much to see and do here and even if we had already spent several hours here, there really was still so much more to see. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that entrance to this incredible attraction is free. If I ever get to revisit Taiwan, I would definitely love to see Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall again.

Next: Jiufen, Shifen, and Yehliu Geopark

[Taiwan] Taipei

Most of our time in Taiwan was spent in its capital, Taipei. Here, we got to see and visit a lot of other wonderful sights. One of them is the National Palace Museum.

Main Gate of the National Palace Museum

The National Palace Museum has a massive collection of artifacts and treasures on display. Two of the most popular ones are the Jadeite Cabbage and the Meat-shaped Stone. The Jadeite Cabbage is a piece of jade that was carved to look like cabbage with a locust and a katydid but it was on loan to the Czech National Museum when we were there so we didn't get to see it.

Information about the Jadeite Cabbage at the National Palace Museum

We were, however, able to see the Meat-shaped Stone. This piece of jasper was carved to resemble Dongpo pork or Chinese-style pork belly.

Meat-shaped stone

There were also a few interactive displays, including virtual archery which my nephew and I tried.

Virtual archery at the National Palace Museum

There really is so much to see here at the National Palace Museum. While we spent a few hours here, you could easily spend a day or more just looking through the many different galleries and appreciating the displays more thoroughly.

One of the many treasures on display at the National Palace Museum

Another popular sight we got to see was the Longshan Temple. (Other online resources spell it as Lungshan Temple so I'm not particularly sure which one is correct or whether both are correct.)

Longshan Temple

The Bopiliao Historic Block is just right next to Longshan temple. This place is known for its red brick buildings and its architecture that dates back to the Qing Dynasty.

Bopiliao Historic Block

We also visited the Red House in Ximending. Similar to the Bopiliao Historical Block, the Red House is also made with red brick. It was built in 1908 during the Japanese colonial period 

Red House in Ximending

I ended up buying a souvenir here. I also took had my photo at the Seiko clock outside the Red House.

Seiko clock near Red House in Ximending

My family and I also went to Taipei 101, the tallest building in all of Taiwan (and as of this writing, the 11th tallest building in the world). We went to the observatory on the 89th floor. We went there right in the late afternoon so that we could get to see views during the day and at also night.

View of the city at night from the Taipei 101 observatory

This also allowed us to see the sunset!

Sunset as seen from Taipei 101

There are a lot of really great photo opportunities on the observatory floor. If you're not fond of taking photos of yourself, this place is probably not for you. But my family and I ended up taking so many pictures of ourselves here haha.

One of the many cool photo spots at the Taipei 101 observatory

Right next to the ticket counter of the Taipei 101 observatory is Ambi Space One. I noticed it when we arrived and saw a big sign that said Free Admission. When we left the observatory, I told my family that we should check this place out and I'm glad we did. It featured a special immersive journey and visual exhibit of Chiayi, a city in southwestern Taiwan.

Free exhibit at Ambi Space One in Taipei 101

We also visited Raohe Night Market. I read online that compared to the other highly popular night market Taiwan, Shilin, Raohe is a maybe slightly more recommended for its authentic food that is a bit cheaper and for having a layout that is easier to navigate. (Shilin is also larger and supposedly better for shopping and for games.)

Raohe Night Market

I realized that maybe my mom and I might not be the right people for these night markets as they are very crowded with very little places to sit. We did find one shop that had a few small tables so we enjoyed some xiao long bao and beef noodles there.

Xiao long bao at the Raohe Night Market

My mom felt the crowd was a bit much so while my nephew and I continued to eat, she decided to wait for us at the beautiful Songshan Ciyou Temple right at the entrance of Raohe Night Market...

Songshan Ciyou Temple

...as we tried a few more food stalls. A lot of them had really long queues so you know the food there was going to be great. But we didn't really want to fall in line so we ended up getting food from stalls with shorter lines. That said, everything we ate, including this cumin chicken, was pretty good.

Cumin chicken at the Raohe Night Market

Finally, we also got to see and pass through the Taipei Main Station quite a lot since our hotel was located just right across the street from it.

Taipei Main Station

If you've been to Taipei, you might be thinking I missed out on writing about arguably the best place to visit in this vibrant and beautiful city: Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. The reason for this is that there are so many things to write about that I will decided to dedicate a full post to this amazing landmark.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Next post: Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

A Truly Terrific Trip to Taiwan

I finally got to visit Taiwan for the first time in my life and I absolutely loved it!

Jiufen

I wasn't originally planning to go to Taiwan. My initial idea was to travel to Spain with my family this year. However, I didn't get to sort out our visas early enough. Morocco then became the new plan because Filipinos don't need a visa to go to Morocco. A friend of mine owns a travel agency and she shared with me a tour of Morocco that was scheduled in October. It took me a while to decide but by then, the tour was already fully booked. I could have tried looking for a different one but it was already close to the end of the year and I didn't want to lose any more time so I told my mom that maybe we can just go to Cambodia. However, my nephew, who was going with us on this trip, didn't seem all that interested in Cambodia. My mom finally suggested Taiwan and I figured, that has to be our best option. And indeed it was!

National Palace Museum in Taipei

Most people I know who travel to Taiwan go there for the food. There are a couple of places I had seen from photos that my friends posted on social media but almost everyone I know who has been to Taiwan don't really talk much about the places to visit there; they just talk about their Taiwanese food trips. Since my family and I are the stereotypical travelers who go to all the tourist traps and we don't normally focus on food when we travel, I used Chatgpt and TripAdvisor and did more online searches to help me build my itinerary. As it turns out, there are so many amazing sights and places of interest in Taiwan! Taipei served as our home base but we did get to visit places outside of the Taiwanese capital.

Shifen Waterfall

We got to see some of the most prominent places in Taiwan, like Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei,

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei

 Jiufen,

A-Mei Teahouse in Jiufen

Shifen,

Sky Lantern Experience in Shifen

Yehliu Geopark,

Yehliu Geopark

and Rainbow Village in Taichung.

Rainbow Village in Taichung

I will be writing in more detail about my family's amazing trip to Taiwan over the next several posts.

Songshan Ciyou Temple in Taipei

Next post: Taipei

Discovering Mixue

I'm quite late in the game but one of my coolest discoveries this year is Mixue.

Mixue Philippines

Mixue has been around for a while but it wasn't until recently that I learned about it when my nephew mentioned it to me. When I saw a Mixue next to a restaurant where I was having dinner one day, I decided to pass by for dessert. One of the most popular items on their menu is their Boba Sundae which is soft-serve vanilla ice cream topped with boba so on my first visit, I decided to order that. It was pretty good! And at P65, it's quite affordable and pretty good value. I can't believe I had been sleeping on this cool (pun-intended) place all these years!

Boba Sundae

Funnily, during one board game night, I was telling my friends about discovering this place only recently and suddenly everyone wanted to order Mixue haha. We actually had cake and other sweets as part of our dinner spread that evening but the sudden and unexpected boba sundae craving was real so we decided to get more sweets!

There are a lot of other items on the menu, including other sundaes, shakes, and milk and fruit teas. I definitely want to visit this place many more times in the future.

 

Christmas and Carmageddon

Christmas is arguably the biggest holiday celebration in the Philippines. We have become world-famous for our very long celebration of Christmas that starts in September and lasts until early to mid January.

Christmas in Greenbelt

It makes for a very festive time, especially from early December (or even late November) to early January when people schedule get-togethers with family and friends. And colleagues, of course. Speaking of, we had our company Christmas party in early December and it was provided a great venue to spend time with teammates without having to worry about work, at least for a night. We initially wanted to have our photo taken as a group at the designated photobooth but the line was extremely long so we decided to have our photos taken at the many bright and beautifully decorated Christmas trees at Solaire North, where our party was held. Naturally, I had to have my solo photo taken too!

Colorful Christmas at Solaire North

Our department Christmas party was held a week later at a venue that was about a 15-minute walk from our office. It was memorable for so many reasons. I somehow won best male costume. Our theme was the 1980s and I wore a Menudo-style outfit that I had worn before. My friend Vei, whom I have known now for a really long time since we worked together many years ago, won best female costume. We were then asked to dance on stage and the funny thing is, people might have thought that us dancing together on stage would embarrass us in the way that the new hire dance numbers during Christmas are like a painful rite of passage that rookies have to endure but for us it was the opposite; we were game and excited hahaha. We both sort of knew some popular Pinoy choreography from the 80s so we asked the DJ to play "Shake Body Dancer" and "Rico Mambo", both of which had dances that were popularized by Maricel Soriano. Finally, I won a pretty decent raffle prize: P1,000 worth of Starbucks GCs. Cool! Oh, and my prize for best costume was a P2,000 GC at Uniqlo. Awesome! I had been needing to get a new pair of shorts and some new socks and underwear so this prize was perfect for me.

My best costume prize: a Uniqlo GC

I mentioned that our department Christmas party was held quite near the office and that worked out well for me because it meant I could just leave my car at work and walk to our Christmas party venue, which I did. Because, while Christmas is mostly festive and celebratory, it also comes with a massive downside: horrendous traffic. Carmageddon is video game released in 1997 but it now also used as a term to describe proverbial doom brought about by too many cars on the road. It is such a smart play on words and an appropriate description of how gnarly and horrific things get on the city streets during the Yuletide season. Metro Manila already has one of the worst traffic situations in the world and the holiday season aggravates it significantly. Case in point: on my way to Estancia in early December to join some ex-colleagues for Christmas dinner, I got stuck in traffic along Pioneer and my ETA according to Waze kept on adjusting to a later time. It took me maybe 30 minutes to get through that relatively short stretch of road. Horrible!

This 12 minute jam turned into a 30 minute jam

Thankfully, a few of my other get-togethers recently were for brunch or lunch, meaning that traffic was not too bad yet. I met up with my friend Jenn at Crepe Glazik and with my friend Eliza at Watami in Shangri-La Mall. My Christmas board game night with FGTC was held in the evening but it was at my friend Myna's house which is not too far from where I live and the traffic to get to her place is thankfully not bad. And while we are on the topic of my board game night, I finally won a game for the first time in a while: Spots. It's a cool and cute game, especially if you love dogs, and it's easy to learn and quick and relatively easy to play. (There's also a lot of luck involved so my win was most likely due to luck than to strategy haha but I will take whatever win I can get!)

Playing and winning Spots

One other evening get-together I had was with my previous work team at Osteria Antica in Podium. We chose this place because none of us had eaten there yet and we had all been interested in it, even before it got its Michelin Selected status. What I didn't know is that Osteria Antica is actually the rebirth of Wildflour Italian. The place was full when we arrived and we didn't have a reservation but they did have a table outside so we took it. It was really dark outside without a lot of light sources so I couldn't take good photos of our food haha. Still, we really enjoyed our dinner here.

Dinner at Osteria Antica

My recent experience getting stuck along Pioneer for about half an hour or so has left me thinking whether I want to start declining invites for evening Christmas get-togethers in the future so I can avoid getting badly stuck in traffic. Still, I do find that at least for now, the pros outweigh the cons so I may still keep trying to brave Christmas Carmageddon to meet up with friends. (Ask me again a few years ago if that's still how I feel haha.)